It comes as no great surprise that I’m incredibly excited about The Batman. Over the past month, in the build-up towards the Friday 4th March release, director Matt Reeves and the film’s composer Michael Giacchino have released official themes of some of their characters.
We’re now only TWO WEEKS away from seeing this film in its full three-hour glory. To celebrate, Reeves and Giacchino unveiled the final theme and in it can be argued, they left the best till last in the form of Zoe Kravtiz’s Catwoman.
I adore all these themes as while they are all beautiful and live in the fantastical, they all have underlining tones playing in different genres.
Let’s take Catwoman, her theme is romantic and has this softness, but it feels like you’re in a late-night jazz club like we’re in a classic noir film from the 1940s. On the other hand, it sounds like it could easily be in a James Bond film as they’re hints of From Russia With Love.
It shouldn’t shock you that as well as wanting Reeves and his DP Grieg Fraser to work together again on a Bond film, I now need the Oscar-winning composer, the mastermind behind that UP score, to handle the music.
Two weeks ago, it was The Riddler and we got a real sense of the sort of character Paul Dano will be playing.
The theme is truly fantastical and pays homage to Shirley Walker’s work on Batman: The Animated Series. Still, it has this air of childishness that gives the character a feeling that he’s a gothic winter fairytale making it sinister and creepy.
Finally, the first theme we heard was of The Batman and while I think Catwoman’s theme is my favourite, but what Giacchino created for Robert Pattinson’s Dark Knight gives me an emotional reaction.
While we initially hear a western with the mixing of the piano, guitar and bells. It’s when the strings and the key change into something so beautiful that under the hard outer body is this soft soul that Bruce is at peace with being this protector of Gotham.
It would be something that could easily be in a costume drama and played at weddings. It continues to hit me solely in the heart and makes me cry, and this is something I’ve only felt one other time at that’s with Craig Armstrong’s Glasgow and Lisbon themes in Love Actually.
However, this doesn’t take away from the noir and harsher sounds that perfectly embodies Batman’s anger and rage as the beat repeats and grows louder as we reach the climax.
I fully expect this theme will be played in segments throughout the film before we hear it in full as the credits roll similar to what David Arnold did with the James Bond theme during Casino Royale.
These themes give me so much excitement as I will be listening to them on repeat for the next two weeks, and I can’t wait for the entire soundtrack to be released and can hear and enjoy every bit of the score.
The Bear Cave 