Is Hans Zimmer overrated as a movie composer?

San Francisco Chronicle​

19-05-2025

Dear Mick: So glad to see Rachel Portman as your first choice among film composers — mine also. But it seems impossible to list even just a few good film composers and still leave out John Barry, James Horner and Hans Zimmer.
Wyn Wachhorst, Atherton
Dear Wyn: James Horner ('Titanic') was good. Barry was good too, though I tend to think of him only in connection with James Bond. As for Zimmer, he is a fine composer — his score for ' Dune ' was the best and most important element in that movie. But for the most part, I associate Zimmer with a lot of movies I either don't like (the ' Dark Knight ' trilogy) or actively detest, such as the ' Pirates of the Caribbean ' and the ' Transformers ' series.
Over the years, I've just seen too many awful action sequences underscored by Zimmer's horns of hope to want to hear more. It's not his fault. They bring him in to dress up garbage. But you know how it is: When you're dressing up garbage, it's hard to keep the stink from rubbing off on you.
Hi, Mick: Last night, some friends and I gathered to watch a 2024 Guy Maddin film, 'Rumours' that had received critical raves. Over the closing credits, I asked the most cinematically insightful among us to please explain what we had just spent two hours viewing. He yelled, 'That was the worst (expletive) movie I've ever watched!' I seconded his (e-)motion. Are you familiar with this film?
Ben Bayol, San Francisco
Hi, Ben: Yes, and it's definitely not the worst (expletive) movie I've ever watched, but that's because I've watched lots of bad (expletive) movies.
Interestingly, I saw ' Rumours ' under the best possible circumstances, following an award ceremony for Cate Blanchett at the San Sebastian Film Festival. The whole audience was primed to have a good time, but after 45 minutes, I walked out of it. It wasn't terrible, but it just wasn't good.
Weeks later, I did end up watching the whole thing, because I was reviewing it. The main problem with the movie is that everything it has to say, it says in the first half hour, and after that it's the same joke, played over and over.
Why did critics mostly go easy on it? First, I assume most of them genuinely liked it, or at least have a positive history with Maddin's other movies. Second, it's a sincere attempt to do something good. It's not cynically made, and it's not horrible. It's about world leaders who can't find their way out of the woods, and in that way, it's a little like a satire by Luis Buñuel, only not that funny or entertaining.
The title also bothered me. The movie wasn't about rumors, and that title, 'Rumours,' especially with that spelling, means only one thing — the 1977 Fleetwood Mac album. It would be like calling a movie 'Dark Side of the Moon.' The name is taken.
Dear Mick LaSalle: More and more films are coming out in only Blu-ray form. Is it time for me to invest, or will this too pass?
Robert Freud Bastin, Petaluma
Dear Robert Freud Bastin: I admit that I probably live in a bubble, but to my mind the time to invest was about 10 years ago. But it's not too late. Make up for lost time. Blu-ray players play DVDs too, so it's not like you're buying something you might not be able to use. And you can get one for less than $100, so invest is probably too big a word for what we're talking about here. So please, by all means, go for the gusto. Throw caution to the wind. Take the bull by the horns. Seize the day.
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