Tigh Smash?
As I mentioned earlier, I found The Incredible Hulk to have been a very pleasant surprise, and that I enjoyed Craig Armstrong's music score. Yesterday I received Amazon's two disc exclusive edition, which caused some consternation recently because they are made-to-order CD-Rs. I don't have much of an issue with them selling CD-Rs (plenty of composer promos are produced this way nowadays and this is fairly cheap for a two disc set), although I think that information should be listed on the product details and not just the customer reviews.
All that aside, I have found Armstrong's score to be a great listen. Unlike Ramin Djawadi's serviceable but undistinguished score for Iron Man, I was surprised while watching The Incredible Hulk how expressive the music was. While Djawadi basically just doubled the cinematic action, Armstrong is illustrating the characters' experiences, and so composed a very emotionally charged score. It is interesting how well Joseph Harnell's "The Lonely Man" theme fits into this tapestry; while the theme itself appears in its full form once, there are numerous allusions to it throughout the score (and, it seems to me, a few homages to Danny Elfman's score for the previous Hulk movie). The score also has a similar sound to that which John Powell essayed in the Bourne pictures, which is fitting as this film has many 'fugitive' genre touches, an aspect that it has in common with the television series, albeit obviously updated.
When jailnurse calls me up to tell me that something is "amazing" or "outstanding," it is with some trepidation that I approach what he's talking about because he ruined Venture Brothers for me* with his overbearing hyperbole. On the other hand, he was talking about Battlestar Galactica, and the last time he got that excited about the show, it was because of the two "Exodus" episodes, which were everything he said they would be (Adama still gets my award for ballsiest battle maneuver with a capital ship for that film).
I have finally gotten myself caught up with the five most recent episodes, and all I can say is, "wow." While I wasn't terribly surprised by the mid season finale "zinger" (I figured something like that would have had to have been the case), I was nevertheless extremely impressed with both the story construction and character development. I was very pleased that even some of the more mature characters on the show still have room to grow in realistic and touching ways. The Will and Laura arc has been extremely satisfying, and is also accompanied by some of Bear McCreary's most sensitive music.
* It has been a long enough time since he last gibbered thus, so I may be able to revisit the show now with a fresher perspective and more open mind sometime soon.
