Today, I indulged in Hans Zimmer's latest full score for a film -- The Dark Knight Rises. I actually had high expectations for this piece, but found it bearing great resemblance to all of his previous releases like Pirates of the Caribbean, Inception, and Sherlock Holmes. This struck me as odd, seeing as he did so well with Batman Begins and The Dark Knight. What changed? Well, besides him composing Inception and Pirates of the Caribbean's scores, that is.
He's still using the bass synths that he enjoys having in Batman scores, but for some reason he changed to a style very, very similar to his other works in the majority of tracks. Let's analyze a few.
The opening track, "Storm is Coming" has a very interesting atmosphere synth in it and actually works very well to start things.
Then comes "On Thin Ice", which has a Pirates of the Caribbean feel to it in the beginning, followed by an airy synth pad. In the beginning, and very strangely, this track reminds me of Skyrim's score. I know, that's a really weird thing to hear, but it really does until about 1:20 when it transitions into something more Inception-inspired. It even has three out of four chords in the main "Time" track from this film, which I see as a bit unoriginal and odd. In the end of the track, it ends up carrying remnants of Pirates of the Caribbean's low strings and Inception's melody.
Moving on to "Gotham's Reckoning". The beginning of this track is mostly original with the usual Zimmer touch, but then it grasps a very unusual build up around 1:16 that sounds really close to both Sherlock Holmes and -- of all films, really! -- Lord of the Rings. It has a very similar sound to the "A Knife in the Dark" from the latter film. I know that sounds weird, but listen to it at about 1:40 and you'll probably hear the resemblance.
"Mind If I Cut In?" has a honkey tonk-like piano that makes it sound a lot like the Sherlock Holmes score. Even the time signature is similar.
"Born in Darkness" brings back the original Batman theme, which is nice to hear. However, it almost begins a transition into something pirate-like, which seems weird.
As for the rest, they're up and down in a mix between completely original and nothing near it. I'm sure all of this music fits the film well, but on it's own it seems a bit unoriginal.