[Eirik Myhr]

2017 | Gordy Haab — Battlefront II

I actually played this game’s story mode, and it was very good indeed, taking place right after Return of the Jedi and then with an epilogue part set right before The Force Awakens. Listening to the soundtrack in itself though, it is the same kind of Williams-pastiche as the first Battlefront by Gordy Haab – very impressive sounding, but rather exhausting to listen to, and lacking of memorable themes. There are some highlights though, like «Go. Survive. Live!», and the bonus track «Ma Kapar» by Raney Shockne, a Mancini-esque source music track with what sounds like Tatooine lyrics (or some other SW language). But all in all, style over substance, again.

2017 | John Williams — Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

I actually love Rian Johnsons’s Star Wars film, certainly the most interesting film of the sequels for me, and it’s got some of the highlight moments of the entire saga for me, Luke’s final holo-confrontation with Kylo Ren being one of them. It’s a bit sad then, that this is ends up being the first Williams SW score that I still find a bit disappointing. Williams ends up cutting and pasting his existing themes together, with not much new material to present. The main «new» theme is probably the «Fun with Finn and Rose» theme, which is a bit daft, to be honest.

Anyway, a fair share of tracks contain interesting parts, but it is all so fragmented (interestingly enough, kind of the same problem I have with Gordy Haab’s SW videogame scores). Many tracks contain interesting parts that last for half a minute, and then turn into something else entirely, or a reprise of some other theme without really bringing anything new. «Canto Bight» is fun, though. There are some good tracks with bizarre orchestral textures like «The Cave». The last four tracks is where I find the score finally picks up and becomes interesting, though. The sad version of the Luke and Leia theme in «The Spark», before finally entering a great buildup towards Luke’s scene with Kylo, and Luke’s final scenes in «The Last Jedi» and «Peace and Purpose» are hauntingly beautiful. But all in all, the most original film of the sequels had deserved a more unhinged and original John Williams, rather than the copy-and-paste-fest like this largely ends up being.

And I can’t really blame John Williams. From what I read previously, there was no spotting session – the almost religious ritual Williams relies so heavily on to get to work on his scores. If that is true, my guess is that it’s a «generational» clash of working styles at play here, and he had to deal with a lot of temp tracks consisting of bits and pieces of his own music, and try to make sense of it all, without any real opportunity to get creative. Still kind of a shame.