Music To Save The World By

This is not my father’s Superman.

I’ll get over Man of Steel, even though I feel I need to view the movie once again just to wrap my head around its eye-boggling special effects.

Glad I sneaked a listed to the soundtrack before seeing the film, allowing it time to live and breathe and become its own entity, because Hans Zimmer’s pounding, muscular score remains, for me, the soaring highlight of the new Superman movie.

Any lesser composer might actually have tried to emulate John Williams’ music for 1978’s Superman: The Movie, but Zimmer’s score is so diametrically opposed to Williams’ themes it completely defies comparison and redefines our perception of what a Superman symphony should sound like.

There’s still an orchestra—not the London Symphony, mind you, but I won’t quibble—and the instrumentation offers huge metallic blast with swooping strings. There’s also a haunting vocal accompaniment, tender piano, undulating synthetic ambient soundscapes and a powerful assemblage of a dozen of the finest drummers in the world. The thunderous percussion serves as the relentless pulse of the action sequences, and the cumulative effect will leave you breathless.

Savvy listeners will note the similarities and call-backs to some of Zimmer’s other works—most prominently his ominous music for The Dark Knight, the ethereal solo voce from Gladiator, and the blaring-horn motif first used in Inception — but here the compositions have a decidedly more upbeat thrust.

Some highlights:

“Flight”

The part @ 1:34 when a steel guitar anthem sends Kal-El soaring off on his first flight still gives me giddy goosebumps.

“Oil Rig”

If you don’t feel a thunderous rush of adrenalin as twelve masters of drums pound together ferociously, kindly check your pulse.

“Terraforming”

At 2:55, Zimmer begins to punctuate the rhythm with a reverberating note that buzzes like a swarm of angry hornets. This sonic tweak pops up again in throughout the score and is so alien and so effective in conjuring menace that this acoustical motif is guaranteed to make its way into a dozen movie trailers next year.

“I Will Find Him”

At 1:30 this suspenseful cue intensifies with deep, Inception-y blasts of brass that serve as a harmonic counterpoint to the themes heard in the Zod/Terraforming sequence.

“What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World?”

Zimmer’s heroic score reaches a thrilling crescendo @ 2:40 with a full pronouncement of the new intrepid Man of Steel theme.