Who is the most overrated film composer in recent history?

[Trent B 337]

I actually like Tyler's Timeline. Well both versions of Timeline a good, even though Goldsmith's nudges past Tyler's. However, I still find Tyler's enjoyable.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Most of what I've heard sounds like it's from a composer with no background in theory, and has learned through imitation.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Which is an exceptional shame considering he studied at Harvard.

[Mr. Brown 91]

A very scientific chart I've found online...

[Makeshift Python 22]

Michael Giacchino for me. His one good score is UP. Everything else... I just don't get the love for them.

[Mr. Brown 91]

Michael Giacchino for me. His one good score is UP. Everything else... I just don't get the love for them.

Agreed. Only one of his I enjoyed listening to. STAR TREK f*cking sucked. That guy will never match Goldsmith or Williams, but people are convinced that he's on the same tier.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

A very scientific chart I've found online...

Bullshit!

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Thought process of graph creator:

LOLZ EVERY1 LYKES WILLIAMS SO ILL PUT HIM UNDER HERRMANN AND KORNGOLD CUZ ITS MORE INTELLECTUAL AND SHIT TO LIKE THEM INSTEAD OF THE POPULAR 1S AND HORNER COPIES AND PLAGIARIZES LOLZ HE DUMB LOL SILVESTRI WHO?

[KK 3,307]

Thought process of graph creator:

LOLZ EVERY1 LYKES WILLIAMS SO ILL PUT HIM UNDER HERRMANN AND KORNGOLD CUZ ITS MORE INTELLECTUAL AND SHIT TO LIKE THEM INSTEAD OF THE POPULAR 1S AND HORNER COPIES AND PLAGIARIZES LOLZ HE DUMB LOL SILVESTRI WHO?

Close.

Not enough abbreviations, missing excessive emoticons, and words like "plagiarize" and "intellectual" are beyond the creator's vocabulary.

[Faleel 5,365]

Jerry Goldsmith.

[Not Mr. Big 4,643]

John Williams.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Jerry Goldsmith.

If you had typed this on FSM, you would now be dead!

[Makeshift Python 22]

Michael Giacchino for me. His one good score is UP. Everything else... I just don't get the love for them.

Agreed. Only one of his I enjoyed listening to. STAR TREK f*cking sucked. That guy will never match Goldsmith or Williams, but people are convinced that he's on the same tier.

I remember what really threw me off of Trek was five minutes in when he tried pulling the exact same shit he did on LOST. It was that moment when I realized most of his music was pretty interchangeable and didn't offer anything new. The way people seem to put him on a pedestal reminds me of Bond fans thinking David Arnold's music is in the same league as John Barry.

[Quintus 5,399]

This Gia guy seems even more divisive than Zimmer. Probably is actually.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Didn't Blume make that chart?

[Faleel 5,365]

Probably John Ottman.

[gkgyver 1,646]

In order to avoid any possible misunderstanding, here again is my unadulterated post:

Shore's Middle Earth music is overrated, but his other music is underrated.

That is exactly correct.

As clearly evident here, his Middle Earth music is still underrated, while his other music is, in parts, too.

[nightscape94 965]

Both, really.

[Gnome in Plaid 219]

Overrated? Hmm... I think it really depends on what crowd you're talking about. I'm not sure how many film composers other than John Williams and Hans Zimmer most people would even be able to name, and so by that yardstick, clearly Zimmer. If you're talking overrated among score aficionados, I'd say it depends on what level of commendation the composer actually gets. Giacchino probably gets more praise than he deserves, but the guy is clearly competent, if not on the level of the true masters. Guys like Ramin Djawadi and John Murphy, on the other hand, don't really get much praise, but any is still more than they really should.

[Mr. Brown 91]

Michael Giacchino for me. His one good score is UP. Everything else... I just don't get the love for them.

Agreed. Only one of his I enjoyed listening to. STAR TREK f*cking sucked. That guy will never match Goldsmith or Williams, but people are convinced that he's on the same tier.

I remember what really threw me off of Trek was five minutes in when he tried pulling the exact same shit he did on LOST. It was that moment when I realized most of his music was pretty interchangeable and didn't offer anything new. The way people seem to put him on a pedestal reminds me of Bond fans thinking David Arnold's music is in the same league as John Barry.

That interchangeable music is the ultimate sign of laziness in a film composer. Although John Williams recycles cues and motifs here and there, he crafts the music for the particular film, so it could work the best in that film. Composers like Giacchino and Arnold seem to dig the music out of bins. Generic shit action cue here, generic shit romance cue there.

And to think that some people on unnamed sites would slit your throat for saying John Barry was light-years better than Arnold.

[Makeshift Python 22]

I wouldn't say they write bad music, on first ompression I did like both Arnold and Giacchino, but the more I heard their other work, the more I realized they had nothing new to offer. Williams has a very recognizable sound but like any great composer like Barry he's able to work it for the film that has a different attitude. STAR WARS sounds like space opera, SUPERMAN sounds heroic, INDIANA JONES sounds adventurous. I thought it was funny that Edgar Wright used Arnold for HOT FUZZ because Arnold pulls the same shit he does for Bond, but it works there because that's part of the joke. Kind of like how Elmer Bernstein scored comedies like ANIMAL HOUSE as rousing epics, but I wonder if Arnold thought he was doing the same thing but unaware of how he was satirizing himself.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Arnold seems pretty switched on. He probably was.

I reckon Zans Himmer is an overrated hack. A Z-grade illiterate "composer" who hires a staff of crude noise makers to do his dirty work and builds robots that play synthesisers, like Newton Crosby in Short Circuit.

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Nino Rota

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Recent history.

[Gnome in Plaid 219]

His Iron Man 3 score is rousing. His Darkness Falls is borderline brilliant. Far better than the film deserved.

Pubs JNH comment is accurate.

A lot of Darkness Falls to me sounds like a combination of Shore's aleatory with the Attack of the Clones action music. Frailty was a decent score, too, but borrows on Silence of the Lambs pretty heavily. For an interesting Tyler score, check out John Dies at the End: most of it is too electronic for my taste, but it has some delightfully bizarre music. "Tweaker Lullaby" is almost Goldenthalian.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

Marco Beltrami. Jerry Goldsmith without any of the things that made Jerry Goldsmith compelling or even interesting.

[publicist 4,643]

i can cope with Who's RCP bullshit but et tu, brute?

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

Hey, it's Zimmer bullshit, not RCP bullshit. I have no patience for anyone aping Hans' sound.

[publicist 4,643]

Where's the difference? The minions do it either way.

[SF1_freeze 131]

I voted for Hans Zimmer... though he did fantastic stuff in the 90s up until Gladiator. The Lion King is one of my alltime favorite scores and i love Prince of Egypt and Gladiator.

Nowadays he lost all that made me like his music. He is a shadow of himself. I personally can't really consider him a composer anymore with all his ghostwriters, the simplistic orchestrations and the overabundance on sound design and pop.

Why and how did he lose his abilities to convey magic, wonder and awe?

[Dixon Hill 4,234]

He didn't. He just started doing stuff that you don't like.

[SF1_freeze 131]

I would love to be proven wrong. I still hope for a fantastic Interstellar score... The film should provide enough opportunities for amazing orchestral music with some creative synth work. (one can dream)

[publicist 4,643]

Melodically, Zimmer is pretty consistent. The Electro theme and even the discarded Batman theme have the same vaguely teutonic sound like K2 et al. If 'orchestration' ever was the right word for what Zimmer/RCP did is up for debate.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

i can cope with Who's RCP bullshit but et tu, brute?

Was that directed at me?

[publicist 4,643]

Of course. Beltrami does not produce diamonds on a daily basis but he apart from the clunkers he often shows an artistic integrity AND isn't hyped like certain other composers on these lists. He does not deserve being trashed.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Beltrami is a bit boring though. But I guess that's how film scores should be - safe, boring and unobtrusive.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

That's how I feel sadly, boring. I find his scores pretty monochrome in terms of harmony and orchestral or electronic colour.

He's not hyped here much, but FSM is another story. Diss Beltrami and God help you.

[publicist 4,643]

Beltrami, certainly also due to the usual parameters, often resorts to mousy underscoring but no man who can do a score like SOUL SURFER, YUMA or parts of SNOWPIERCER should belong on a 'most overrrated' list. Even his DIE HARD scores shine here and there.

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[KK 3,307]

Beltrami, certainly also due to the usual parameters, often resorts to mousy underscoring but no man who can do a score like SOUL SURFER, YUMA or parts of SNOWPIERCER should belong on a 'most overrrated' list. Even his DIE HARD scores shine here and there.

Like others, I find a lot of Beltrami's scores rather dull and overhyped (not here maybe, but other forums). But he does have some gems up his sleeve. Soul Surfer was a great score. And his latest Die Hard had some good bits. But Snowpiercer is pretty overrated. Had some nice cues by the end, but nothing exceptional.

I find him a workman-like composer, often produces sufficient film music for the film, but rarely offers anything exceptional.

[publicist 4,643]

Yes...and? Most A-Listers, say Debney, Tyler, Giacchino provide material on the same level or often even below it. Or where is all the exceptional stuff i am missing?

[KK 3,307]

Maybe replace exceptional with interesting?

I can find a good dose of stuff I can regularly listen to from Debney and Giacchino (Tyler is more of a challenge I'm afraid). It's tougher with Beltrami. I'm not saying they're not there, just most of his output I tend to pass on (like Tyler). I only got Snowpiercer based on word of mouth, and while it was decent, didn't live up to its "reputation".

[publicist 4,643]

While that may be due to your musical preferences in general, Beltrami has technical chops (and sometimes shows them deftly) that most of the others just lack. Debney excepted, he can do everything - it's just always something others have done better before him. Beltrami will never be a great tunesmith, but if i listen to the first and last cues of SNOWPIERCER, even in this muted effort an expert handling of the orchestra comes to the fore. On that basis alone i would recommend him - and i don't collect his stuff, either.

[Not Mr. Big 4,643]

Giacchino.  

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Giacchino.

[Gnome in Plaid 219]

 

On 5/26/2014 at 2:03 AM, Shatner's Rug said:

Beltrami is a bit boring though. But I guess that's how film scores should be - safe, boring and unobtrusive.

I generally think of Beltrami, at least at his best, as anything but "safe, boring, and unobtrusive."  Sure, his big action music and (pseudo-)historical epic scores are fairly generic, but check out I Am Dina, 3:10 to Yuma, The Hurt Locker, and No Escape: those are some serious, challenging scores.

 

2 hours ago, Not Mr. Big said:

Giacchino.

 

8 minutes ago, Stefancos said:

Giacchino.

Reactionary nonsense.  He might not be "great," but there's hardly anyone claiming he is.  He's perfectly competent and generally serves the films he's scoring quite well.  He's not on the same level as the really excellent masters of film music, but answer me this: whose approach would you rather see take over film music: Michael Giacchino's or Tom Holkenborg's?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Neither! Can't we choose a far better composer?

[Gnome in Plaid 219]

In a perfect world, yes, but that doesn't seem to be world that holds much interest for Hollywood producers, so if I have to choose between "secondary RCP composers" and "people who wrote music for JJ Abrams' series," I'm facing a pretty easy choice.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

That doesnt say anything about his musicianship, which is average.

[Bilbo 3,709]

Zimmer, Guacchino, and Djawadi.