John Powell first came onto the scene with Face/Off and he's been wowing filmgoers ever since. His sweeping epic scores fill the audience with the kind of love and passion that the characters are feeling bringing you on the journey in a way few film composers do. He's collaborated with many of the best but still remains unique in his own right.
From live-action to animation, to rom-com to action, John Powell has done it all and crafted some of the most iconic scores in film. Mostly known for his work on the How To Train Your Dragon franchise, Powell has made a name for himself by crafting some of the most soulful pieces of music ever.
The Bourne Ultimatum
Bourne is what made Matt Damon an action star for a time, and started a major Hollywood trend. The Bourne Ultimatum is the third installment in the original Bourne trilogy and once again sees Jason Bourne attempt to evade the government agency that's hunting him.
John Powell has composed all the Bourne films except for The Bourne Legacy. For The Bourne Ultimatum, Powell uses many of the same motifs and themes he perfected in the previous two entries but he heightens them to bring home that this is the end of the road. He tends to go more minimalist for Bourne with synths instead of a big orchestra. Like the action in the film, his score would go on to shape a generation of action scores.
P.S. I Love You
P.S. I Love You is not a film you immediately think of for its soundtrack. The Hilary Swank romantic drama about a woman who loses the love of her life and has to learn to move on, it's an all-time classic. It's a powerfully emotional film and the score has to reflect that. John Powell has many strengths, and one of them is heightening emotions in the audience.
For P.S. I Love You, Powell doesn't once undercut the drama with big flashy themes. It's subdued in a way that brings the audience along and allows them to feel the emotions with Swank's character. Not only does it enhance the film, but it's a score that can be listened to without it and still elicit the same emotional responses.
Hancock
Hancock has become a kind of forgotten relic of the pre-superhero boom we live in today. Jason Bateman and Will Smith teamed up for a film about a different kind of superhero. A drunk who decides to turn his life around to do real good in the world. Things go wrong when he learns his true nature and what it means for the world.
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The soundtrack to Hancock isn't the kind of thing you'd see from Alan Silvestri's Avengers movies. While he does complement the action with some truly great action pieces, there's a sadness to the soundtrack that reflects the nature of the main character of himself. The more confident Hancock gets, the more confident the score gets. Hancock's main theme is also one that would have gone down in history as one of the best had the film done better.
Happy Feet
In between making Mad Max movies, George Miller created the animated family-friendly jukebox musical Happy Feet. This film follows a young penguin who can't sing like the rest of his family and tribe. The one thing he can do is dance, and the film tells a lesson about the importance of accepting one's differences and the effects on global warming. It's not an easy film to score.
Luckily, John Powell knows what he's doing. For these films he served as music arranger as well, so he was involved in picking the music for the musical numbers. He compliments the film with his own score that easily switches from adventurous to somber in the blink of an eye. There's a huddle in the film where he uses a choir that just tugs at the heartstrings.
Ice Age: The Meltdown
The Ice Age films are big hits with families all around the globe. They follow the story of a Wooly Mammoth, a Sabre Tooth Tiger, and a Sloth as they try to survive during the Ice Age. For the second film, Ice Age: The Meltdown, John Powell replaced Randy Newman on the score, and pretty much did away with Newman's motifs and themes. While not considered the best Ice Age film, Powell's score is still something of a treasure.
Composers don't always keep the work that has come before them when they come on board a franchise, so Powell isn't all that unique in this sense. But since he was able to stay on the Ice Age films since the second one, he crafted an identity in Ice Age: The Meltdown that has followed the franchise ever since. The music of Ice Age: The Meltdown in some ways surpasses the film itself.
Kung Fu Panda
John Powell has composed some of the best Dreamworks films, and Kung Fu Panda is no different. Kung Fu Panda follows the journey of Poe the Panda as he tries to prove that he can be the dragon warrior that was prophesized to protect the nation.
Kung Fu Panda marked the first time Hanz Zimmer and John Powell collaborated since The Road to El Dorado, and even though Hanz Zimmer did co-compose the film, Powell's work still shines through. Zimmer's voice is toned down, so as to let Powell shine in the more action-oriented beats, but where he really comes through is the quiet moments with Poe.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Solo: A Star Wars Story follows the early adventures of Han Solo, the iconic smuggler played by Harrison Ford. This time Alden Ehrenreich steps into the role and the film shows the audience how he became the iconic hero they fell in love with.
Even though John Williams didn't compose the score himself, he did contribute a new theme song for Han Solo, but the rest is all John Powell. The new themes and motifs blend perfectly with the old motifs he sparingly incorporates. The Kessel Run and Enfys Nest are some of the best pieces of Star Wars music ever composed.
Shrek
The iconic Shrek is about an angry Ogre named Shrek who just wants to be left alone. But when other fantasy creatures move into his swamp, he pleads with the lord of the land to remove them only to be tasked with saving a princess from a tower. The unorthodox fairytale has become a beloved film over the years and Shrek and Fiona, are one of the cinema's favorite couples.
Once again Powell is paired with Harry Gregson-Williams for the score. Since he was still early in his career at the time, he clearly learned a lot from Gregson-Williams. Their scores combine in an almost magical way but Powell's touch can be heard in the quieter moments. It wouldn't feel like a stretch to assume that Shrek and Fionna's love theme was all Powell.
How To Train Your Dragon 2
How to Train Your Dragon 2 takes everything that worked about the first film and raises the stakes. This time around Dragons are living in peace and harmony with the Vikings of Berk and Stoick wants to prepare Hiccup for becoming Chief someday. But the appearance of Hiccup's long thought dead mother and a threat from Berks past puts everything on high alert.
How to Train Your Dragon 2 is one of the best-animated sequels ever. For the sequel, he keeps the same motifs and themes and pumps up the energy where he needs to. But it's in the quieter moments where Powell shines in this installment, Stoick reuniting with his lost love is a tear-jerker if there was ever one, not to mention the theme that plays during his funeral.
How To Train Your Dragon
How To Train Your Dragon changed everything for Dreamworks Animation and put John Powell on the map. The story of the little Viking Hiccup, meeting a dragon and befriending it has become a classic in its own right. Hiccup has to prove that there's another way before Stoick makes a grave mistake that costs him and others their lives.
John Powell infuses the score with the sense of wonder that Hiccup is feeling at the same time. The first time he rides Toothless is one of the most incredible pieces of music ever put to the cinema. The bonding that Hiccup and Toothless experience throughout the movie is almost completely wordless and the audience experiences it through the development of their shared theme that Powells weaves through it.