Auditory Expansion: Best Musical Scores of 2010

Sorry for the confusion, but I still have to see True Grit and Black Swan before posting the cinematography list, so this will do until then. 2010 wasn't quite as successful as it should have been in terms of films, but it undeniably was a fantastic year for music. This was confirmed from the beginning with Howard Shore's dark score for Edge of Darkness. The film failed on several counts, but the music wasn't one of them. John Powell, whose scores have been consistently exciting and entertaining, churned out him best work to date attached to How to Train Your Dragon. Danny Elfman had a bad year, first with the complete failure of The Wolfman, but I liked his score for the ill-formed Alice in Wonderland.

James Newton Howard had even worse luck, working on rather pedestrian scores for Salt, Love and Other Drugs, and The Tourist. The best work he made this year was, regrettably, his score for The Last Airbender, which sucks because the score was so fantastic, but the film so abysmal. If the film turned out to be good, James Newton Howard would be nominated for an Oscar this year. A few secretive gems include Nigel Godrich's score for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and Daft Punk's electrifying work on TRON: Legacy. True Grit and Black Swan got sadly sidelined from the Oscar race for Original Score the other day, but they're more than worthy of note. Biggest failure in this category this year was John Debney whose massive failures with Iron Man 2 and Predators just brought those films down. The most successful composer was surely Alexandre Desplat, but more about him later on.

3. Let Me In by Michael Giacchino

There are very few horror films that have an effective emotional core attached to them, which is probably the main reason that Michael Giacchino was brought in to work on this score. There's also his previous experience of working with director Matt Reeves, but when news broke out that he was doing the score, it was a lot easier to put my faith in this film. I'll agree that it took some time for the score to synchronize with film, but I blame that a bit on the editing. The score itself is hauntingly beautiful, with tracks like Sins of the Father and Polling for Owen building intrigue and suspense. It's sometimes joyful and happy with tracks like A New Day On an Old Lake. Then we plunge right back into the spine-tingling horror roots, and the best example of that is the best track of the score, Dread on Arrival. End Credits beautifully caps off everything with a tragic melody that hints at the truth of the rest of Owen's life. The score is a powerful extension of the film, and that's what the definition of any effective score should be.

2. Toy Story 3 by Randy Newman

I haven't the slightest clue why Randy Newman's work on the latest and last installment in the Toy Story saga is being so minimalized by people when it comes to the Original Score category. The man has always put together wonderful and heartfelt tunes, and I know the songs are what he's best known for. However, he really pushed the envelope this time around, and brought as much closure and excitement as a soundtrack can give you. The opening number of Cowboy brings you into the fold with an extraordinary sense of wonder. Then it brings you a little further down to earth before grounding you. It builds up as the film goes on, gets really exciting when To The Dump hits, and then climaxes with the breathtaking and tear-jerking The Claw. It ends on a beautifully soft note with So Long, and it eases you into the inevitably end of this franchise. It's sweet, emotional, and weaves in some core themes from past installments. A worthy closing.

1. Inception by Hans Zimmer

Definitely the most expansive and revolutionary soundtrack of the year came in the form of Hans Zimmer's score for Inception. Rather than go the easy route and create something that merely fit the film, Zimmer decided to do something new, which caused a bit of worry when the word "electronic" was used to describe his work. Fret not, because using the advanced medium does not detract from Zimmer's natural talent to register excitement and emotion. The first track that leaked out was a portion of The Dream Is Collapsing, which soon became the main theme for the film. It's not an easy theme to start humming, and it exists on so many different levels and layers, just like the dream world of the film. That sort of theme continues, and it's hard to find a legitimate climax of this soundtrack, because it sustains the excitement through. It's a success on every level, from the amazing action tracks like Mombasa, to the deep and emotional chord that Time creates. Every scene in the film is amplified by the work, and the experience becomes something else entirely than what it was before.