Review by Ryan Keaveney

Rating: ***

There are few more polarizing personalities in modern film music than Hans Zimmer. Love him or hate him, his wake of devastation or delight never goes unnoticed by the fandom. It was no different, way back in 2005 (cue waterfall effect) when Hans handled, with help from James Newton Howard, Batman Begins, a serious restart of the caped crusader’s flagging franchise. Zimmer’s approach was clear: forget everything you ever knew about what Batman sounded like, or what even great music sounded like. Forget the iconic theme from Danny Elfman’s Batman and Batman Returns (Zimmer called it “jolly”, perhaps after just using some aerosol paint without proper ventilation?), and the orchestral might of Elliot Goldenthal’s Batman Forever and Batman & Robin. Instead, in keeping with the dead serious approach of the film, Zimmer replaced pomp with pop — constantly cycling rythms, simple motifs for Bruce Wayne/Batman, a driving charge for the Batmobile (“Molossus”). There was nary a triumphant fanfare to be found. The results were met with both pleasure and pain. Now, three years later, older and wiser, Zimmer and Howard once again take on Batman with The Dark Knight. A richer villain in The Joker, a further exploration of Bruce/Batman — might the music evolve into something more darkly romantic? Does Zimmer deliver his fabled Batman theme? Stay tuned, the next paragraph is coming right up…

Hans Zimmer

The answer is really more “no” than “yes”. The Dark Knight is more an extension of Batman Begins, both in orchestrations and themes. Whereas the jump from Batman to Batman Returns and Batman Forever to Batman & Robin was fairly significant, Dark Knight sounds and feels verbatim. The notable distinction between the two is Zimmer’s much-self-lauded two-note theme for The Joker, given expansive treatment in the opening track “Why So Serious?”. A seemingly endless twist of processed effects, Zimmer crams distorted guitar licks, deep bass grooves and synth tickles through the grinder, effectively representing Heath Ledger’s bat-shit performance. Unwilling to let them go to waste, Zimmer uses these two forceful notes like they’re the “orch hit” of the new millennium, riding them like a bad, bad donkey.

Beyond the Joker material, The Dark Knight hews very closely to the palette established by Batman Begins. There’s the strings cycling the two-note theme, low basses plumbing the depths of your subwoofer, the swooshing effects and sound design, the “Batman in distress” theme… And these are all in one track (“I’m Not A Hero”)!

Howard steps up with some new emotional material first heard in “Harvey Two-Face”. It’s an attractive string theme not unlike something we’ve heard from the composer before. The dramatics are dialed up, er, dramatically in the last minute of the cue where Howard treads close to Unbreakable territory. This material is later reprised in “Blood On My Hands”, but is rarely heard from again.

James Newton Howard

The album is sequenced with musical flow in mind, rather than following the film’s narrative, so each track is a longish suite of miniature cues stitched together and given rather anonymous titles based on dialog from the film (somewhat of an improvement over the use of bat species from Begins?). While the approach is admirable in that Zimmer and Howard want to create a bonafide soundtrack album experience, it’s just a little frustrating to know you can’t cue up your favorite moments from the film quite so easily.

For the most part the album is content to chug along. However, it’s not always interesting. There are times where you might be checking your stereo volume wondering if it’s your air conditioner dripping or another synth patch. It’s this puttering quality to the writing that keeps things fairly dry. One slow build after another (“Aggressive Expansion”) without a pay-off, only to have the next track begin and do the same thing (“A Little Push”, “I Am The Batman”, “Agent of Chaos”). The mix probably accentuates this monotonous feel, as it’s somewhat flat, with tremendous low end, but not much separation between the various sections of the orchestra, and electronics.

The album hits a brisk stride with “Like A Dog Chasing Cars”, and a hint of an actual Batman theme (6 notes and then repeated down one octave) on the strings over brass and intense drumming. Ironically, this theme is downright jubilant (though never “jolly”) compared to anything heard in the two films so far. This brief bit of excitement is later reprised in “Introduce A Little Anarchy”, where it wiggles for elbow room with the Joker’s two-note mega-motif.

Things wrap up with the ultra-dramatic “Watch The World Burn”, as effective a mix of these two composers very disparate styles as could be achieved, and the truly epic, iPod-draining “A Dark Knight”, which clocks in at over sixteen-minutes (that’s longer than a half hour of programming on MTV). Sadly “A Dark Knight”, a substantial highlight, never actually coalesces into the expected sucker-punch finale. Instead The Dark Knight ends with a whimper.

It’s hard to imagine a straight through listen of The Dark Knight, what with it’s hefty run time of over seventy-three minutes. It’s presentation here betrays the good work it does in the film, where it’s very effective. On album, however, it’s a bit of a bore. Despite that there is more to The Dark Knight than it’s critics will have you believe, but also less to it than it’s hardcore lovers claim. Essentially there’s just too much overlap with Batman Begins to give The Dark Knight needed distinction. An opportunity has been missed here to further develop the musical world of Batman, perhaps move it into the direction of the first films (it is after all a “prequel” in spirit). Those that see the excellent film and come vaulting out of the movie theater onto their Batpods only to tear away towards their nearest music retailer may suffer a serious case of been-there-done-that. A companion piece to Batman Begins for sure, but a substantial improvement or development, unfortunately no.

Music Composed and Produced by Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard; Additional Music by Lorne Balfe; Orchestrations by Bruce Fowler, Jeff Atmajian, Brad Dechter, Elizabeth Finch, Kevin Kaska, Randy Kerber, Suzette Moriarty and Walter Fowler; Conducted by Matt Dunkley, Bruce Fowler and Gavin Greenaway; Recorded by Geoff Foster; Mixed by Alan Meyerson; Label: Warner Bros Records; Availability: In-print; U.S. Release Date: July 18, 2008.

01. Why So Serious? (9:14)
02. I’m Not A Hero (6:35)
03. Harvey Two-Face (6:17)
04. Aggressive Expansion (4:36)
05. Always A Catch (1:40)
06. Blood On My Hands (2:17)
07. A Little Push (2:43)
08. Like A Dog Chasing Cars (5:03)
09. I Am The Batman (2:00)
10. And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad (2:29)
11. Agent Of Chaos (6:55)
12. Introduce A Little Anarchy (3:43)
13. Watch The World Burn (3:48)
14. A Dark Knight (16:15)

Total Playing Time: 73:31