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Giacchino vs Powell vs Desplat


Edmilson

MG vs JP vs AD  

54 members have voted

  1. 1. Who do you think is the best composer: Michael Giacchino, John Powell or Alexandre Desplat?



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Giacchino's too dry and generic at times. I almost always recognize Powell and his style, at least since the 2010s. Desplat's good but not even close to those two.

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Powell certainly has more innate ability to write compelling film music.  In other words, he's more talented.

 

But Giacchino puts out more scores I enjoy listening to repeatedly.

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I wish I enjoyed more Desplat scores (even Valerian didn’t connect with me 😬) But I did enjoy Girl with the Pearl Earring. That one score of his I do come back to every once and a while. 
 

After all these years and blockbuster franchises that Gia has scored, The Incredibles is still my favorite score of his.

 

Powell: my absolute favorite of the three. For me that guy can do no wrong and I will listen to anything he writes:) 

 

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Strange to see the dislike of Desplat.

All three are today's finest film composers and all three have hits and misses. I love Powell's lush orchestrations, Giacchino's themes and Desplat's attention to the small details and orchestral sensibilities. 

 

 

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Using the word best with the name Giacchino Is  criminal. He is mediocrity personified.

 

I believe AD is a better composer. Powell is ok.

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Giacchino may work on the types of films I've love to see the other two on, but Powell is by far my favourite composer of the three.

 

They are all very different and do their own things well. I wouldn't want Powell to try to write a Desplat style score or vice versa.

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Powell is most accomplished. A score like How to train your dragon puts almost anything Gia has written to dust.

 

But Gia has a good pick of projects, better than Powell. So I have listened to more of his score and enjoyed them.

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Powell without a doubt. I have respect for Desplat though and he's written some things that I absolutely love. But he can be quite boring as well. (HP8 comes to mind, where he knocks it out of the park with Lily's Theme right away and then proceeds with the dullest score I could imagine for a film like that.) 

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15 hours ago, Holko said:

Powell and Desplat both know their own strengths and weaknesses well and mostly compose accordingly. But Gia's been put into this big orchestral composer box (or put himself into it) that does not sound like himself and he doesn't sound as comfortable in as in earlier, smaller and more playful scores.

That sums is up in a nutshell. Before the Star Trek, Jurassic World era of his career, his writing was considerably less bombastic and much more interesting. Whenever I think I'm cooling on his music, I only have to head back to RatatouilleThe Incredibles or Up to remind myself that he actually could do subtle and, as you say, playful, but also emotionally engaging.

 

Inevitably, for the purpose of the poll, I went for Powell, but had you run this poll every 3 to 5 years for the last 20 years I think it could have bounced between all three depending on the stage of their careers, but Powell has hit one of the top half dozen spots as one of my favourite film composers. His only real weakness (if you can call it that) is that I'd enjoy hearing music for a wider range of movies. Sure, his animated scores are great, but there aren't that many beyond those from the last few years and it would be great to hear something from him with greater dramatic heft behind it. His Prussian Requiem demonstrated a depth and breadth to his compositional talent that just isn't exploited by the movies he scores. While I'd rather he wrote one or two great scores a year than a load of mediocre ones, it would be great if his output was just touch greater...

 

Talking of which, I think Desplat probably suffers from doing too many films at times, but I still think he's a fine composer who has just ended up scoring too many dramas with not quite enough variation in style. Having said that, he produces at least one or two great scores per year and covers an impressive range of genres. His recent Airlines compilation is a superb compilation of his work. I hope a second volume with more concert works is on the way.

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21 hours ago, Jay said:

Powell certainly has more innate ability to write compelling film music.  In other words, he's more talented.

 

But Giacchino puts out more scores I enjoy listening to repeatedly.

 

This was really hard actually but this sums it up perfectly for me! 

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Powell for me.

 

He is like a perfect mix of my other 2 faves composers: JW and Zimmer. Powell match the orchestral might of JW with the "modern' sound of Zimmer. Add excellent themes and you have in my opinion the best active film composer.

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