2011 Movie Score Awards

Below you will find my personal awards for the year in movie music, followed by a quick rundown of the pool of scores I have listened to this year.  I have more from previous years if anyone is interested in the future.

Best Score: The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams)

Best Drama Score: Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli)

Best Animated Score: The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams)

Best Science Fiction/Fantasy Score: Battle: Los Angeles (Brian Tyler)

Best Action/Adventure Score: X-Men: First Class (Henry Jackman)

Best Horror Score: The Thing (Marco Beltrami)

Best Genre Score: War Horse (John Williams)

Best Composition: Remembering Emilie, and Finale from War Horse (John Williams)

Best Theme: Angelica from Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Hans Zimmer, feat. Rodrigo y Gabriela)

Best Love Theme: My Edward and I from Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli)

Best Action Sequence: World’s Worst Parking Valet from Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol (Michael Giacchino)

Best Use of Classical/Source Music: Wagner’s Siegfried’s Funeral Music in Captain America

Composer of the Year: Henry Jackman

The Scores:

The Adjustment Bureau (Thomas Newman) – Newman is never my first choice for an action score, but it works

The Adventures of Tintin (John Williams) – a little Catch Me If You Can, a little Harry Potter, worth the 3 year wait

Anonymous (Thomas Wander & Harald Kloser) – understated and not very memorable

The Artist (Ludovic Bource) – I understand where he was going with this, I just don’t think it made it there

Battle: Los Angeles (Brian Tyler) – my first favorite score of the year

The Beaver (Marcelo Zavros) – like too many scores this year, didn’t hate it but don’t really want to hear it again

A Better Life (Alexandre Desplat) – just when I think I’m loving this guy, he has some whatever scores

Captain America (Alan Silvestri) – really like the theme, but most of the rest is generic action music

Cars 2 (Michael Giacchino) – loved the British spy infusion

Conan the Barbarian (Tyler Bates) – hard not to compare it poorly to Basil Poledouris’s opus for Arnie’s version

The Conspirator (Mark Isham) – good enough, which is about the best I can ever say for Isham

Contagion (Cliff Martinez) – better than I expected, almost a John Murphy or Clint Mansell rip-off

Cowboys & Aliens (Harry Gregson-Williams) – I wanted this to be so much better than it was, not that it was bad

The Debt (Thomas Newman) – I think Newman did too much this year because it all kind of blends together

The Eagle (Atli Orvarsson) – not the best Roman score, but it’s pretty decent

Entre Lobos (Klaus Badelt) – the only foreign movie composer I actively seek out, not just because he posts his music online for free

Fast Five (Brian Tyler) – these movies have always had much better scores than the movies themselves

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) – I hated their music from last year so much that I decided to listen to the samples on iTunes, boy am I glad I didn’t do more than that, I understand wanting an atmospheric score, but how about one that isn’t atonal?

Green Lantern (James Newton Howard) – top-notch superhero score

Hanna (The Chemical Brothers) – tried to listen to it but couldn’t finish it

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Alexandre Desplat) – a solid end to the series

The Help (Thomas Newman) – Newman’s best of the year

I Am Number Four (Trevor Rabin) – Rabin still has some good notes but mostly forgettable

The Ides of March (Alexandre Desplat) – good, though not as much as The King’s Speech

Immortals (Trevor Morris) – 300 this is not, but still pretty good

In Time (Craig Armstrong) – good, but again not memorable

Ironclad (Lorne Balfe) – interesting take on Medieval movie music

Jane Eyre (Dario Marianelli) – how does he not get more work?

Kung Fu Panda 2 (Hans Zimmer & John Powell) – hard to go wrong with Zimmer and Powell

Limitless (Paul Leonard-Morgan) – surprisingly good action score from an unknown (to me at least)

Mars Needs Moms (John Powell) – much better than this movie deserves

Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol (Michael Giacchino) – Giacchino is easily one of the 3 best composers right now, and the best track titlist ever (From Russia With Shove, Moreau Trouble Than She’s Worth, etc.)

Moneyball (Mychael Danna) – I wanted this to be so much better

One Day (Rachel Portman) – I’d like to hear more of this, but what there is is quite good

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Hans Zimmer) – love the Spanish addition

Priest (Christopher Young) – if I were making a horror movie, Young would be my first choice

Puss in Boots (Henry Jackman) – Jackman has rocketed up my list of “must hear” composers

Rango (Hans Zimmer) – animated movies had some of the best scores this year, Rango was just average

Real Steel (Danny Elfman) – so good it almost made me want to see the movie

Rebellion (Klaus Badelt) – so understated you can barely hear it, which is not my cup of tea

Red Riding Hood (Brian Reitzell & Alex Heffes) – is this really the best they could do for this movie?

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (Patrick Doyle) – one of the strongest outputs of the year

The Rum Diary (Chirstopher Young) – Young’s jazzy scores are usually much better than this

Scream 4 (Marco Beltrami) – Beltrami has always been part of the reason this is one of my favorite movie series

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (Hans Zimmer) – not even close to as good as the original

Source Code (Chris Bacon) – a good, driving action score, looking forward to hearing more from him

Super 8 (Michael Giacchino) – Giacchino is clearly the best young composer going

There Be Dragons (Robert Folk) – I love the Spanish aspects of this score, it’s good to hear what Folk can do when given a chance

The Thing (Marco Beltrami) – Beltrami would be my second choice for horror movie scoring

Thor (Patrick Doyle) – there were few better musical moments this year than Thor getting his armor back

The Three Musketeers (Paul Haslinger) – essentially a cheap, inferior Pirates score

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Alberto Iglesias) – decent theme, otherwise forgettable (like much of his work)

Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Steve Jablonsky) – pretty much exactly what you expect

The Tree of Life (Alexandre Deslpat) – it’s good but hard to get in to

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (Carter Burwell) – better than Eclipse, but that’s not saying a whole lot

Unknown (John Ottman) – I’m guessing it’s fine in the movie but not much to listen to

War Horse (John Williams) – with Tintin, Williams came close to stealing the year

Water for Elephants (James Newton Howard) – not one of his best, but I guess ok

Winnie the Pooh (Henry Jackman) – his third best this year, but still better than most

X-Men: First Class (Henry Jackman) – blew me away, my favorite of the year, especially Magneto’s theme

Your Highness (Steve Jablonsky) – don’t waste your time