Alright! Today I’m busting out the essay chops to break down what I believe to be the biggest problem with the MCU. Now, first of all, there are several objective problems with the biggest franchise running around (Undercutting emotional moments with bland humor and murky CGI being the two that come to mind) and several subjective problems (The Hulk has been shafted greatly). But the one I’m talking about today isn’t one you can see - it’s the one you hear. That’s right, I’m dissecting the musical issue that the MCU has.
Now, as a disclaimer, I’m not a professor of music (Musicologist?) or even a “band kid” or anything. My expertise comes from being in musicals, a bit of piano training, and listening to practically nothing else other than movie soundtracks. In the style that “the heart wants what it wants,” so too do I know the difference between what I like listening to and what I don’t.
So the greatest thing I can do is compare and note the soundtrack standouts. When you have a franchise as vast and expansive as the MCU - which, by the way, is the film franchise that started with the grounded Iron Man in 2008 and now has a Disney+ spin-off for every character and their dog - the fact that there are, what, five noticeable musical themes? At best? It's worrying. When you have twenty-seven movies (Plus six that have release dates and six more in development) and five TV shows (With fourteen in various stages of production) and you barely have any recognizable themes is… well, it’s not a great sign.
The meh
The truth of the matter is, most of the MCU coasts by on cookie-cutter scores. You know Iron Man? The cornerstone of the cinematic universe, has an entire trilogy, and the most screen time in the franchise? Yeah? Hum his theme. Put some notes together, do they resemble the Iron Man theme? And sidebar, his theme is not the Black Sabbath song, it’s an actual piece of instrumental music.
How about Captain America? Star-Spangled Man With A Plan was catchy, but did it ever pop up outside of The First Avenger? How about Hulk? Thor? Black Widow has her own movie and Hawkeye headlined a show, surely they must have recognizable themes? The Guardians of the Galaxy? How about the Eternals? Captain Marvel? Scarlet Witch? Falcon?
None of these headliners ended up with a theme that was easily identifiable, and for a franchise with, like, 60 characters, that’s a problem.
The MCU has a bad track history with scores. How did Hawkeye go through his entire show without a theme song, and, more importantly, why was that show’s soundtrack taken over by instrumental Christmas songs and In the Hall of the Mountain King?
There are several reasons and theories as to why this is - in a video essay, Tony Zhou explained that the music tends to bleed into the background, is obscured by loud action noises, and fits the tone of the scene. He also talked about how directors are using temp tracks (Other music) when first stitching the film together, leading them to ask the composer to imitate the other tracks. Imitation doesn’t exactly lead to originality or memorability.
Compare those temp tracks imitations to DC’s most recent release The Batman. Even when the first trailer was released, Michael Giacchino’s two-note theme blared over the main title card of the trailer. It was evident that the director Matt Reeves and Giacchino had worked together to infuse the music into the themes of the movie, and the result has paid off - The Batman’s score has been critically acclaimed and called “The Best Batman Theme” (And for a franchise with music as great as Batman’s, that moniker does actually mean something).
The Batman not only has a great title theme, but several tracks that make for great listening on their own as well, a feat which can’t be said for even the better examples of the MCU’s scoring. The MCU also forgets to attach these scores to powerful emotional moments. There’s a reason the “Portals” scene in Endgame packs such a punch - seeing those characters combined with the epic instrumentation of the Avengers theme.
Now, some of the blandness of the MCU’s scoring comes from the fact that it is predictable. Sad moments are accompanied by sad music, epic moments of French horns, and funny moments get comedic music. Very rarely are the movies given a chance to just have beautiful visuals combined with a beautiful soundtrack. Take the At the Speed of Force theme from Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Here we have a spectacular four-minute sequence where the Flash goes back in time and we just get to see cool visuals and listen to the music. And again, the Portals scene. Just cool visuals and listening to the music.
Spider-Man: No Way Home had a great example of this idea failing - the scene where Peter stands in the rain in front of J. Jonah Jameson’s giant face on a TV screen was sad enough in itself, and the music was scored adequately. But it wasn’t like it was anything incredible, it was just generic sad music. Infinity War, however, had a great example of this idea succeeding - the iconic ending where Thanos sits in his garden, finally at peace. The music isn’t villainous, it’s a peaceful melody, and the audience is left to just watch and listen. That shouldn’t be the singular example in a franchise as wide and varied as the MCU.
The good ones
This is not to say all of the MCU has had bland and unremarkable soundtracks, because it’s worth acknowledging the good ones (If only to contrast with the bad ones). I mean, Black Panther did win the Academy Award for Best Original Score, and the Avengers theme is part of the pop culture lexicon at this point.
But aside from those two, what else has actually sunk in? When you look at the television show What If…?, which had a multitude of characters and several varying locations, how many were accompanied by the appropriate music? I only noticed two: The drums from the aforementioned Black Panther soundtrack and the theme from Doctor Strange.
The same goes for Spider-Man: No Way Home. In the scene transition to Peter walking to the Sanctum Sanctorum, the slinking sounds of the Doctor Strange theme begin to start, letting the audience know and anticipate the return of the Sorcerer Supreme for a few seconds. It builds tension and creates a more interactive viewing experience.
Although I wished to avoid this, as “Top Ten” lists aren’t particularly interesting, I did compose a list of the MCU products with legitimately great soundtracks: The four Avengers movies, Iron Man 3, Doctor Strange, Thor: Ragnarok, Spider-Man, Loki, and Shang-Chi. And again, this is entirely subjective and a relatively uneducated opinion. But those are the themes that I personally find nice and distinct and actually made their way into my “Movie Soundtrack” playlist, and even then it’s only the title theme. Only the Loki and Thor: Ragnarok soundtracks get in there more than once.
Additional disclaimer, but this isn’t just “Marvel has gotten too popular and DC is cooler” or something lame like that. I wrote this because while Loki was airing I eagerly awaited new episodes if only to listen to the newest soundtrack courtesy of Natalie Holt. I’m also writing this because Shang-Chi has a legitimately amazing theme and I’m scared it’ll be replaced in the sequel or never accompany him.
Why?
Well, you might be wondering at this point: Why does this matter? Well, the franchise just keeps expanding. Pretty soon it’ll reach Young Justice-levels of having no clue who all these characters are, and an identifiable leitmotif for those characters (Or, heaven forbid, locations and events) will make things easier.
In episode four of The Book of Boba Fett, The Mandalorian’s theme ever so slightly played before the episode finished, leading to rapid fan theorizing and hype. The MCU has touched on this a couple of times, what with de facto 70s music like Rubberband Man playing with a transition to the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Wakanda theme blaring as we transitioned into Wakanda (Both in Infinity War), but when Shang-Chi or Loki show up next, will they be accompanied by their titular themes or will it be generic track music like the cut to Peter Parker in Infinity War?
It also makes one afraid to like MCU music. The MCU constantly changes composers between movies, with the only sequels retaining their predecessor’s composer being Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Avengers: Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Avengers: Endgame, Spider-Man: Far From Home, Spider-Man: No Way Home, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. That’s eight out of the 27 movies (Technically 33 as I peeked into the future of Phase 4). I absolutely loved the soundtracks for Shang-Chi, but if his next introduction in Multiverse of Madness or whatever doesn't have that music, then what's the point? What plays in my head will be different than what the movie is making me hear, causing me to doublethink into accepting generic track music.
No Way Home barely featured the (Superior) music from the previous Spider-Man films, even when those characters step through their respective portals dramatically. Seeing them can make a fan cry, but the music is inherently tied to the experience of seeing them. The iconic instrumentation of the Main Title in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man movies symbolizes to an entire generation the sound of THE Spider-Man. And when THE Spider-Man appears, that theme shows up. But then his introduction barely has any instrumentation at all. It's weird.
We also don't know to what extent the music found in the MCU TV shows and movies will correlate. At the time of my writing this, no MCU TV show characters have appeared in the movies, meaning that, for as great as the Loki or Ms. Marvel themes are, the next time they appear they might get music just as anticlimactic as Peter-2's musical entrance. If Daredevil gets his long-rumored MCU project, will his TV show's excellent theme be utilized, or will it be replaced by yet another sound-alike?
For a tired comparison (And remember, I have more than my fair share of issues with the DCEU), but the fact that WW84 is the only direct sequel to not have the original composer return is miles ahead of where the MCU is at. In Zack Snyder’s DCEU trilogy (Man of Steel, BvS, ZSJL), themes for both Kryptonian heritage, Superman’s symbolic first flights, Wonder Woman, and the Justice League are all present. That’s, like, four good themes in a single trilogy. If I just listen to the movies, I can identify what they’re doing/where they’re doing it based on the music. Listening to an MCU flick just gives you background noise for action scenes.
The themes are also not tied to plot points or locations. Wakanda and the Sanctum Sanctorum seem to be the exception in this case, but with the MCU expanding to more and more locations, will places like Latveria, Madripoor, Atlantis, Ta Lo, K’un-Lun, Genosha, the TVA, Xavier’s School For Gifted Youngsters, or Baxter Building get musical themes associated with them? Or will they be like Asgard and get a new theme every movie?
Now I’m not advocating for a Star Wars-like theme and their 60-ish leitmotifs (Although that would be cool), I’m just asking for, like, basic filmmaking standards - a consistent theme. Iron Man had a very cool, very metal theme in the first Iron Man. Iron Man 2? Gone. In Iron Man 3 he has an even better theme, but every subsequent appearance? Gone. The same goes for Cap, the same goes for Hulk and his incredible theme. It got to the point where Avengers: Age of Ultron didn’t use the Avengers theme for the group shot, the credits, or anywhere else in the movie. Like, the Avengers movie didn’t use the Avengers theme. That’s mind-boggling.
In Star Wars, Order 66 is accompanied by Anakin’s Betrayal. Now, every time Star Wars touches on that major galaxy-changing event that impacted every aspect of every story they’ve told, that music is referenced, be it The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, The Book of Boba Fett, or even the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer. Now, take Marvel. The Blip occurred with an impactful and eerie silence, which certainly was a good choice, but considering that it too was a major galaxy changing event that’ll impact every aspect of every story they’ll tell - already being mentioned/shown in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Shang-Chi, Eternals, and Hawkeye - maybe a slight musical leitmotif towards this matter might be useful.
The reason this merits such a fuss is that age-old criticism that MCU movies aren’t “cinema,” to beat a dead horse. And in terms of music quality, well, they’re not. They’re generic, cheap-sounding, and rarely cinematic in any sense of the word. They rarely get quiet, character-defining moments to manifest themselves, they barely last longer than a singular film, and they rarely are able to define themselves as anything other than background noise, and music is more than that.
Music can help define and perfect a film - Interstellar wouldn't be half as wonderous without Hans Zimmer's work, Lawrence of Arabia as epic, or Jaws as terrifying. Pixar has great examples of music defining the style of a movie be it The Incredible's jazzy 1950s feel or WALL-E's innocently romantic tracks. The music of a movie can define it in the eyes of the audience, and the MCU fails to justify itself in this regard.
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