# Army of the Dead



## Consona (Feb 25, 2021)

So we are getting another Junkie XL / Zack Snyder collab this year. 




I'm wondering what will the score be like, I bet a lot of drums, distorted synths and guitars.


----------



## blackzeroaudio (Feb 25, 2021)

I've been looking forward to this one for awhile...the ZS/JXL combo is almost perfect to me. 2 of my favorites in the game.


----------



## Consona (May 21, 2021)

Just saw the film. Wow! Loved it.

I can't understand how all those vapid poorly written Thor Ragnaroks and Black Panthers have higher critics score than this??? This was finally that good old well-written solid honest action movie film-making again! Reminded me those classic Cameron or McTiernan films!

JXL's score, from what I've heard throught the action sound effects, was kinda your average loud sound-designy trailer stuff when it came to action scenes. I didn't like those left and right panning effects, found them really distracting. There were some nice piano pieces, those were the best part of the score for me.
I loved when Richard Wagner's stuff started to play, that sudden contrast of his exquisite composing against the loud sound design is such a staggering contrast. It killed me every time it happened.  It takes your brain like 1 second to recognize the totally different harmonic richness to the music. It was so funny.


----------



## Smikes77 (May 21, 2021)

I`m gonna get myself dinner and watch this. I`ve been looking forward to this one!


----------



## rudi (May 21, 2021)

Zombies: mmm, we like biting arms and heads...
Humans: hey guys, let's go out with bare arms and heads!
Zombies: humans dumb, dumb, dumb... 

I did like the tiger though!!


----------



## Consona (May 22, 2021)

I think I'm getting too old... this only makes my head ache while there's like 0 music in those 10 minutes.






rudi said:


> Zombies: mmm, we like biting arms and heads...
> Humans: hey guys, let's go out with bare arms and heads!
> Zombies: humans dumb, dumb, dumb...



 Yea, they should have entered the zombie area like this:


----------



## MA-Simon (Jun 3, 2021)

Consona said:


> This was finally that good old well-written solid honest action movie film-making again! Reminded me those classic Cameron or McTiernan films!


What, no. This was utter trash. We were laughin all the way, but not because the film was good. It all made zero sense. Yes, it is a zombie flick, but come on. Powering that whole towers backup generator with like 5 liters of ... just no. Imho the film had to many "could have been interesting" characters and wasted all of them. Took forwer to set them up. In the end it was not even a fun zombie flick, because all the action was in the last few minutes. Nothing ever really happens, It just ends. And worst of all, it was all pointless, meaningless. I was furious that this was what we chose to watch that day.

Imho even a B movie needs a bare minimum of a story it wants to tell. A point to it. A gimmick. But this did not do anything with it's cast or potential enemies. Just time wasted.

I mean there was a fricking Zombie Tiger. But it did zero with that.
Sadly this film did not come together for me.

I felt like it would have been better made into a limited series or something. 6 Episodes and it would have worked, maybe.


----------



## Drundfunk (Jun 3, 2021)

Consona said:


> Just saw the film. Wow! Loved it.
> 
> [...] This was finally that good old well-written solid honest action movie film-making again! Reminded me those classic Cameron or McTiernan films!


The writing was horrible tbh. I mean you really have to shut down your brain while watching, otherwise you'll notice those plot holes and dumb decisions left and right (and yes even zombie movies don't have to be that dumb). It was enjoyable for what it was, but I'd never say this was well written. It's a guilty pleasure movie you enjoy despite how dumb it is. The movie also was a bore in the middle since nothing was really happening. Also I wish they would have actually explored and utilized the time loop concept. I feel like this could have made the movie quite interesting, but nah they just tease it for no reason and then do nothing with it... . Same with the location. It actually doesn't really matter if they are in Las Vegas or not... . The location isn't really important nor utilized except for some landmark shots.... .

Back to topic: I didn't really notice the score. It's there and does the job. I guess that's the best compliment one can give here.


----------



## blackzeroaudio (Jun 3, 2021)

Drundfunk said:


> Also I wish they would have actually explored and utilized the time loop concept.


So Zack did confirm the movie is actually taking place in a time loop. We also see that Vanderhoe was not actually bitten in the scene that they show in the movie...so the one the one we see at the end I'm presuming is a different looped version of him. 

There are also some other pieces throughout the movie that hint at the time loop. 

I get why a lot of people don't like the movie, I'm not even really defending a lot of it. Just saying that typical with Snyder movies there's a lot more there than what is on the surface level.


----------



## chrisr (Jun 3, 2021)




----------



## davidson (Jun 3, 2021)

chrisr said:


>



Hahaha, perfect!


----------



## Dr.Quest (Jun 3, 2021)

chrisr said:


>



Nails it perfectly! A dumb, dumb movie.


----------



## Drundfunk (Jun 3, 2021)

blackzeroaudio said:


> So Zack did confirm the movie is actually taking place in a time loop. We also see that Vanderhoe was not actually bitten in the scene that they show in the movie...so the one the one we see at the end I'm presuming is a different looped version of him.
> 
> There are also some other pieces throughout the movie that hint at the time loop.
> 
> I get why a lot of people don't like the movie, I'm not even really defending a lot of it. Just saying that typical with Snyder movies there's a lot more there than what is on the surface level.


Cool, but I as a viewer don't have this information, nor is any of this actually explored in the actual movie. So it's quite pointless. The movie is long enough to explore and utilize the concept....


----------



## MA-Simon (Jun 3, 2021)

chrisr said:


>



Perfect! Lucky there are people out there that can express this much better then myself. ~there are about a hundred additional things he could have mentioned though. That whole opening act, that was just made so there were funny scenes for the trailers?


----------



## KMA (Jun 18, 2021)

I was mostly unfamiliar with Junkie XL, so I gave Army of the Dead a go.

It took me two tries, but I made it to the 50 minute mark before I died of boredom. My ghost is writing this.

No disrespect to Mr. XL, but I stopped watching because the film didn’t interest me - not because of the score. Although it’s worth noting that before I died, I tried to fast-forward deep into the film just to FIND some bespoke music. I did find some, but I wasn’t nearly interested enough in the story to bother sticking around.

I’m absolutely open to JXL score suggestions if anyone feels that my ghost could use an education.


----------



## Consona (Aug 13, 2021)

Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro to score the Army of the Dead prequel, Army of Thieves.


----------



## KEM (Aug 13, 2021)

Consona said:


> Hans Zimmer and Steve Mazzaro to score the Army of the Dead prequel, Army of Thieves.



Excited for that, saw it on Facebook yesterday


----------



## MartinH. (Aug 14, 2021)

Consona said:


> Just saw the film. Wow! Loved it.
> 
> I can't understand how all those vapid poorly written Thor Ragnaroks and Black Panthers have higher critics score than this??? This was finally that good old well-written solid honest action movie film-making again! Reminded me those classic Cameron or McTiernan films!



Cool, maybe I should continue watching it ...



MA-Simon said:


> And worst of all, it was all pointless, meaningless. I was furious that this was what we chose to watch that day.


... or maybe not.


----------



## Consona (Aug 14, 2021)

Eh. The last thing I do these days is watching films based on recommendations and reviews.

Like the new The Suicide Squad (2021) is one of the best rotten tomatoes rated DC movies and press reviewers were raving about it and all I can say is, I haven't seen such a vapid and incredibly boring comicbook film in a long time.


----------



## Consona (Sep 25, 2021)




----------



## Consona (Nov 3, 2021)

Jeeeez, what's the obsession with BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMS in totally normal movie scenes???

I was watching Army of Thieves and... not only the music is so trendily generic, but the braaaaams, man, those fcking low brass BRAM BRAMS. I just can't...
There's a little boy's history flashback and there has to be 12 bones and tubas underscoring it. Jeebus.

And the generic gated synth 8th notes in the tension scenes, eeeeehhh.

And again the MI Fallout syndrome. There's just a guy running... of course it has to sound like the our whole fricking universe is about to end.







Dunno why an action comedy has to sound like some grand scale Batman flick.


----------



## KEM (Nov 3, 2021)

Consona said:


> Jeeeez, what's the obsession with BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMS in totally normal movie scenes???
> 
> I was watching Army of Thieves and... not only the music is so trendily generic, but the braaaaams, man, those fcking low brass BRAM BRAMS. I just can't...
> There's a little boy's history flashback and there has to be 12 bones and tubas underscoring it. Jeebus.
> ...



Sounds like it’s right up my alley lol


----------



## Consona (Nov 5, 2021)

KEM said:


> Sounds like it’s right up my alley lol


Go enjoy it.

You may even like the film. It's full of trendy cringy/fast/"cool" camera movements and editing, yet the movie was so boringly paced, which irritated me to no end. But some scenes were good.


----------



## doctoremmet (Nov 5, 2021)

Consona said:


> And the generic gated synth 8th notes in the tension scenes, eeeeehhh.


This! I have never understood the current fancy with gated synths. Every other Cinematic library offers this. Troels loves it. Henson loves it. Michelmore always spends time auditioning Dune 3 patches and then turns on the Kilohearts gate. What’s up with that. It bores me to no end. They all end up sounding bland and well…. the same. And boring, did I mention boring?


----------



## Consona (Nov 5, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> They all end up sounding bland and well…. the same. And boring, did I mention boring?


It sounds cool, but things some (a lot of/all?) composers do with it are far from cool. It's the proverbial _one key composing_. There's nothing interesting done with that cool sound. The scene is literally underscored with the ever repeating tu tu tu tu tu tu tu tu sound. It's a gift from high heavens when he at least changes the pitch of it.  

But of course, it's exactly what the scene needed so I should shut the fck up.


----------



## KEM (Nov 5, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> This! I have never understood the current fancy with gated synths. Every other Cinematic library offers this. Troels loves it. Henson loves it. Michelmore always spends time auditioning Dune 3 patches and then turns on the Kilohearts gate. What’s up with that. It bores me to no end. They all end up sounding bland and well…. the same. And boring, did I mention boring?



Thanks…


----------



## KEM (Nov 5, 2021)

Consona probably thinks my music represents everything wrong with composers today lol


----------



## doctoremmet (Nov 5, 2021)

FWIW: I don’t. I think you’re one of the biggest young talents on here. No dislike of gated synths can change that


----------



## handz (Nov 5, 2021)

Consona said:


> Jeeeez, what's the obsession with BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMS in totally normal movie scenes???
> 
> I was watching Army of Thieves and... not only the music is so trendily generic, but the braaaaams, man, those fcking low brass BRAM BRAMS. I just can't...
> There's a little boy's history flashback and there has to be 12 bones and tubas underscoring it. Jeebus.
> ...


Well yeah, that's the problem with nontraditional scores, they all sound like this and while orchestral music uses similar cliches it is in the end way more enjoyable than listening to 897th variation on ostinatos with BRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMS .


----------



## KEM (Nov 5, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> FWIW: I don’t. I think you’re one of the biggest young talents on here. No dislike of gated synths can change that



Maybe I’ll start replacing my gated synths with TR-808 cowbells, then maybe the boomer composers will respect me


----------



## Consona (Nov 6, 2021)

KEM said:


> Maybe I’ll start replacing my gated synths with TR-808 cowbells, then maybe the boomer composers will respect me


I know it's a joke... But even that joke is missing the point.


----------

