DOCTOR STRANGE.

Yet another movie based upon a character or characters from Marvel comics, DOCTOR STRANGE is set to be another success at the box office this Autumn/Winter season. The score is by the composer who seems to be flavour of the moment Michael Giacchino. He of course is the composer who breathed a new life and sound into the STAR TREK franchise with the re-boot versions of the journeys of the star ship enterprise, in STAR TREK, STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS and STAR TREK BEYOND (not that the franchise needed reviving as it has remained a firm fav for many years), he also has replaced Alexandre Desplat on the STAR WARS spin off ROGUE ONE which is set to hit screens very soon and it was Giacchino who also provided wonderful scores for two pretty dire movies JUPITER ASCENDING and JOHN CARTER. He has also followed in the footsteps of a few illustrious composers on re-boots of movies or at least spin off’s etc. Such as DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and JURRASIC WORLD. Every project he has worked on being stamped with his own style and given its own musical identity, his scores are also varied and he is easily able to adapt to every genre or scenario that he is given. DOCTOR STRANGE I felt is something of a disappointment, the score seems to lack any originality as it could be by any number of composers who work in Hollywood today scoring movies such as this, I am however not saying it is not a pleasing or likeable soundtrack as there are a number of nice or interesting moments which I have to say are the more subdued parts of the work with some rather un expected harpsichord being added at certain points, but it is very much in a style and sound that we have all heard before, powerful and booming percussive elements forming a foundation to low sounding brass with swirling strings and also tense sounding woodwinds and action led cues which to be honest all melt into one, the fusion of electronic and symphonic works well to a point, but even then it is all of a muchness and sounds no different from the last STAR TREK score that he worked on with a reoccurring theme raising its head every so often and being given a varying arrangement or orchestration. I know that composers do become typecast in the same way that actors do, it’s like “HEY HE DID A GOOD JOB ON STAR TREK, LETS GIVE HIM DOCTOR STRANGE” or maybe another sci fi superhero type movie. So, for me this much-anticipated score is a rather damp squib, sorry and all that but it’s a score that you will listen to and think “YEP ok NEXT”.