Best score of the year so far

[Muad'Dib 2,017]

My vote goes to Powell's How to Train Your Dragon. How about you?

[Koray Savas 2,259]

How To Train Your Dragon - John Powell

The Last Airbender - James Newton Howard

Inception - Hans Zimmer

[BLUMENKOHL 1,090]

The Last Airbender und How to Train Your Dragon.

[scallenger 660]

How To Train Your Dragon, hands down.

[indy4 160]

The Last Airbender. Although the only other one I have is Alice in Wonderland.

[FBC Director 10,764]

Predators. :cool:

[Red 75]

Probably Toy Story 3. The Last Airbender and Predators are also good, surprisingly so for the latter.

[Diego 21]

The Wolfman

[ChuckM 1]

Wow! I'm somewhat surprised that How to Train Your Dragon is receiving so much praise around here. I agree, of course; I'm just surprised. It's about time Powell starts receiving some recognition. Although, HTTYD is actually pretty far from his best.

[Koray Savas 2,259]

Actually it's pretty much his best :cool:

[Neimoidian 14]

THE GHOST WRITER

[Koray Savas 2,259]

Damn forgot about that one. It's definitely Top 5.

[publicist 4,650]

AIRBENDER

WOLFMAN

GHOST& WRITER

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

KARATE KID

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

INCEPTION

So far it's shaping up as one of the better years for filmmusic. Now bring on Desplat's POTTER/TREE OF LIFE and SALT by JNH, if it isn't just generic stuff like THE INTERPRETER.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

Wow! I'm somewhat surprised that How to Train Your Dragon is receiving so much praise around here. I agree, of course; I'm just surprised. It's about time Powell starts receiving some recognition. Although, HTTYD is actually pretty far from his best.

Did you miss the giant John Powell appreciation thread, Chuck?

[indy4 160]

Wow! I'm somewhat surprised that How to Train Your Dragon is receiving so much praise around here. I agree, of course; I'm just surprised. It's about time Powell starts receiving some recognition. Although, HTTYD is actually pretty far from his best.

Did you miss the giant John Powell appreciation thread, Chuck?

I think he started that.

[King Mark 3,908]

Karate Kid

Kick -Ass (difficult to get a hold of)

Ghostwriter

Final Fantasy XIII (I think it's better than Uematsu's scores)

Track 1 (Suite) from Airbender

[indy4 160]

Track 1 (Suite) from Airbender

And not "Flow Like Water"?!

[Koray Savas 2,259]

"Flow Like Water" trumps anything else on the album.

[King Mark 3,908]

I'll check,but they probably included part of that track in the suite?

[Datameister 2,561]

Wow, I've barely listened to any of this year's film scoring. No idea! =/

[Koray Savas 2,259]

What about Lost: Season 6? Is that too unfair for everything else?

[Datameister 2,561]

Yeah, that's pretty much all I'm very familiar with for this year. And I'm certain it blows away the competition, even though it's not film scoring.

[King Mark 3,908]

You can include TV scores and videogames

K.M.Making the rules

[Charlie Brigden 7]

Probably The Ghost Writer. I still need to hear The Wolfman and Inception and How To Train Your Dragon in their entirety.

[crocodile 9,518]

The Wolfman.

The Ghost Writer and Creation both need mentioning too.

Karol

[Richard P 5,122]

Hard time this year. Wolfman is very good, and HTTYD is exceptionally well constructed, but I have yet to hear a score that really makes me go 'wow'.

[bondo 33]

INCEPTION has gotten more playtime than any other CD so far this year. Runners up are the seemingly unpopular CLASH OF THE TITANS ("Perseus" in particular) and IRON MAN 2

[Richard P 5,122]

Wow, that's a controversial list if ever I saw one - two RCP scores. Although Inception may be good, haven't listened properly yet.

I never got into IM2 really. Just seemed to be techno/rock stuff with an orchestra underneath. I'm finding this a lot with Debney - I can't see a style in any of his music. It's just... music.

[Charlie Brigden 7]

Wow, that's a controversial list if ever I saw one - two RCP scores. Although Inception may be good, haven't listened properly yet.

I never got into IM2 really. Just seemed to be techno/rock stuff with an orchestra underneath. I'm finding this a lot with Debney - I can't see a style in any of his music. It's just... music.

I agree - I like the idea of rock/metal combined with orchestra but Debney's music has little to recommend about it.

[Wojo 2,458]

The Last Airbender und How to Train Your Dragon.

I also agree with How to Train Your Dragon.

I'll be buying from LLR this week, and didn't bundle The Last Airbender into my big SAE order last week, so it'll wait for another rainy day in New York City before I buy it.

[fommes 164]

The Ghost Writer, easily.

[Ollie 1,364]

Spartacus

[Diego 21]

If we're naming videogames, Super Mario Galaxy 2 deserves a mention even if I prefer the first one.

[Red 75]

Final Fantasy XIII (I think it's better than Uematsu's scores)

[Taikomochi 1,405]

Ghost Writer, Toy Story 3, Inception. Nothing else this year has even remotely grabbed my interest.

[John Crichton 4]

Final Fantasy XIII (I think it's better than Uematsu's scores)

Heresy!

Seriously, I'll be happy if it's a good score. At some point I'll be buying the game and can check it out.

[Damien F 1,995]

The Ghost Writer is my favorite score so far this year, and I'm glad others mentioned it because it tends to get forgotten amongst HTTYD, Wolfman, The Last Airbender etc. A roundup of the other scores this year that I've heard:

Kick-Ass - An excellent score with a strong main theme. The score perfectly captures the atmosphere of the movie. Nightvision and Strobe are two of the best action cues this year. 4 Stars

WolfMan - Strong orchestration with some nice moments, but that main theme is used over and over and over again. Its overuse is really annoying after a few tracks especially if you don't particularly like it. I guess I now understand why critics of Giachino's ST have the same issue. 3 Stars

Inception - CC at Filmtracks perfectly described my opinion of this score. I'm not a Zimmer fanboy but I don't hate his style either. I enjoy The Dark Knight and Sherlock Holmes is my third favorite score of 2009 (after Avatar and ST). It serves its job in the film, but the music is just typical simplistic Zimmer brass hits over string ostinatos and synthesized loops. There are prolonged scenes near the end of the movie which feature almost no dialogue and little sound effects, so the music really comes to the foreground. Again, Zimmer's music does it's job, but in the most simplistic, unimaginative and boring way possible. These types of prolonged music only scenes are rare and deserved much better music. A missed opportunity. 2 Stars

How To Train Your Dragon - An excellent thematically rich score. One of the best this year. 4 Stars

Iron Man 2 - A stunning main theme, despite strong Goldsmith influences (the orchestration of the last track sounds exactly like Total Recall). The rendition of the theme at the end of the Monaco track is my favourite score moment so far this year. Rest of the score sounds similar to typical MV/RC output and is disappointing save for a few good moments. 4 stars for the main theme, 2 stars for the rest.

Predators - This is certainly an excellent score, but it is heavily reliant on Silvestri's original (of which I'm a huge fan so that's not necessarily a bad thing). Guitars add an interesting element to the themes and thankfully are used sparingly so they don't outstay their welcome. 4 stars for adaptation.

Prince of Persia - A faux middle eastern theme and cliched boring MV/RC action music does not make a good score. 2 stars

Toy Story 3 - The best score of the series, with some good action music. A few tracks contain nice nods to mission impossible music and some Spanish influences. Having seen the movie twice, there is some music that is missing from the CD that I would have actually liked to have had (I wasn't expecting this to happen for a Toy Story score). 3 stars.

I've only given one quick listen to The Last Airbender so I can't comment on that yet.

[Docteur Qui 1,581]

I'm a bit appalled at myself this year; I haven't had the money to either go see many movies or purchase scores, so my exposure to this year's offerings is quite small. I've also been expanding my musical horizons and delving into new genres in terms of playing, composing and listening, so film scores haven't been high on my priorities.

However, from what little I have heard I will go with How To Train Your Dragon as highlight of the year for me. Though I haven't quite connected with it on the same level as Powell's Horton Hears a Who or The Last Stand it's probably only a matter of more time and more listening before I can really appreciate it.

[Ollie 1,364]

As far as actual scores released this year, Wolfman.

[Docteur Qui 1,581]

Oh, I forgot that I've also been listening to Super Mario Galaxy 2. Wonderful score. A lot of derivative ideas from the first game, but still a lot of fun and a very pleasant listen.

[JoeinAR 1,955]

best so far is Karate Kid,

worst so far is Zimmers Inception. Miserable

[Ollie 1,364]

Actually Horner's mini score for the The Horsemen gets my vote as one of the top scores for 2010.

But the best scores of 2010 are the re-issues done by FSM, Intrada, Varese, Tadlow, Prometheus and LaLaLand.

[QMM 4]

How to Train Your Dragon

The Ghost Writer

Creation

[Jay 45,197]

I still need to check out Creation

[Koray Savas 2,259]

It's pretty good.

[Richard P 5,122]

best so far is Karate Kid,

worst so far is Zimmers Inception. Miserable

I hated this at first, but if you think of it as a 'relaxation' album, and not a score, it sort of works (well the film is about dreaming after all...). And obviously only if you find meandering music of any type to be interesting.

That said, I thought a couple of scenes in the film (I think The Dream is Collapsing underscores one, almost at the end, and Time scores the other - up to the final shot) were unbelievably overscored, and Nolan needs some serious education in music. I'm enjoying the album now only because I can attach images.

Watch the film, then listen to the score in a quiet environment with headphones. I think that's the only way to properly understand it.

So far, How to Train Your Dragon is the best. A heck of a lot of thought went into this one.

Actually Horner's mini score for the The Horsemen gets my vote as one of the top scores for 2010.

I don't rate that piece very highly - it's self-plagiarism taken to the maddening extreme.

[King Mark 3,908]

The Horsemen is no.1 as music for me. I didn't include it because I didn't see it as a film score

[Richard P 5,122]

No, I don't consider it a 'score' either. More a 'piece'. In the same way that Roar! isn't a score.

[King Mark 3,908]

Oh wait I just noticed one of the main themes in Horsemen (Flight Demo Music from 8 minutes onwards )is exactly the same as The Spiderwick Chronicles (End Credits)

oh well it's like Horner adapted the best passages of his scores into 12 minutes...but it still works

[paleo 78]

I must say the score I like best so far this year is Prince of Persia. I know many people here think it's too MV-like, but, come on, it's vastly superior to all that other crap they pour out and even better than much of what Hans Zimmer is delivering these days. Great, memorable main themes, several well-developed minor motifs, a wonderfully cheesy faux-arab sound (so appropriate!)... Not a masterpiece by any means, but very enjoyable.

I also find The Last Airbender interesting.... I haven't really quite warmed up to it yet, but hope I will eventually. It's not Lady in the Water, but at least refreshingly complex.

I still have to listen to How to train your Dragon... only saw the movie on a plane, so can't really tell how the score was, but after hearing all the accolades...

Disappointments so far are Clash of the Titans and, particularly, Robin Hood. I think the latter score is laughable.