'Tron: Legacy,' 'Inception' frontrunners for 'Best Original Score' Oscar

By Sarah Sluis

Last night I saw Tron: Legacy, which I can't really talk about yet, because it's embargoed. What I can talk about, however, is the score, which released yesterday and is my top pick to receive an Oscar nomination for "Best Score."

Tron: Legacy may be a big-budget Disney picture, but they chose the hip electronic duo of Daft Punk to record the score for the sci-fi film. The electronica DJs, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, are best known for their catchy songs like "One More Time," "Around the World" and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger." In their score for Tron, they mix their electronic sensibility with a 90-piece orchestra, blending the typical (even generic) swelling string moments with electronic music. The score has pump in it, with enough emotional punch to set the tone for each scene. I was impressed by the studio's choice to pick near-outsiders to do the music, and even more impressed that the score clearly sounds like Daft Punk. The duo even has a cameo in the movie during a party scene.

One of their tracks, "Recognizer", exemplifies the digital/traditional mix. Within the first fifteen seconds of the song, the melody moves from all string to all electronic, so seamlessly it almost requires a second listen to appreciate what's going on (within the movie, transitions like this go unnoticed, they're so smooth). As other commentators have pointed out, the brass horns in this specific track sound an awful lot like Inception's, but that's a bit of a chicken and egg question (Tron's score has been in the works for over two years, even if it was released after Inception 's.

Hans Zimmer's score for Inception, of course, is the competition. The Jaws-like catchiness of its brass horn moments have sealed its nomination and could ensure his win. Zimmer himself has been nominated eight times and won once, and probably has more connections within the Academy. However, the music lovers that will be voting on score should appreciate Daft Punk's sophisticated sound and unique scoring of the film. The duo has scored before, for a small French film, so they're not entirely newbies. Whatever the result, I salute Daft Punk and Hans Zimmer for making action films that much more moody and exciting this year.