I'll begin by saying that I grew up loving scores by John Williams, Hans Zimmer, James Horner, and Patrick Doyle. I was born in '92 and most of my childhood consisted of watching and re-watching the original Star Wars, Lion King (broadway and film), Broken Arrow, Gladiator, and Branagh's Shakespeare films.

In the mid-2000s I became a strong Zimmer fan. I loved that his reputation spanned over many of the films I knew and loved. I'll shamefully admit that I once loved his Batman and Inception scores, and I hated this site for rating them poorly. Eventually, I smartened up, since liking Zimmer's poor scores seemed to betray the brilliance Williams, Shore, Giacchino, and Desplat put into their scores. Besides, Zimmer had a lot more to offer back in the day than he does now (I just re-watched "A League of their own" with the knowledge that he scored it and I love it!).

Anyway, from a young Zimmer fan who doesn't know squat about music, I'll just say I agree with the rating and rationale of this review. I'm glad our opinions correlated. I believe the highlights of the score are Murph, Tick Tock, Detach, and the latter half of Coward, just as you do, for the same reasons. A few underhanded references to the Thin Red Line tugged on my heartstrings though, since I hold that score dear to my heart.

I think Zimmer responded directly to your demands for high strings and woodwinds, since they were far more prevalent in Interstellar. In regards to simplicity of thematic constructs, which is a constant problem in the Zimmer/Nolan partnership, I think the problem rests more on the director than Zimmer. Take a look at the scores in Nolan's previous partnership with David Julyan. Nolan wants atmospherics. He may be a great writer/director, but he should direct his composers a lot better. Regardless, Zimmer should also be more assertive if he really wants to venture into new territory.

The future may be brighter for our dear friend Hans; perhaps not if he continues composing for Zack Snyder though. He is a poor director, musically and otherwise. Watchman was only decent because he copied it word for word from the comic. And Zimmer dividing the music for Superman v Batman with Junkie XL?!?! There may be a few bumps in the road ahead.