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Morgan Freeman should be in this movie

I don't like seeing films with commentaries.

A score I should listen to again ASAP. It has been far too long since the last one. Such a beautifully visceral experience with a knock out main theme. Williams rarely gets this primally powerful with his music. There is an almost unstoppable sense of doom in the music, grim inevitability that is best summed up by the main title. The actual score is decently performed and offers a few more variations on the main theme but the LSO re-recording album on the Varese set is just superb with top notch sound quality and awesome performance of all the highlights of the score and contains a hauntingly touching string elegy coda in Epilogue.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Edward Shearmur There are many merits that Shearmur’s work has going for it. The majestic main theme (often taken up by a solo horn) has great appeal with attractive harmonies. This lush theme makes a breathtaking listen, quite suitable for the landscapes of the film. Shearmur also offers some great dark moody writing in “Escape from the Island” and “Intrdouction”. The love theme is nice, if a bit sparse and simple (to a fault perhaps). Along with that, we have some entertaining action material in cues like “Betrayed” and “Escape from the Island”. Last but not least, some of my favourite moments of this score are the little bits of playful attitude. “Training Montage” and “An Invitation to the Ball” are delightful cues, and to its merit, the former cue would be taken by Zimmer and company to be regurgitated into the POTC scores. Having said all that, its hard to shake the sensation of being underwhelmed upon the completion of the album. Shearmur has all the right ingredients here. A wonderful bold theme, well-crafted period elements and some enthusiastic writing are all present, but there is a lack of genuine scope in the score. This may be largely due to the atmospheric portions of the score or perhaps the slightly disjointed album presentation. With the help of the aforementioned main theme, the score certainly flirts with the ambitions it attempts to achieve in portions of “Introduction”, “Marseille”, “Involving Albert” or "End Titles" but these bursts are often short-lived. Consequently, the score never truly grasps the sense of gravity that could have really benefitted this work. A score with a lot of potential. That’s ultimately what this ends up being. I just wish it could have been a bit more. Be that as it may, it certainly is an enjoyable 4 star effort. * * * *

I also have this jedi-like ability. Send me the scores and I will confirm if this score is less great that War Horse. With experience and years of training, its quite common to be able to play the music in your head after having analyzed the score. It isn't ridiculous to suggest that one can compare the two works on a technical level based on the scores alone. Well said! and I was just being goofy suggesting that Jedi like powers are needed. Then apologies on my part. I thought that was a sarcastic attack on filmcomposer here. Indeed, I myself spend time studying scores to develop this skill as well. Having said that, Marcus brought up a good point when he mentioned that you miss out on a lot of the musicality when it comes to just reading the scores. And often musicality can end up being the work's greatest asset. Oh well, I look forward to hearing more from filmcomposer about this score.

New pic from the Hobbit!