Gnome in Plaid

I'm split. A lot of hard work goes into creating the visuals for modern games. The illustrators and animators are the artists in the video game world.
On the other hand, when neckbeards refer to them as art, I can't help but to think that they're just trying to justify the fact that they're wasting their fucking lives away playing the things.
Sensible Person: "Hey, neckbeard, why don't you go to a fucking museum or a concert hall, instead of wasting your time shooting people in a video game?"
Neckbeard: "VIDEO GAMES ARE ART!"

If Journey isn't art, I don't know what is.

Because, like film music, video games still are a neglected type of media/art (however you classify them) that isn't taken seriously, or understood, by a lot of people.
Also, you're mixing two very different aspects about games: The act of playing them, like the act of driving a F1 car or watching a film (is watching a film art? Hardly - but playing whatever kind of game can perhaps, in advanced cases, be) and the actual game itself - which, like a film, is a multimedial piece of work that may very well be classified as art if other types of media are. There's visual design, music, storytelling, technical implementation, overall concept and, additionally, an interactive component. And doesn't art nowadays often rely more heavily on the interaction between medium and recipient than on the actual content? There's a wide range of innovation and quality, of course, but especially in video games, you can have very abstract creations that just provide a unique experience of some kind, like an abstract piece of art.
Ultimately though, even by more traditional means, I'd definitely call well designed games art, in the same way I do with films. And the same goes for tabletop games (which are of course much more restricted and mostly lack the multimedial component).

"I believe basketball is an art. When the game is played as it should be played, you'll see athletes perform with precision, finesse, rhythm, flair, and grace." - Oscar Robertson

Batman & Robin!

Anybody have any thoughts on this piano bit from Apollo 13?  Is it just aleatoric clustering, or do you think Horner notated it?
 

"Johnny Comes Marching Home" from "Bank Invasion" from Die Hard with a Vengeance.

Gotta have TOD on there
"I'm going home to Missouri where they never feed you snakes before ripping your heart out and lowering you into hot pits! This is NOT my idea of a swell time!"

I think Shore would have gone by the way of Death Marshes with Sprechstimme voices chanting the Cold Be Heart and Hand and Bone in Black Speech and perhaps the evil sheen of brooding low woodwinds and bowed cymbals and Footsteps of Doom motif. Some strident brass screams and pounding timpani and aleatoric double basses for Bombadil's breaking of the tomb and nice rendition of Bombadil's theme (obviously some kind of relation to the Nature's Reclamation in more rustic guise) for the subsequent scene where he sees the hobbits to the safe road to Bree.

Yeah, if we're going in that sort of direction all the better!

For me, although I'm not especially fond of the "Paths of the Dead" sequence, or of the appearance of the Dead, or of the fact that they're brought directly to Minas Tirith, these are relatively minor complaints in the scheme of things; it becomes a disaster when they arrive at the Pelennor Fields and whizz around sweeping the baddies up like a cosmic vacuum cleaner. I think I could even forget the narrative problems this poses, and the silly look of it, but the jovial, celebratory mood of the scene (for which Howard Shore's music - though not necessarily Howard Shore - is partly responsible) is a real deal-breaker for me.

The last option.
I can't believe you forgot the journey to the stone of Erech, with the dead army following the group lead by Aragorn, and the villagers fleeing at its sight, screaming "The king of the dead!"
I want to hear Shore's take on THAT epic bit of creepyness, not Jackson's Braindead adaption with some ghost city.

Sounds awesome. The Canary Islands would be kinda far to travel though.

As soon as I get 1000 posts, I'm changing my member title to "Part-Time Mansell Apologist."
He's nothing particularly special. Synecdoche, New York was decent, but nothing else he's done has been very good.
We should do something like that here.
Includes Reznor but shut out Kamen, Horner, Giacchino, Broughton, Kilar, Beltrami, Silvestri, Goldenthal, Tetaz, Zarvos, Young, Beal, and Isham.
For Your Consideration, 64 film composers. There are several names on the list that either haven't done much or I even actively dislike, but I'm not familiar enough with older or foreign composers to make a list that's more representative of real quality. In alphabetical order:
Angelo Badalamenti
Klaus Badelt
John Barry
Jeff Beal
Marco Beltrami
Elmer Bernstein
Jon Brion
Bruce Broughton
Carter Burwell
John Corigliano
John Debney
Alexandre Desplat
Patrick Doyle
Anne Dudley
Danny Elfman
Nima Fakhrara
Allyn Ferguson
Michael Giacchino
Philip Glass
Elliot Goldenthal
Jerry Goldsmith
Miles Goodman
Jeff Grace
Jonny Greenwood
Harry Gregson-Williams
Dave Grusin
Bernard Herrmann
James Horner
Mark Isham
Maurice Jarre
Johann Johannsson
Michael Kamen
Yoshihiro Kanno
Wojciech Kilar
Erich Korngold
Henry Mancini
Hummie Mann
Clint Mansell
Heather McIntosh
Ennio Morricone
Alfred Newman
Thomas Newman
James Newton Howard
Alex North
Basil Poledouris
John Powell
Leonard Rosenman
William Ross
Nino Rota
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Lalo Schifrin
Howard Shore
Clinton Shorter
Alan Silvestri
Francois Tetaz
Brian Tyler
Vangelis
John Williams
Austin Wintory
Christopher Young
Marcelo Zarvos
Hans Zimmer

Thanks and I just found this... http://www.jwfan.com/?p=3417. Can't believe I've never seen this analysis after all these years.
It says this about the montage:

So is this JW's JG-esque moment? Score good, film baaddd!!!

they don't belong in the same sentence

The Lion King. Just finished listening to the new album (the first disc only, for now). It's so refreshing to hear what Hans Zimmer originally intended for the film, but what was inexplicably replaced by synth mock-ups (I mean... what the hell?). In that form the music was among his best, now thanks to this new version it is even better - more lively and organic. The score comes alive in a way I didn't expect, revealing completely "new" instrumental and vocal lines. I had no idea there was so much chorus in there. The 73 programme of Hans Zimmer music plus Elton Johns' songs creates a wonderful uplifting and colourful listening experience. Fantastic stuff and one of the biggest surprises so far this year.
Karol - so happy to have his two favourite Zimmer scores getting excellent expanded albums literally within one month

That might be the best recent example of a completely serious but completely shitty blockbuster.

... redacted ...

I have to say, I really disliked TDKR from the first listen, but you analysis has shown me it's at least considerably more complex than I'd given it credit for being. I might have to give this score another try.

Radagast the Brown from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. The infectuous theme has been ticking away in my head all day.

I couldn't agree more, and in honor of that, I'll post one of my favorite pieces:
 

Can't Turn You Loose from The Blues Brothers, obviously.

And into this Thread he poured his cruelty, his malice and his will to dominate all threads. One Hatethread to rule them all.