Did MAN OF STEEL Rip Off The Lord of The Rings Soundtrack?

By on Thursday, December 20th, 2012

I’ve spent the past few days in a fanboy haze after two glorious, bourbon laden viewings of THE HOBBIT : AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, so I haven’t had my wits about me (as Gandalf would say). But now that my dangerously long lasting Tolkien-high has worn off, I’ve noticed something about the new MAN OF STEEL trailer that played before the flick.

It’s music is totally ripped from The Lord of The Rings soundtrack.

If you recall, the first teaser trailer for Zac Snyder’s Superman romp shamelessly featured Gandalf’s death song.

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The song’s actually a perfect fit for the Big Blue Boyscott’s messianic story arc, but nevertheless, a blatant “copy/paste” of Howard Shore’s classic soundtrack. Although, it’s not uncommon to borrow songs from previous films for the sake of trailers. WB did as much when they promoted The Return of the King, utilizing the ol’ epic standby “Lux Aeterna” for most of their TV spots.

BUT… trailer 2 for MAN OF STEEL debuted with its own more borrowed music, and it’s still overly influenced by those Middle Earth tones (specifically, an unrelated tune named Elegy).

For the sake of comparison check out two songs from the films below:

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I’ll give Director Zac Snyder and crew credit, these types of vocals are an amazing matchup for a proper Superman story, but they’re just a little TOO much like Lord of the Rings (which seems to have a monopoly on that style), and it offers an uneasy comparison.

What do you think? Will you be content with these Hobbit-y jams in next year’s Supes flick? Or are they a bit distracting?  I know I’m being a little petty, but I just happened to notice the overt similarities and I’d like to hear your take on the matter.

I suppose Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard could always claim he started the trend with this little wonder…

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S#!T Talking Central

  • Stuart

    Umm, just so you know… none of that was Zimmer’s work since he hasn’t finished composing it yet:

    It does sound like music from Gladiator and from Lord of the Rings but it’s not. The song is called Elegy by Lisa Gerrard and Patrick Cassidy.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4PqWjug1Jg

    The second part is taken from the soundtrack of Elizabeth “The Golden Age”, entitled Storm by A.R. Rahman, Craig Armstrong.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU49ZmnQRRM

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=15935803 Fats Mclemlich

      Great detective work. We’ve updated the article to reflect that.

  • Ryan

    Trailers often will use existing soundtracks/scores/songs, this is widely practiced. No one is trying to veil the fact that this music is from somewhere else. Zimmer is working on the Man of Steel score as we speak. Don’t worry man, you won’t be disappointed. ; )

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1140094504 Joshua Robert Scott
  • MovieScore55

    You’re an idiot. Less bourbon and more research before claiming someone ripped something off…

  • http://twitter.com/bryan_cee bry guy

    This is one of the most idiotic things I’ve ever read. You appear to have to little-to-no knowledge about how movies work or movie marketing works.

  • Cal Jedi

    I know this is what everyone is saying, but you really should have checked into this more before posting this article. 😛 The second trailer used music from Gladiator and The Golden Age. None of the music featured so far is actually Man of Steel music. The real song has not yet been released, and I highly doubt it will “rip off” anything. Zimmer has always made special soundtracks for all of his movies. Pirates was different than Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes was different than The Dark Knight trilogy, etc.

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=15935803 Fats Mclemlich

      Thanks for chiming in. You’re right. The official trailer only credited Hans Zimmer (only for the soundtrack i now see), but it is still pretty interesting that they’re trying to hit that LOTR/Gladiator style tone

  • Ste_Robbo

    Old news!

  • Bloggus

    The music is owned by the film company, and so they are fully entitled to use it whenever (and wherever) they see fit. If they wanted, they could feature it in every trailer they ever produce.

    • That Guy you Know

      I Thought New Line Cinema Made Lord of the Rings not Warner Bros. Unless NLC is a thing alongside Warner Bros.

  • 1absolutebadass

    Yes, they were trying to get the audience to sub-consciously think of the awesomeness of LOTR whilst watching the Man of Steel trailer and by association, like the trailer too. It was a pathetic move to be honest.

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