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• Jan. 18, 2011, 10:45 p.m. CST

  Great score

  by starmin76

  It plays like a darker counterpart to John Williams work in the first 3, but without Williams' tendency to beat you over the head with leitmotifs (a strategy that worked in many of his films, but felt overdone in the HP movies) Desplat has some great stuff here. My personal favorites are the Sky Battle and the "destroying the Locket" tracks.

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• Jan. 18, 2011, 11 p.m. CST

  I partly agree, starmin76

  by starlesswinter7

  I think your point about Williams beating audiences over the head with leitmotifs is true for the first two films, especially the second (but that's due to William Ross's adaptation of music...a lot of it is basically "cut and paste"). For instance, the first twenty minutes of SORCERER'S STONE has way too many statements of "Hedwig's Theme" - it just gets a little tiring. Williams' PRISONER OF AZKABAN score, on the other hand, is much more subtle. He has more variations of themes, rather than the simple statements of the first two films.

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• Jan. 18, 2011, 11:30 p.m. CST

  One of the biggest score disappointments of 2010

  by Nasty In The Pasty

  Desplat is a GREAT composer, but the TOTAL abandonment of Williams' themes (with no good new ones to replace them) just left me feeling deflated. I sold off the CD after a single listen. It's not as dire as the Nicholas Hooper scores for the fifth and sixth movies, but coming from Desplat, it should have been a home run.

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• Jan. 19, 2011, 12:34 a.m. CST

  Desplat was a huge improvement.

  by pushthebuttonmax

  We should all be thankful after those sorry excuses for scores in the last two films by Hooper.

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• Jan. 19, 2011, 8:26 a.m. CST

  There Was A Score To This Movie????

  by Graphix67

  Could have fooled me. Hopefully, Part-2 (with it's promised multiple battles) will actually be noticeable and enhance the visuals.

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• Jan. 19, 2011, 9:32 a.m. CST

  I thought it was okay. No one can touch JW though.

  by Snake Foreskin

  It's ridiculous to bother trying. Just re-use his music throughout the series. It'll work!

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• Jan. 19, 2011, 11:18 a.m. CST

  I agree, starlesswinter

  by mr_bellamy

  John Williams' score for POA was a masterstroke of musical storytelling, and a massive improvement over the first two, much like the film itself. I saw it again recently, and I marveled at the way he developed the "Window to the Past" theme, starting off slow and quiet, and bringing it out further and further during the scenes between Harry and Lupin, until that glorious final statement when Sirius flies away on Buckbeak. I haven't heard anything like it in the HP films before or since. <p><p> As for Desplat, I thought that this score was a good effort. As far as using the instruments to create a unique soundscape for the movie, it was on par with Williams' work. But even though his various themes are obvious on album, they didn't stand out in the slightest on film. I would have liked to see some melodic continuity throughout all of the films as well, which there has been precious little of since JW left.

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• Jan. 19, 2011, 2:49 p.m. CST

  The Muggles?

  by MajorFrontbum

  Do they support The Wiggles on tour? How lame.

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