Marvel Cinematic Universe: Soundtrack Scores Ranked From Worst To Best
4. Doctor Strange
The score to Doctor Strange exists, much like the sorcerer supreme himself, in a world of its own. Sharing rather a lot with the psychadelic influences (more on that coming), it is designed not just for the film on screen, but also for a darkened room full of incense, cushions and whatever substances are legal in the listener's area.
Michael Giacchino is one of the most innovative composers working in Hollywood today, scoring things from Lost, to Star Trek, to several of the Marvel films. His score for Doctor Strange owes a nod or two to David Arnold's Sherlock soundtracks, but in fact owes (deliberately) an awful lot to the acid-rock of Pink Floyd.
There is a long-standing connection between the comic and the band. Pink Floyd's second album, A Saucerful of Secrets, featured the sorcerer supreme on the album cover. The band's soundtrack to the now little remembered film More also name drops Doctor Strange in the lyrics, and the film repays the favour by inserting Interstellar Overdrive into the film.
Connections to Pink Floyd aside, the film manages to keep its head above water in so far as its connection to the rest of the MCU. Where there is a tendency to fall into the house style with the bigger action cues, Giacchino seems to deliberately veer away from this in not just his compositions but also his choice of instrumentation. This score is one of the more unique in the series.