Music Of The DCEU

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Recently, I was on holiday in Tenerife for 10 days and while I was lying in the sun doing jack shit, I was listening to plenty of music from Busted to Foo Fighters. The other genre I closed my eyes relaxing too was film scores mainly from DCEU.

Now I’m going to say the obvious, but lying there it comes to you, Warner Bros and DC Entertainment have curved themselves an awesome niche when it comes to the superhero/comic book genre with the fact the DCEU simply have the greatest scores, they’re untouchable.

I’m sure plenty of people and fans will say, “What about Marvel?” and it’s simple, they’re crap. The only two with any personality is the Captain America and Avengers theme.

So what makes the DCEU different? Again it simple, they all have their own feel and heartbeat. So let’s begin at the beginning.

Man of Steel

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If you don’t think Zack Snyder directed a heroic, hopeful Superman then I suggest listening to Hans Zimmer score of the film because the first feel is hope.

When you hear Superman’s theme “Flight” the slow build to when the full power of the orchestra comes out it gives you the feeling of flying, whilst also bring hope to the point you straight your back and pull a “Superman pose”.

While with “This Is Clark Kent” the Clark theme plays throughout the film of Clark’s life from being a child and saving the school bus, seeing his foster father signalling to his son not to save him, when Clark is an adult and talking to his priest and remembering his final childhood memory of his father.

“This Is Clark Kent” shows the two sides of Clark, the soft human side that he learnt growing up with the Kent’s and at the end of the score is the strength of Superman.

This is the great thing that Zimmer does that none of the music he uses goes to waste. He always reuses certain musical notes, with the obvious instruments being the French horn and drums, within other scores.

Batman V Superman

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Zimmer continues that trend in Batman v Superman as “You Die or I Do” (the big fight between Superman and General Zod) is “Their War Here” but seen through the eyes of Bruce Wayne and it becomes harder and louder as you can feel Bruce’s anger grow.

The interconnecting continues throughout this score and the film as “This Is Clark Kent” is the “Day of the Dead” score, but because of the change, it takes a different meaning.  The scene itself is a defining moment of Superman’s story in the DCEU to this point. As Clark is struggling with how the world seeing him now as a God.

I’m sure there are plenty more that connects the Man of Steel and Batman V Superman scores.

However, BvS also introduces us to some new music beginning with one of my favourite pieces of movie music “Beautiful Lie” because it shows Bruce’s mindset. With Metropolis falling apart and everyone running for their lives, Bruce is a child again seeing his parents getting murdered.

Then you have “The Red Capes Are Coming” which is an entrance into Lex Luther’s twisted mind and the fact it has this rich, orchestral, slightly operatic sound shows use Lex (on the outside) is a man of fine art and culture, but inside his head is a twisted, evil man.

Then you have “Men Are Still Good” and this has been seen as Batman’s theme in the movie and you can feel why.  It has the brutal, dark beat of a man just pissed off with the world and Junkie XL plays off this emotion beautifully.

Finally, probably the most iconic things to come from the film was the introduction of Wonder Woman and the reason because it’s so rememberable is down to the kick-ass theme "Is She With You" played Tina Guo and her cello.

Suicide Squad

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Music wise, this soundtrack is more rememberable because of the multiple of different artists and genres that are on show and it clearly worked.

It also gave the film a different feel, with the main reason being the fact it was edited by a trailer company.

However, things could have been so different because Steven Price’s brilliant and underrated score showcases this film would’ve been this dark, dirty and creepy film.

You scratch your head because it would’ve been an improvement on the film we actually got and I’m a fan of Suicide Squad, but it could have should’ve been so much better and this score highlights it.

It embodies the film’s teaser trailer come to Comic-Con a few years ago.

Wonder Woman

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This is the first score I can close my eyes a know where we’re in the film and Rupert Gregson-Williams was able to embody the strength and heart of Wonder Woman.

“Amazons of Themyscira” is just a beautiful piece of music and it makes me well-up because you picture young Diana air punching and kicking her way to the audience's heart.

Also, it should be added Williams is the man who brought us the opening credits of every DCEU movie from now on, basically it’s DC own version of Star Wars’ opening crawl. Unless Warner Bros will be using different scores from each DC film to make it unique.

The other two iconic scores from the soundtrack match the iconic moments with “No Man’s Land” (again makes me well up) and “Wonder Woman’s Wreath” which is a better name then “Is She With You”.

Justice League

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When we learnt Junkie XL was coming back once again to score Snyder’s Justice League it made perfect sense as he’ll continue the musical connection from Man of Steel and Batman v Superman.

Then we first heard “Come Together” Junkie’s collaboration with the legend Gary Clark Jr and even though I’m not a Beatles fan, I love this remake of the song.

When I start thinking about that Clark Jr could be involved in the score for the film, my excitement went up because this man can do mind-bending things with a guitar and the idea of him possibly giving Aquaman a metal rock vibe is so awesome and the electronic bending stuff Junkie would’ve thought up for Flash would’ve been dope to hear.

Then with the most recent trailer, we heard a score from Man of Steel. I’m still trying to work out which one it is.

However, once Joss Wheldon stepped in, it made sense he brought in his own guy in the form of the legend Danny Elfman.

I’m excited to hear what Elfman has in store for us. He’ll hopefully give us a definitive Batman theme as well as themes for Aquaman, Flash and Steppenwolf.

I hope he does brings “This is Clark Kent” and “Flight” back into the Justice League score when we get the return of Superman and when we see Clark and Lois Lane meet again.

Elfman should be making us cry when that moment happens.

We’re all excited to what Elfman has in store for us, but I can’t help but think what Junkie and Clark Jr would’ve had in store for us.

He's the man who composed THE theme you hear when you think of Batman. Happy #BatmanDay from Danny Elfman! pic.twitter.com/yLQkMuydKD

— DC (@DCComics) 23 September 2017

The Future

For James Wan’s Aquaman, bring Junkie back into the family would be smart as I picture a Mad Max: Fury based score for this epic movie. However, it's a good choice Wan will bring Joseph Bishara, who has worked with on many of his horror films and outside bet is Fast 7 composer Brian Tyler.

Price should be given Suicide Squad 2 to really showcase his talents.

For Nightwing, I could imagine Chris McKay to bring in Lorne Balfe as he did a superb job on The LEGO Batman Movie.

Finally, Benjamin Wallfisch will likely be in line to score Shazam as he’s previously composed the music for David F. Samberg’s two previous films – Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation. He’s also composed the music for Warner Bros’ IT and now Blade Runner 2049.

Wallfisch was in the music department for Batman v Superman as an additional composer.

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