Okay, I’ll be frank. I’m sick and tired of Zimmer and movie soundtracks-after a while every score starts to sound the same. Having said that, the only reason why I heard this soundtrack was because I thought that the soundtrack might give some clues about the movie. I mean, I’ve been waiting for this flick for a really long time, and with so little information available about it, I had to resort to trawling the soundtrack for clues about the movie!The soundtrack begins on a really irritating note with Why So Serious? which, obviously, contains Joker’s theme. Not a very good start to the whole listening experience, but towards the end of the track, we hear the Joker’s theme as a counter-weight to the two-note Batman motif. The brass swells up and you expect the Batman motif to be played, but the second (descending) note in this motif is a different note, thus establishing (musically) the fact that Joker and Batman are same in a lot of ways, but still different, two sides of the same coin…
I’m Not a Hero introduces us to the theme that Zimmer and Howard wrote for the previous movie, but didn’t use it then. There’s nothing heroic about the theme, it’s more about Batman introspecting and generally feeling burdened with the task at hand. Infact, much of the score is all based on the same thought, with just the last 3-4 tracks establishing Batman as lashing out against the chaos around him and trying valiantly to bring order back to Gotham city. I’m Not a Hero also contains some reprises from Batman Begins, tracks which were used in the movie, but not included on the album. These reprises, though pleasing to hear, reek a bit too much of techno beats. Infact, that is one major grouse I have against Zimmer and Howard-the reprises all have David Arnold-isque techno beats.
Harvey Two-Face, as the name suggests, is the suite for Harvey Dent aka Two-Face. Just like the Joker theme was the counter-weight of the Batman theme, Dent’s theme is the counter-weight of Bruce Wayne’s theme from Batman Begins. Infact, both start of in the same way, but while Dent’s theme becomes optimistic after that, Wayne’s theme plunges into pity, remorse and introspection. This suite greatly fleshes out Dent’s character-it embodies optimism, the ‘whiteness’ of Dent, and his sense of purpose, and is carried on in Blood on My Hands.
Aggressive Expansion starts off with a really pleasing reprise of the orchestral swell from Barbastella. Again, the orchestra pounds away the Batman theme in full glory. It then adds on more reprises, often adding more weight to the themes. The reprises continue with Always a Catch, which has Nycteris in an almost unaltered form.
Like a Dog Chasing Cars, And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad, Agent of Chaos, Introduce a Little Anarchy and Watch the World Burn, though not action cues in the traditional percussion pounding way, can be nothing but those. These epically performed tracks exude the sense that Batman is trying to bring order to the anarchy unleashed by the Joker. These tracks contain bits of Molossus, the new Batman theme (performed valiantly/heroically) and the Joker theme, all inter-mixed in real foot tapping fashion, and if these tracks are anything to go by, the movie’s going to be really really epic in scale!
A Dark Knight is the longest track of the disc, clocking in at more than 16 minutes. It isn’t fast enough to be an action cue, and I can’t see any way how there can be a 16 minute track for introspective scenes. So, the only conclusion I can draw is that something really special is going to happen in the finale of the movie. The track also suggests thus, swinging between heroic and introspective with utmost ease. The 16 minutes fly by and the album is wrapped up on a nice note with the two note pounding Batman theme, followed by a really muted rendition of the Joker theme.All in all, this album is something really grand and entertaining. What is interesting to see is that while the Batman theme has many variations, right from introspective to tragic to valiant to down right heroic, the Joker theme is always played just the way it’s fist heard right at the beginning. The weird little theme, though irritating at first, really captures the essence of the Joker very well. All the tracks are worth mention and this album, like the movie, is something really special….

Many fans complained about the deviation from the original Danny Elfman score in this reboot of the Batman franchise. While Elfman’s score for Batman and Batman Returns was majestic and as proclaimed by Elfman fans, genius, for this reboot, acclaimed composers Hans Zimmer (Lion King, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, The Rock, The Da Vinci Code) and James Newton Howard (King Kong, The Village) collaborate and completely change the music of Batman. Gone are the gothic and (at times) silly Elfman-esque themes. They are replaced by themes which could truly become the voice of the future Batman movies.
I’ve always maintained that music is the actual voice of the film-even masterfully shot scenes require good music to actually lift them up from the mundane. But this score, it left me totally speechless. It not just becomes the voice of the movie, but also of Batman. The tragic yet heroic tone of the music is a welcome departure from the more action oriented writing of Elfman and Elliot Goldenthal (Batman Forever, Batman and Robin). For the first time, someone’s actually gone inside Batman’s head and realized that it ain’t all about the action, instead, it’s more about the character and what drives him than the action (which doesn’t, for a moment take anything away from the fact that the album features some pretty good action cues too).
The album begins with Vespertilio-a percussive piece that uses rhythmic pounds to simulate the effect of a giant bat flapping its wings (or, as a friend pointed out, an approaching storm), which are repeated quite often in the album. Midway through the cue, a two note rising and descending motif takes over. This is the central theme and the best use of it is around the 4-minute mark in Barbestalla, when by mixing it with percussion and a full orchestra, Zimmer and Howard create a sudden and unexpected uplifting theme.
The album also features some cues that could so easily have fit into a horror movie (and thus, blend superbly with Batman Begins‘ central theme of fear). Whispers and dark ambient textures are used well in Artibeus and Tadarida to create an atmosphere of fear.
The action writing makes its first appearance in Myotis, a fast paced track that ends nicely on an emotional note, introducing us to Batman’s main theme. Antrozous is also a pretty decent track, starting out on soft, tension creating track before degenerating into an overdrawn (yet enjoyable at times) cue. It was better represented in the movie, but for some strange reason, the good bits didn’t make it into the album.
Hands down the best track on the album is Molossus. Once it starts, it never quits (often running in my head for a day or two after listening to it!!). The orchestra really rises to Zimmer’s writing to give us the best rendition of the Batman theme in a long long time. Set to coincide with the freeway chase, this track too is better represented in the film (but is awesome on the album too!!).
The emotional and tender writing is undoubtedly Newton Howard. The sweeping treble melodies and the stringy approach create one rising melody after the other. While Zimmer’s basses became the voice of Batman, Howard’s strings became the voice of Bruce Wayne. They not only made us feel for Wayne, but also understand what actually drives him. The alleyway cue (when Wayne’s parents are shot to death) could so easily have resulted in melodramatic writing by a novice (which would most probably have completely put the listener off), but Howard chooses a much more restrained approach to create something really moving. Eptesicus, Corynorhinus, Barbastella and Macrotus feature some of the best tender bits in a long time, and are definitely worth a listen.
To wrap it all up, I’d say that even though a lot of good cues were dropped from the album and some were cut short, and this might not be as much fun as Elfman’s albums, this album is definitely a better piece of writing. While Elfman seldom wrote for Wayne, Zimmer and Howard created stirring cues for him too. And, the action bits are pure genius. More importantly, the score complements Nolan’s vision flawlessly, thus uplifting this movie from the mundane, and into a masterpiece.