I can remember listening to the score for The Rock and thinking 'OK, seems to work for the movie'. Then I heard the score for Man In The Iron Mask and thought 'that's insane, it's the same bloody score for a totally different movie???'. At that point I have to confess I started a bit of a hate / hate relationship with Mr. Zimmer - but over time my view has softened a bit.
I agree with previous posters who have pointed out Zimmer's pioneering work with his bank of Akai samplers and the creation of a new sound-world for filmscores. I respect any composer - or band for that matter who can be successful having created a 'sound' that they own. I do wonder however whether those beginnings and the risk aversion of the industry have painted him into a bit of a box. Even though he now has access to real musicians, he still produces a lot of stuff that would work well on an Akai S2000. But isn't that what his clients are paying him for? When you hire Hans Zimmer, you don't expect a score that sounds like Danny Elfman.
Maybe the Rock / Iron Mask thing that wound me up all those years ago is part of his risk management strategy - copy elements from the previous film(s) and add a new bit in each new project (maybe a new intern on the team?). Maybe he's progressing as fast as his clients will let him / are comfortable with? There are elements in Da Vinci Code which are a world away from The Rock (maybe not a world away from elements of Hannibal or The Dark Knight) - but his 'sound'(and chord sequences!) is what he's hired to reproduce. Goldsmith (unless you're a bit of a score geek) didn't have a signature sound as such, but was hired as a 'safe pair of hands' - different kind of risk management, a guy who has years of good scores in several genres behind him - and that allowed him the licence to experiment - his clients didn't expect him to replicate Planet of The Apes, just that he would come up with something appropriate and good.
That brings me to another point. I'm as guilty as the next composer of listening to scores critically as music, but it isn't really fair is it? - these guys were hired to underscore a movie and they're being paid for the 'movie + score combo' - so judging their craft only makes sense on that basis. If the end result is something like JW's Imperial March then the stand alone quality is a bonus.
Which brings me to JW. I'm not going to repeat the obvious already stated in this thread of examples - but anyone who doesn't respect his craft and contribution to film scoring is unlikely to find value in VSL either. I get really irritated when people say there's no place for melodic / noticeable music in films today or that we should be using sounds and frequencies to communicate with audiences as an emotional rather than intellectual level. What matters is what works - and I can't help but suspect that the real lack of appeal to this school of 'sound design is the new music' brigade is the rather irritating amount of training and years of experience it takes to have the skill to produce work like JW's. All that aside, anyone here who has had to produce a cue or God forbid entire score in the style of JW using only samples - even if you can replicate his orchestration theoretically - boy does that involve some hours of improvisation and tweaking. It is certainly easier to hold down a pedal point for 20 seconds with a Symphobia brass Sfz-cresc chord at the end of it instead. All I know is that I don't want to go see Indiana Jones without the JW approach to scoring.
I'm not saying there is no place for the 'sound design approach' - but it's 'horses for courses' Whatever approach you take it needs to work for the specific film in question and the director's vision for it. For some reason, Bernard H is the one composer everyone has to respect - and I for one agree that his Vertigo score is sublime. But I think his horse fitted Hitchcock's course - I'm not sure I want to live in a world where BH or JW scored everything, but I'm pretty glad they scored some things. I wouldn't want to have missed (musically) American Beauty, Beetlejuice, Independence Day, Van Helsing or even POTC.
Which brings me to my conclusion - Hans Zimmer is I suspect the right horse for certain courses. Did Pirates need BH? Did The Rock need JW - would Da Vinci Code have worked better scored by Korngold (not sure - but it would be cool to find out???). These days I can't remember having left a Zimmer scored film thinking 'well, Hans ruined that film-going experience for me!' but I can remember thinking 'this or that bit was pretty cool - I wonder how he did that...'
For the most part I think he writes appropriate music for the projects he is hired to undertake - so I'm reluctant to diss the guy, or any other composer who competently does what they're hired to do - maybe with a couple of moments I kind of wish I'd written myself.
However, if someone would like to start a James Horner bashing thread ... [;)]
David.