The Missing Element

     

The first full trailer was released for Man of Steel today.  I am geeked to see it, no doubt.  Still, the trailer was missing something... that heart expanding score!  You know it!  There is something about those horns blaring out that classic Williams' theme that causes the adrenaline to kick in!

It made me think think about other movies of recent years.  To be honest, a lot of great movies lately have lacked an easily recognizable, tell-tale theme,  that begins playing in your mind's memory at the merest mention of the movie title.  When I was a kid, associating a movie with its score was normal.

For example, clear your mind and think of:

Rocky

You heard it, didn't you?  Now try:

Star Wars

Or how about:

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Heck, even:

Halloween

The list could go on:  Star Trek, Jaws, Close Encounters, ET, James Bond.....

You left the theater humming the tunes of these movies.  I remember walking home from the Hampton theater in Rochester as a kid, trying to keep the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme in my head.

However, it seems a lot of the super-hero and modern sci-fi flicks are lacking in this department.  I enjoyed Thor and Captain America... but I couldn't hum two bars of their themes.  The Avengers may have been one of the best comic book films to date... but nada on the the music score.  Inception was amazing... do you remember a tune?  Me neither.  Harry Potter is memorable... but I am reaching all the way back to 2001 for that one.

Has the score for  a movie become less important... or is my view slanted by age?