After escaping from police, Bucky is confronted by Black Panther who is convinced Bucky has killed his father, King T’Chaka. An extraordinary car chase ensues -- minus the cars -- with enhanced humans leaping over vehicles, motorcycles getting ripped from underneath their riders and Black Panther’s vibranium claws leaving long scratches in the concrete. This early action sequence in Captain America: Civil War is bracing, intense and consequential. Too bad it’s also become the perfect demonstration of Civil War’s worst aspect: its musical score. But there’s good news because Avengers: Infinity War will have a different composer who has already proven himself on other Marvel movies.
Early in the chase Captain America hops in an SUV to pursue Bucky. Looking in the rearview, he spots Black Panther clutching to the back of the vehicle as the score provides a helpful blast of pan flute. You probably know the sound -- an exotic, sharp little "phwee-ew" that’s become the universal musical marker for the exotic and surprising. The sound is so overused and loaded with baggage that it’s nearly the musical equivalent of the Wilhelm scream.
Thankfully, the rest of the Captain America: Civil War score is far less distracting -- mainly because it’s so relentlessly bland.
While it’s hard to imagine how Marvel could make Avengers: Infinity War better than Captain America: Civil War, the newly announced addition of Alan Silvestri, as the composer at least, ensures that the next major Marvel crossover event will top its predecessor in at least one aspect.
Announced on his official website, Silvestri’s return to Marvel movies could bolster one of the extended universe’s consistent weaknesses. Silvestri has been one of the few highlights scoring The Avengers and Captain America: The First Avenger. While those two scores weren’t exactly landmarks, he did manage to create the only memorable piece of music in any Marvel movie yet.
Captain America: Civil War’s greatest strength was how well it understood its characters and how capably it knocked them against each other. What if each hero had his or her own theme? At the very least, the Marvel universe deserves a score as layered and complex as the fictional universe it has built over 13 movies.
