Film Reviews

Soundtrack Review Round Up

26th Oct 2015

Pan Soundtrack Review

Composer: John Powell

Pan may have been “panned” upon its release (and if our review is anything to go by: it bloody well deserved it) – but let us shed some light on an area of the film that is perhaps earning its keep!

Yes the soundtrack score may well be the best thing about the film. Save for the occasional track where the cast join in (Hello a very unwelcome and ill-fitting Nirvana cover featuring Hugh Jackman), but otherwise looking at the extensive track list that is the music score and we are onto something here.

John Powell is likely to become much more of a household name in the future. His work on How To Train Your Dragon and even the Bourne series shows his breadth of work. One day his Star Wars or his Lord Of the Rings will happen and it will be in no small thanks to the experience has had in film so far with a nice mix up of genres and styles.

Pan is a hugely enjoyable affair as a set of music, and it’s a shame the film that it belongs to is sadly not of the same calibre.

He Named Me Malala Soundtrack Review

Composer: Thomas Newman

Thomas Neman provides a truly magnetic and beautiful score here – and one we dare say is really worthy of award recognition.

Newman has delivers a recipe for work set in foreign countries around the world. You only need to look at the work he did for the Marigold Hotel movies to see how eclectic, ethnic and electric he can get proving tantalising work that sets the screen alight.

Here he has gone a step further with some truly mind opening music cues that builds strongly on work he has done in the past as opposed to just repeated tricks. This is undoubtedly a Thomas Newman score for anyone who knows his work, but it’s something very fresh and well worth the purchase.

Goosebumps Soundtrack review

Composer: Danny Elfman

Goosebumps may be doing well in the American charts at the moment, but the score is likely to do less so as this really is a slumped return to “what’s bloody new” form for Danny Elfman, a composer insistent on utilising the same old tricks over and over again. And it isn’t even a bloody Tim Burton movie! But it may as well be.

Goosebumps is as by the numbers Danny Elfman as Danny Elfman has ever gotten. So this one is for fans who don’t like it when things change!

The Scorch trials Soundtrack Review

Composer: John Paesano

So onto the sequel to the Maze Runner we go and it is off and running with returning composer John Paesano. This one is perhaps an easy to predict soundtrack based on the audience and the amount of teenage thrills on screen for this sci-fi oddity, but Paesano is doing strong enough work to merit him returning for a third film and hopefully going onto to perform something a little more personal in upcoming work.

Not sure of this warrants buying the soundtrack, but this is decent enough work if a little generic.