> Warning: No The Fall Guy, but still may
> include gaslighting

Damn, I'm never going to live that one down, am I. But anyone who puts At World's End in its rightful place on this list is welcome to gaslight me a bit from time to time.

> That’s Spider-Man 3 as it pertains to Young’s original scoring, not
> the later Debney / Lurie partial replacement work. Hopefully La-La Land
> continues releasing the franchise’s albums at its current pace and
> announces this for Black Friday 2026.

Due to the law change in 2005 making reuse fees for LA-recorded scores significantly more expensive, I wouldn't hold your breath.

> I really don’t listen to Angel as much as I should.

Top of my catch-up playlist, but knowing my own taste, quite likely fated to end up such a score for me as well even if I do end up rating it this highly.

> Michael Giacchino’s three prior Medal of Honor scores are terrific,
> but - perhaps thanks to the intervening years of Lost and
> Mission: Impossible - this year’s Airborne was the first
> score in the franchise that sounded much more like Giacchino’s own voice
> than it did the Williams homage of the earlier trio.

In my expanded field of candidates to explore over the next few weeks, so I'm curious as to whether this will end up being a positive or negative compared to the original three scores.

> Joe Hisaishi’s mighty “greatest hits”-style The Legend

Hope to check this one out too. I noticed that Jon Broxton ranked it but titled it The Story of the Great King and the Four Gods, but they are the same thing, so I hope the other JB is aware!

> Mark McKenzie’s sometimes compelling The Last Sin Eater

Probably didn't mean it that way but this is a fine example of damnation by faint praise

> David Holmes’ franchise finale Ocean’s Thirteen

Happened to watch this on a flight recently and that reiterated my opinion that while Holmes' scores for these flicks are perfectly functional in generating the requisite heist atmosphere, I find them so inert that I don't think I could rate them nearly so high. There's no sense of momentum whatsoever, it's just funky library music. They strike me a bit as proto-Pemberton scores without nearly as much dynamism (though offhand I can't actually recall if I liked Pemberton's own Ocean's entry any better).

> ***½ (round down to 3 stars): John Powell’s The Bourne Ultimatum

Damn, bit harsh. Below an Ocean's score is rough work. But perhaps ultimately fair if based on just the regular album and/or film context. Unfortunately a couple of this score's better action cues can be heard in neither; Greengrass developed a nasty habit of replacing original cues with temping from the prior two entries, perhaps the beginning of the end for his collaboration with Powell. Check this out - while a bit more-of-the-same, it's got energy to spare: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y690no3BBTM

> Howard Shore’s Soul of the Ultimate Nation.

Had this as a 2006 score in my list for some reason. Add it to the longlist!

> ***: Alan Silvestri’s Beowulf

Spoilers: will end up much higher on my list. Supremely guilty pleasure and a mode I badly miss from latter-day Silvestri.

> James Newton Howard’s Charlie Wilson’s War

And he shall purify

> Steve Jablonsky’s Transformers

Spoilers: will end up much higher on my list. Supremely guilty pleasure and a mode I badly miss from latter-day Jablonsky.

> Oh dear: Steve Jablonsky & Trevor Morris’ Command & Conquer 3:
> Tiberium Wars (quite possibly the worst score from the Remote Control
> brand across 2005-2012)

Spoilers: won't be on my list haha. Haven't heard it and you don't exactly make me keen to. My chief competitor for that title would likely be On Stranger Tides but that's more of a dislike on principle than a "this score contains nothing of merit" situation. I guess Badelt's Rebellion from 2011 would no longer be considered of the RC brand but it is certainly one of the worst scores I've heard from an RC or ex-RC composer, or indeed by anyone, ever.

> Epic fail: Harold Faltermeyer’s Two Worlds. When the legendary
> synth composer muses about how it would have been nice to score a movie
> like Pirates of the Caribbean, you can point to this work for why
> that likely would have been an abysmal idea.

Given our gracious host's conniptions over how the Pirates scores we did get turned out, a tiny part of me wants to see how he'd react to that hypothetical scenario