Not Mr. Big

Guardians of the Galaxy Considerably more creative and edgy than the other movies from Marvel Studios. The visuals are creative, the characters are memorable and it has genuinely funny moments. The plot isn't all that great though, with a relatively generic MacGuffin and some choppy transitions between scenes. My biggest problem with the movie was the finale, which embraces the generic Marvel-isms it had been avoiding beforehand. Tyler Bates' score is a mixed bag. There are some surprisingly decent cues (mostly residing in the more tender moments) but there are some genuinely awful ones too. The cheap sounding synthetic low brass music accompanying Ronan's scenes is appalling. There are also many moments when the music doesn't line up with what's happening onscreen. I wonder what a more competent composer could have done with this movie. Movie- 4/5 Score- 1.5/5

The only genuinely good score from the Expanded Universe is Shadows of the Empire.

I was thinking the movie would be something more along the lines of Anonymous (2011).

I'm not sure if this counts as I haven't listened to the full score yet (it's a little bit too expensive on Amazon) but the "Overture" cue is spectacular.

Schwarzenegger's return makes no sense to me. Why would Skynet want to build a Terminator model in the shape of a leathery old man?

Any year that has scores like HTTYD 2, Maleficent, Godzilla, and A Million Ways to Die in the West (a guilty pleasure of sorts for me) in a 2 month span qualifies as good for me. For me, 2012 was a much more lackluster year for film scores.

2014 is the best year for film music since 2010!

I realize that. Hirschfelder's score is damn good, though, although it helps that 2010 was one of the weakest years in the history of film music. I disagree completely. For me, it was one of the best years for film music in a long time.

http://online.wsj.com/articles/david-fincher-turns-to-trent-reznor-and-atticus-ross-for-gone-girl-soundtrack-1409845014 An intriguing article on Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' score for Gone Girl. As somebody who hated the scores for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network, I'm actually curious to see how it turns out.

I can't wait to hear Hans Zimmer's replacement score!

I wonder if Spielberg will take over directorial duties like he did with Catch Me if You Can. I'd love to see what he (and John Williams) would do with it. Though I can hardly imagine the backlash from purists bitching that they didn't use the original music.

Damn, this in my top 10. I love the film too, which helps. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking when I wrote this... I meant JFK, not Nixon. Little mental slip there. Oh right, then I definitely agree with you, both on the score and the film. It's the most overrated of the Stone/Williams collaborations. It's far too fragmented and collage-like for me to work as a standalone listening experience, and I find Arlington pretty overbearing. That's pretty much how I feel about JFK. It has a fantastic main theme and some solid musical ideas but they don't come together into one cohesive package like most JW scores do.

I think The Phantom Menace is easily better than any of the LOTR scores but the prequel trilogy on whole isn't nearly as cohesive as LOTR. Each of the prequel scores are more entertaining the LOTR scores in their stand-alone form. It's a close call, but I'm going with the prequels, mostly because of their entertainment value.

The Reivers and to a lesser extent, Heidi are the only ones of worth for me.

1. Temple of Doom 2. Raiders 3. Last Crusade 4. Kingdom of the crystal Skull

Spider-Man 2 is great! It's my favorite comic book movie by a wide margin.

Yes, he is. He's also a great reviewer.

Great review!

Game of Thrones' Miltos Yerolemou has been cast! http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-29019238

The Greatest Miracle- This score has been touted as a masterpiece by many people and I can see why but I've never really been enamored with it. There isn't a clear main theme and the score as a whole is too one note for me. The endless choral beauty becomes exhausting over the course of the score. I'd still give it a 4/5.

The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. I never understood the appeal of those scores. I was never really impressed with the score to The Wizard of Oz. Gone with the WInd definitely deserved the Oscar.

The Lost World is a drag. It spends the first hour foreshadowing monsters that we've already seen and setting up characters that we don't care about. I appreciate the San Diego T-Rex rampage at the end though.

In IMAX? Yes. In 3D? No.

TPM was set in a different timeline with different characters. There are many more themes that have to have token references.

Babe: Pig in the City is really good. I love the unique, quirky world it creates and it's equally quirky characters. It has lots of wit and creativity, qualities I didn't really see in The Road Warrior.