Star Trek III and IV had themes -- so did IX and X. Actually I think the INSURRECTION score has a lovely, memorable theme. NEMESIS was one of Jerry's most disappointing scores, no question, but from the samples I've heard of Giacchino I'd prefer third-rate Goldsmith over Giacchino any day of the week.Im not convinced of the score so far, but it certainly ranks higher than Star Trek 3, 4, 9 and 10... if Id like the theme I would certainly rate it higher!
You know, it's funny, I've seen people writing this "don't expect a Goldsmith score, it's not written in that vein, movies today don't need that type of dramatic statement" kind of message. I think that's a cop-out excuse for why so much film music today sucks (for lack of a better term). Not you Roman, but someone at the FSM board did say that -- that they didn't care for the "operatic" nature of the early Trek scores.
Frankly, if people like mediocre music with no themes -- which requires no (or at least far lesser) talent to write -- that's great. But don't try and tell me that writing a non-thematic musical wallpaper score requires the same amount of talent as what Goldsmith and Horner, or any of the great film composers for that matter -- did. There's a degree of difficulty there and film music today often doesn't even try and achieve anything other than a formulaic assembly of cues, often percussive in nature, that sound like 100 other scores that are inseparable from each other. Paul MacLean brought over a copy of Tyler Bates' DAWN OF THE DEAD, which to me is a prime example of that -- every cue sounds like something else, there's no style, there's no distinguishing trademark, it sounds like a temp-track with NO CONNECTIVE THEMATIC TISSUE holding anything together. Sadly I could say that about nearly every score I hear these days.
As far as this score goes, it sounds exactly like I thought it would Roman. There's no THEME, or if there is, it's lousy. And that basically sums up film music in the year 2009. A shame.
