'Super 8' - Michael Giacchino In my opinion this film seemed to be a merge between 'The Goonies', 'E.T.' and Abrams' TV series, 'Fringe'. The interesting storyline lent itself to a huge palette of possibilities in terms of the film score's soundtrack. Yet, I must say I expected more from recent Oscar sensation, Mr Giacchino. His orchestral scoring was traditional, and the epic narrative codes were mostly effectively applied. Yet there was, for me at least, a lack of integrity in terms of the music and film marriage. Why I say this is because I often would question the role of the music in this film in terms of its placement at times and also it's effectiveness in co-existing with the film's narrative. Something was missing. I did hear attempts of references to John Williams' idiosyncratic style (in terms of middle ground woodwind ornamentation while strings and percussion create a counter texture), yet in my opinion, this 'form' could have been muscled out with at least one unique melodic-harmonic-rhythmic-timbre-tempo-dynamic bound signifier, which is typical of successful and memorable audio brands. Beyond this then the various theme-and-variation etc techniques lend themselves seamlessly to create a memorable sonic experience, co-existing meaningfully with the film.

'Captain America' - Alan Silvestri When I was a teenager I became aquinted with Mr Silvestri's music for numerous Hollywood films in the 1990's, and haven't yet heard of John Williams though I could sing all the audio brands from Star Wars, Indiana Jones, etc. After a seemingly long absence from cinematic scoring Mr Silvestri has returned recently and is brining back a certain epic feel to film scoring again. One can't deny that as film media and demographics change so too will film scoring yet the anchoring codes are best utilized by those - like Mr Silvestri - who indeed is a master craftsman. Having said that, I do feel that the lack of an identifiable audio brand makes this score seem a bit lackluster. Yet, perhaps the Studio or the Director insisted on a purely mood-bound score as opposed to thoroughly 'narrated' scoring process.