I'd be ok if Arnold did not return for a while. I'm ambivalent about him. He's not consistent.
He can go from two completely useless scores (Die Another Day and The World is Not Enough were two of the absolute worst in the series in my opinion and pure generic tripe - he should have been fired on the spot for either of these disgraces) to something outstanding like 'African Rundown' in Casino Royale or 'Night at the Opera' in Quantum of Solace (both pieces evoking the grandeur of Barry's best work).
Having said that, and despite the fact that he did show improvement in Quantum and Casino (in the aforementioned pieces in particular), his action scores tend to be noisy and bombastic and some of his other cues are common and unmemorable, even in these two most recent movies that he did. He just seems like a 'B' composer and/or a common hack who's in above his pay grade for the most part - with sporadic flourishes of above average work.
While Newman did not call upon the Barry orchestral flair as much as Arnold tries to do, he at least created some memorable and interesting riffs in Skyfall, showing that he has a sense of scene, mood and timing. Some examples include the intro to 'Grand Bazzar-Istanbul' when Bond walks out onto the street, 'New Diggs', 'Shanghai Drive', and 'The Chimera' - all absolutely outstanding spy music and fitting for the movie - although not in the Barry orchestral vein (apart perhaps from 'The Chimera'). I applaud Newman for trying a different tack on things - the only other two replacement composers who were this brave in my mind were Bill Conti on For Your Eyes only and Eric Serra on Goldeneye. Whatever you may think of those scores, they were memorable and different.
Now, if Newman could just be made to incorporate more orchestra in his score, he could create an outstanding score for Bond in my opinion - and much better than anything Arnold can do. Someone should tell him to listen to Barry and channel Barry in the next score (if he is in fact doing it - if Mendes returns). He's got what it takes - it was just his first try. Arnold's had 5 tries and Newman has shown more potential in Skyfall. 'Severine' was as good as, if not better than 'Vesper's Theme' - it was just sadly underused, just like its namesake in the movie (much to my disappointment I might add as Berenice was lovely).
Who can do a really great Bond score: Debbie Wiseman (hear Arsene Lupin), Michael Giachinno (The Incredibles is pure gold), Wojchiech Kilar (the Ninth Gate) or Alexander Desplat (The Ghost Writer and Syriana). Howard Shore would be great too if one wanted to establish some new enduring reusable themes for Bond (ala the much missed '007 theme' - not used unfortunately since the Moonraker boat scene). He created some splendid themes for the Lord of the Rings Trilogy for the Hobbits, the Shire and Gollum, not to mention the Orcs - his work was absolutely superb in that series.
Edited by bondjames, 11 January 2013 - 03:46 AM.
