Hans Zimmer 5.1

Instead of paying homage to John Williams' celebrated score for Richard Donner's 1978 Superman film, as composer John Ottman did with Bryan Singer's 2006 reboot Superman Returns, Hans Zimmer has crafted an entirely new set of themes for Man of Steel, director Zack Snyder's 2013 re-reboot of the franchise. Closer in tone to the composer's work on Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy, the 15-track Man of Steel is grittier and darker than any of its predecessors, due in large part to Zimmer's proclivity for non-stop, thunderous percussion, though it retains enough goose bump-inducing moments to be called a proper Superman score, especially on the elegiac "Look to the Stars" and its soaring counterpart (pun intended) "What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World?," both of which dutifully reflect the iconic superhero's propensity for both goodness and might. A Limited-Edition Deluxe version added bonus tracks.

No matter the lack of critical popular acclaim for director Akiva Goldsman's adaptation of Mark Helprin's novel Winter's Tale, the Hans Zimmer/ Rupert Gregson-Williams score is utterly worthy of the film, and also the novel itself. Full of classical and electronic textures, ambiences, and melodies that wed both the lyric themes of 19th century folk and classical music to the early 20th, these 14 cues are, by turns, delicate and dramatic, melancholy and romantic, spare and elegant. As a piece of music it stands on its own. The final track here is singer/songwriter K.T. Tunstall's "Miracle," written with A.R. Rahman specifically for the film. While it is dramatically different from the rest of the score, since it is the final track, it sums up the transcendent nature of the narrative.