I was perusing YouTube this afternoon and came across a couple of action soundtracks -- the Bond film Skyfall and the soundtrack to the game Halo 4. As I listened to one and then the other, all I could think of was that these two scores were completely interchangeable. I was hearing very little in one that distinguished it from the other. I've already written about my hatred for all things Hans Zimmer, an a-melodic hack if there ever was one. But what is this trend for writing film scores that sound like they are for video games? Can no one write a melody anymore or a theme?
I realize the golden age of film scores is long past but why is it that Howard Shore can write what is, in effect, a large-scale symphonic tone-poem for the LOTR and Hobbit films and all others seem to be able to do is write cues that are loopable?
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