Music : Superman Returns

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Rating:

- AWSOME!! AAAAWWWSSSOOOMMMEEE!!!!!!
Damn this soundtrack is awsome!!! I absoulutely LOVE IT!!! THE MOVIE WAS ALSO EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rating:

- Great Score!!! John Ottman Knows his Stuff!!!!
This soundtrack i have to say is by far the best soundtrack since the original with John Williams. The best part is you can hear John Williams through-out the album so you dont feel like John Williams music is faded away. A Must Buy!!!! If you loved the movie and music get the soundtrack!!! Worth to get!!!!

Rating:

- This is an excellent musical score
This is an excellent musical score by John Ottman. He really takes the listener on an emotional rollercoaster. I love the track Main Title Superman theme. This track makes me feel brave and fearless. Bank Job is a nice track that conveys a sense of evil wrongdoing. Little Secrets and Power of the Sun conveyed the emotion of wonder and discovery. I could feel the tension mounting on the track Rough Flight. I felt a feeling of dread listening to the track So Long Superman. Another good track is Not Like The Train Set. I felt a sense of danger and struggle here. I really liked the track Fly Away. It sounds so peaceful and romantic. Saving The World has a very heroic and noble feel to it. I enjoyed listening to this score very much.

Rating:

- Superman Returns and So Do Williams' Themes
First of all, the prospect of taking on a film scoring assignment where the composer must make use of some of the most well known film themes in history is quite simply a thankless task. That said, credit must be given to John Ottman for accepting the job of scoring and adapting John Williams' monumental themes for this summer's "Superman Returns," and for doing a pretty good job with it all. Film history is full of examples where earlier themes had to be woven into new scores. Some worked and some did not. Franz Waxman was stunned to have to weave his friend's, Alfred Newman's, themes from "The Robe" into his own adaptation for "Demetrius and the Gladiators." Waxman's efforts were triumphant. David Arnold has done a fine job scoring the James Bond epics in the shadow of John Barry. And more in tune with this subject, Ken Thorne did an outstanding job of adapting Williams' "Superman" themes for "Superman II." Truth be told Ottman did a better job with his scoring for "Superman Returns" than the producers, writers, and director did for the film itself. Ottman's adaptations are fine, at least as good, if not better, than Thorne's efforts. In fact, he actually adds some new emotional life to Williams' music in places (note especially "Memories," and "Not Like the Train Set"), and his own music blends nicely with the adaptations. Overall, the score works to enliven the film and give it musical roots. It is also a very enjoyable soundtrack album. For this we say "thanks"! A good recording with some fun enhanced extras (do we really need these?) by Rhino/Wea., but a bit disappointing in the packaging.

Rating:

- Both the Superman Returns Score & Ottoman Unfairly Reviewed
I have looked at some of these reviews with great sadness. How can someone truly evaluate a score when they haven't even heard it?

Ottoman's work is a wonderful expansion of William's original score. Fans of the original Superman score will find all their original favorites there -- including the Superman Theme in all its glory. The other main themes from the original Superman theme, including "The Planet Krypton" as well as "Leaving Home" and "Can You Read My Mind?" are all to be found as motifs and new creations on the Superman Returns soundtrack.

I especially consider Ottoman's reweaving of "How Could You Have Left Us" as a wonderful expansion and reworking of "Can You Read My Mind?"... possibly as an improvement on the original theme given the expanded choral preformances and subtle changes in instrumentation.

If I had one theme that I wished Ottoman had included more in the film it would be the Smallville/Kent Farm theme of "Leaving Home" which can be found in the film, but it is sprinkled throughout here and there.

All in all, I highly recommend this score to fans of the original who can appreciate it as an EXPANSION but NOT a REPLACEMENT for the original soundtrack.

To those purists who have been so hard on John Ottoman (and Bryan Singer in general) I would offer this piece of advice -- lighten up. Is Ottoman John Williams? No. But he has made a wonderful start to improving the wonderful world of music which John Williams has created.

And to the reviewer who has slighted "younger" composers of today including Ottoman, Hans Zimmer, and Howard Shore... I don't think you are listening to the same instrumental soundtracks as the rest of us are. Great composers that will one day follow in Williams footsteps are around -- I specifically site Trevor Jones, Randy Endelman, Rachel Portman, Michael Nyman, and George Fenton among others. They just need to be given a chance to be appreciated in THEIR OWN RIGHT instead of being slammed for "not being INSERT COMPOSERS NAME."~

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