Giacchino is a long acclaimed film composer, working on Pixar films including The Incredibles, Ratatouille, and Up, which he won an Oscar for. He’s also scored larger blockbusters such as Spider-Man: No Way Home and Star Trek Beyond. Having worked with director Matt Reeves before, composing the Planet of the Apes movies, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting composer for The Batman.
RELATED: Listen To Full The Batman Theme By Michael Giacchino
This five-minute piece serves as a great complement to The Batman theme. While Giacchino makes the Caped Crusader sound bold, brooding, and heroic, he takes a much more somber and disturbed portrayal for The Riddler. This is well in line with the new film, as this Riddler is directly inspired by real life mass murderers like the Zodiac Killer, which is obviously a far cry from Jim Carrey’s kooky Riddler from Batman Forever.
The use of choirs through the piece harken back to another famous Batman score. Danny Elfman used similar vocals throughout Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, which worked in favor of its gothic, horror-influenced tone. Considering how Matt Reeves previously made Let Me In (which Giacchino also scored), he could very well bring back some horror to The Batman series. This would be a wise decision, as Batman is the one superhero who works well with influences from any genre.
Music has always been integral to Batman movies, more so than even most superhero franchises. Everyone fondly remembers Elfman’s work on the Burton films, Eliott Goldenthal’s scores for the Joel Schumacher films, and the Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard collaborations for Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight trilogy. And more recently, Hildur Guðnadóttir won an Oscar for scoring Joker, a rarity for women in the field.
Considering all the memorable scores in Batman history, it sounds tough for Giacchino’s music to live up to that. But if these first two tracks are anything to go by, Giacchino is absolutely doing justice to the Caped Crusader, and his soundtrack will be key to The Batman’s success.
The Batman is scheduled to premiere in theaters on March 4, 2022.
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Source: WaterTower Music
