Best Music:
James Horner, The Amazing Spider-Man
I have always and will continue to love and respect the work Danny Elfman did for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. To my mind, the rousing central theme Elfman composed will always stand as the definitive piece of Spider-Man music. But viewed purely as musical composition, James Horner’s score for The Amazing Spider-Man is superior, not only to Elfman’s work, but to any other film score this summer.
Horner perfectly tapped in to the emotions of the characters, composing a stunning array of deeply felt themes and motifs that affect the listener on ethereal levels. Horner paces his score meticulously, gradually introducing the building blocks of the music and expanding upon each element as the film moves along. By the end, Horner has a dizzying range of distinctive musical components working in harmony, and the effect is emotionally overwhelming. This is a fantastic score, one of the best of the last several years and a bright, shining highlight for Horner’s generally hit-and-miss career.
Check out the trailer for the film below:
Runners-Up: It’s impossible to measure the impact Hans Zimmer’s compositions for the Dark Knight trilogy have had on modern film music, and with The Dark Knight Rises, he cements the project as one of the greatest examples of long-form movie composition. Alexandre Desplat’s beautiful, lilting score for Moonrise Kingdom was an absolute pleasure, and Alan Silvestri did some solid, stirring work creating a memorable musical landscape for The Avengers.Â
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