10 Awesome Musical Scores That Deserved Better Movies

Dark Phoenix is unquestionably a complete dud of a movie, a limp, lifeless and unengaging ending to Fox's enormously up-and-down X-Men series.

OK, well, maybe not a complete dud, though, because buried amongst the flat visuals and disinterested performances there's Hans Zimmer's score.

Zimmer, who lost his way somewhat on Batman v Superman (leading to a premature declaration that he was retiring from composing for superhero movies), returned to form with a propulsive synth and percussion-heavy score, with ominous strings suggesting a depth and complexity in the title character's theme that was not carried over to Simon Kinberg's writing.

The X-Men finale is far from the first time that a major composing talent has delivered music good enough to make you wish that you were watching a movie to match. No, there are stacks of disappointing movies where the music went above and beyond what the rest of the production delivered. These ten are just a few of the best examples.

Note: this article looks at music originally composed for the movies. While there are undoubtedly terrible movies with awesome soundtrack compilations of existing tracks (hello, Twilight franchise), that would be a list for another day.

It would be quite easy to fill this list up with sequels (and prequels) where the discrepancy between the superb music and the otherwise lacklustre movie lies in part in the score maintaining the high standards of the original even as the rest of the production goes into standard sequel decline. It would in fact be too easy. So that's not what the rest of this list will be. Nevertheless, it would be remiss not to include the most egregious example of this trend.

Recent years have seen a perhaps overdue re-evaluation of the relative merits of the Star Wars prequels against the viscerally negative initial fan response. Nevertheless, it's probably still reasonable to see The Phantom Menace as largely a failure with its stronger moments more than balanced out by hugely misjudged elements like a racially dubious comedy sidekick.

One thing both detractors and apologists can all agree on, though, is the soaring brilliance of John Williams' score. From the start of Star Wars in 1977, Williams' rousing orchestral sound has delivered instantly classic and iconic themes and, even in the franchise's low point, he could still pull it out of the bag.

Williams earns his fee for the thrilling Duel Of The Fates alone, one of the best bits of Star Wars music.

He may have received his habitual Oscar nod that year for Angela's Ashes, but it's the music of The Phantom Menace that has really stood the test of time and the turbulent reputation of the movie it accompanies.