The films put out by Marvel Studios have been excellent in most ways possible. Really nailing the tones of a wide variety of Marvel superheroes. One thing these movies have been lacking, however, is a strong musical presence.

Going back to the original Iron Man, these films have not really had the same level of film score heights that we have come to expect from comic book movies in the last decade plus. The tide began to turn with the last released film, Captain America, which brought in the fantastic Alan Silvestri, but even that didn’t really live up to its potential.

Well Mr. Silvestri is back with the biggest and most epic Marvel film yet, so can he deliver on the promise his name and this property offers? In one word, yes. In seven words and three exclamation points, hell freaking yeah! he totally nailed it!!

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My affinity for Doctor Who has to be well-known at this point in time, but there is another Brit series that really floats my boat these days. Coincidentally, or more likely not, both shows are currently headed by the same mad genius, Steven Moffat.

Sherlock co-stars one of my favorite british actors, Martin Freeman, and introduced me to the wonder that is Benedict Cumberbatch. But the show has another secret weapon that I am excited to dig into today, a wonderful score by David Arnold and Michael Price.

The name David Arnold should ring a few bells for a few of you, he is most well-known for his many recent James Bond scores, in fact he the second most frequent Bond composer right after the legend, John Barry. Aside from Bong, Arnold also has several other geek cred credits, most notably writing the scores to Independence Day and Startgate.

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Sometimes news is just so pleasantly surprising you can not help but to smile. In the back of our minds we expected another solid Hans Zimmer-y type score for the next Disney period, action/adventure, Jerry Bruckheimer extravaganza. That would have been fine, maybe even great, instead we will be getting something far more interesting.

Jack White, of The White Stripes fame, is stepping on board to compose the music for The Lone Ranger. A bold and exciting direction for Disney to take, but one that makes so much sense when you really think about it. The Lone Ranger looks to be turning into a very progressive blockbuster, and hopefully in this case quality follows progress.

As for Mr. White, movies are not an entirely new endeavor for the talented rocker. He wrote music for actually acted in Cold Mountain, his folksy styling fit in perfectly with that civil war tale. He also co-wrote and sung the theme song to the most recent James Bond film Quantum of Solace. That film might have been divisive, but most agreed the theme was quite good.

Like other established musicians turned composers, Jack White will likely keep a distinctive style in his Lone Ranger music. If he is really successful he will sound like himself while transcending his own sound like Trent Reznor and Danny Elfman have done in the past. We can’t wait to hear what he has in store for us.

OK, so we know it is coming, we know The Avengers looms just a little more than a week away. The early critical reception is very high, the buzz couldn’t be better and many of you already have your tickets in hand for the midnight shows.

That is a lot of anticipation, and we are certainly feeling it here at The Flickcast. One of the biggest things I am looking forward to the most is the score by Alan Silvestri, as the resident film music nerd here, his take on an Avengers theme tickles my fancy way more than most.

When a film of this magnitude is on the horizon, it is hard to keep things like it’s soundtrack under-wraps, and as such the entire score has already leaked online. I am happy to say it is quite great in what little I have allowed myself to listen to, but it only makes my jonesing for the movie that much more intense.

So to alleviate a little of that pressure, here is a video of the main theme by Mr. Silvestri, cut together as a music video featuring all of the as yet released Avengers footage. This video lets you experience the kick assery of the main theme in the context of actual Avengers footage.

Check it out after the jump.

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One thing will be certain in a few weeks. Once Summer starts there will be more high profile scores than Fridays and some good music might fall through the cracks. Which is precisely why I am so excited to bring you this early review of Danny Elfman’s score from Dark Shadows.

This score ranked as one of my most anticipated of the early summer season, and that anticipation was made all the more severe when we listened to the expanded preview a few weeks back. So suffice to say I am ready to dig into the 14th collaboration between Danny Elfman and Tim Burton.

That is a lot of feature film scores from a director with a very distinct style, and recently there has been a lot of concern about repetitiveness in Elfman’s music. You can only go to that stylized dark well so many times, and eventually it will be dried up completely.

So does this umpteenth collaboration yield beautiful sonic rewards, or is this little more than a Beetlejuice or Sleep Hallow remix album?

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Whats this, another special edition of Film Score Friday? That’s right, with the massive summer season beginning in just a few short weeks I wanted to spend a little time now on a topic I have long wanted to write about, famous film composers who have written classic TV Themes.

Many famous film composers have taken their talents to the small screen, writing music for pilots or crafting original main themes. Unfortunately a lot of that really great work goes under valued in the overall catalog of these talented musicians. In this week’s Film Score Friday I aim to make up for some of that oversight, and spend some quality time focusing on some of the great TV work these renowned film composers have done.

-John Williams-

The best place to start is with the most famous of all film composers, John Williams. Back in his earliest days Williams, then known as Johnny, wrote music for TV shows. He did music for the pilot episode of Gilligan’s Island, The Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants, but his most famous early TV work was writing for Lost in Space.

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When I started writing the weekly film score review, one of the things I wanted to do was shine a light on some of my favorite scores from the past. Now that I have just passed my one-year anniversary on The Flickcast I feel now is a great time to go retro and talk about one of my favorite scores of all time, The Fifth Element.

The film is one of my five favorite of all time, and it is one of those pesky films that I can’t watch more than five minutes of it without needing to stay put and finish the rest. A huge part of that attraction comes from the score. Eric Serra crafted a unique, original and forward thinking score that lays beautifully over the top of Luc Besson’s imaginative world.

Eric Serra is a french composer who often works with Luc Besson, crafting modern and non-traditional scores that can be very polarizing. The most famous example of this was his highest profile job in America scoring the excellent Goldeneye. The film was all about making Bond relevant to a 90s audience, and for the score, that meant getting a guy who would break away from the John Barry mold. This caused quite the stir among Bond fans, and ultimately lead to an innovative score that probably just didn’t work for the movie it was made for.

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There are a few certainties in life, death, taxes and a Danny Elfman score for the next Tim Burton movie. Their creative collaborations have always been among the high points of each new Burton film, even if sometimes the music can sound overly familiar.

In recent years the Elfman music associated with the last few Burton films has been quite exceptional. Elfman’s ‘Burton’ style has been perfected to the point that it sounds effortless. So of course we are excited to hear what Elfman has in store for Dark Shadows in a few weeks.

Well, wait no more, says Warner Bros. as they have put a very expanded preview of the score up on their official website. On the site you will get a full minute and a half of each track, which is more than enough to get a really good sense for what type of music we have in store for us.

Having listened to the expanded preview, I can happily report that this score does not seem to disappoint. The trailers for the movie suggest the film has a bit of a goofy tone, but for the musics part it is all dark and moody. The likely juxtaposition between the music and the tone of the movie feels very right considering the filmmakers involved.

So go check out the expanded preview now and be on the look out for a full review here on The Flickcast when the film is released in early May.

Last week saw the release of the first 2012 mega blockbuster, The Hunger Games. The film was eagerly anticipated and delivered the majority of it’s promise for a sweeping, epic tale of love, death and the games.

Being the first of 2012′s big boys I would be remiss if I didn’t spend some time on it’s score. Especially considering it comes from one of the best composers working today, James Newton Howard.

The score is rather strait forward, if maybe a little uninspired. I am not saying it is bad persay, but while watching the movie I really only had one moment where I felt like the score was connecting with me. Once I had the chance to sit down with the actual album I realized why. Most of the music just ins’t particularly gripping.

Again, there is a difference between bad and not gripping. I truly think Howard made quality music, I just think very little of it stands above the whole proceedings and make’s itself known. Of course there are exceptions to this, a couple of the tracks are actually really fantastic. I just don’t think the score spends enough time with the best stuff, and the majority of the rest feels flat.

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Tenacious D has always represented the very best of what makes us love Jack Black. Together with his unsung partner Kyle Gass their brand of irreverent humor mixed with bad ass rock was always a cocktail best served always.

Unfortunately, Hollywood had to get in the way and it nearly destroyed everyone’s favorite rock duo. Thankfully the keyword here is ‘nearly’, as the band has come together again to make the greatest album ever recorded, Rize Of The Fenix.

To get the world properly prepared for Rize, the D has graced us with a short film that details how these two rock luminaries came back together for this epic rock event.

The short, entitled To be The Best, is a cameo filled reminder that despite their failed attempt at the Box Office, Tenacious D is still a group to be reckoned with in the music world. Of special interest to many of The Flickcast readership will be how awesome Val Kilmer looks in this short.

Seriously, it is as if someone finally popped the Macy’s Day Parade balloon that was impersonating Val Kilmer for the last few years and the original Val is back, and totally bad ass.

Check out the full short after the jump, and look out for Rize Of The Fenix when it is released May 15th.

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I like to make it a point to cover video game music as often as I can. I really think the entire industry is on the cusp of breaking down what little barriers are left and establishing itself as a thoroughly acceptable artistic medium.

So when I was given the chance to take a listen to London Music Works’ Essential Games Music Collection Vol.1 I was excited. Usually compilations like these are reserved for film scores but the quality of video game music has risen so high this release isn’t just warrented, it’s way over due.

Of course with any release like this there will be a heavier reliance on the newer and more popular themes to sell the album. Luckily that works in this release’s favor, as the industries most recent and most popular stuff is what people should be hearing.

The album does still try to strike a balance between the new and the old, but with only 13 tracks to deal with there is going to be a lot of music left for volumes 2 and beyond. The descending order of most recent to oldest also makes for a very interesting listening experience, a devolution on the industry, if you will.

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Every once in a blue moon a film score will resonate in pop culture, it will connect with an audience and grow almost a life of it’s own. Often times it goes hand in hand with a film itself that becomes a cultural milestone for a generation. The music to the phenomenon that was Titanic was one such occasion.

Next month’s 3D re-release of James Cameron’s historical epic brings with it a renewed interest in the music that captured so many imaginations. So Sony Classical is capitalizing on that and releasing an anniversary edition to coincide with the new theatrical run of the film.

There will be two versions of the Anniversary edition released, one will be a standard editions with two discs, and a second with two more discs, designated the collectors edition. This review will be covering the collectors edition, so keep that in mind if you want to pick this set up yourself.

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