I can never really answer this question since overrated is such a badly misused term. It should be a fairly objective critical evaluation, but it seems to have come to mean a score that others, usually a large number, hold in high esteem, but you personally don't. The reasons for that may be personal and subjective such as musical preferences along the line of liking or disliking a particular composer's music, failing to get a style of music or preferring a style such as tonal versus atonal, orchestral versus electronic, etc. I guess what I'm getting at is that the term "overrated" has become, well...overrated!
I really like some of the more lush, piano driven material from Conti, as well as the brass driven Classical stuff, but outside of that I cannot stand the contemporary Disco influences in the first three Rocky scores.
I'm saying it right now, I think "Gonna Fly Now" is corny, cheesy and poorly dated.
These were overrated until they won Oscars, setting off decades of backlash. I'd argue that both scores are, if anything, undervalued today if one gives straightfoward and objective consideration of their respective merits.
I'm wary of discussions of overrated/underrated. Overrated frequently means you're just tired of hearing about how "great" something is. I'm sure somebody out there thinks "The Mission" is overrated. He might even poseess ears. But I wager it's the kind of contempt brought on by familiarity, rather than a genuine critical assessment.
I love big, epic film music (particularly in the fantasy genre) but I've always found Shore's LOTR music dispassionate and bland.
But what makes them truly overrated is the "sacred cow" status in which they are held by many people. I've seen people behave like affronted religious zealots when I admitted I didn't think Shore's scores were that great.
I think there are some terrific pieces in there. It ain't Poledouris, but there are a handful of memorable themes that are cleverly exploited, and some strong, rousing action cues.
But when you listen to those scores in their complete form, a lot of it is musical wallpaper - somber, brooding cues that definitely create a mood and support the film, but don't really work as standalone music.
At the risk of sounding like Thor, the LOTR scores fare much better in an edited presentation.
I think there are some terrific pieces in there. It ain't Poledouris, but there are a handful of memorable themes that are cleverly exploited, and some strong, rousing action cues.
But when you listen to those scores in their complete form, a lot of it is musical wallpaper - somber, brooding cues that definitely create a mood and support the film, but don't really work as standalone music.
At the risk of sounding like Thor, the LOTR scores fare much better in an edited presentation.
For me the best composer for the Lord of the ring trilogy was Wojciech Kilar...
