A few other remarks. The fan-boy page clearly shows leanings towards the Golden Age, which is a style, not an absolute truth. So apparently it's ok to be biased, just as long as you agree with the people who write the reviews on this site. I'm not saying for instance Tiomkin wasn't a good film composer, I really like High Noon- the use of pedal point in the clock scenes and all the brass fanfares. Great stuff. But he had his shortcomings too. He invented Mickey Mousing I believe. There is no ideal, not one of the historical composers was perfect and they had something different to offer. The fan-boy page also slams Elfman, I'll back him up- he's a sophisticated composer. Maybe he doesn't have all the compositional tricks of Beethoven but once you understand classical you realize these techniques aren't necessarily "better," they are just another way to create interest, Elfman relies more on strength of themes than on sequencing for 20 measures (though in the original Batman, I guess you could call that endless repetition a sequence). If this sounds simple, try to compose a catchy theme, it's quite difficult. And if someone respects Elfman that doesn't make him unsophisticated or uncultured. Anyways, all of this means you might have to come up with an opinion of your own instead of constant deference to perceived ideals. Deal with it.
By the way, the Batman Begins soundtrack is not bad writing at all- still useful. Get over your insecurities.
> "If Zimmer can't extend beyond this comfort zone for a big-name title
> soon, then he is coming dangerously close to outliving his usefulness in
> the action/fantasy genre."
> To the reviewer- I'm impressed, it sounds like you are a better film
> composer than Hans Zimmer. I'd like to hear what have you contributed to
> the action/fantasy genre lately?
> "there are brilliant young composers working today who don't have
> hangups about large orchestras, who don't work in a chaotic scoring
> environment, who don't rely on the talents of other composers, and who
> have already proven themselves to be masters of handling major/minor key
> creativity and complex variations of theme."
> There's no rule that that large orchestral sound, major/minor key usage,
> and thematic variation are the only effective ways to score. There's
> nothing wrong with those techniques, they work. Maybe you could be open to
> other possibilities (even if you don't think they work in this case). I
> think this review shows bias towards a particular style. Maybe everyone's
> cool with that. I'm just saying... 
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