Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer are very good composers, but Zimmer is probably the most imitated in terms of the use of low horns and strings blended with synthesizers. Gladiator, Sherlock Holmes, Driving Miss Daisy and Crimson Tide were noted scores. If you listen to the score to Man Of Steel, you could hear a snippet of music from Broken Arrow. Not unusual since other composers use parts of previous work to enhance the score.
Danny Elfman has sort of slowed down when he DoD films like Milk and Dark Shadows. He should be given another action adventure score and he would be back in form like he was in the 90's. I understand how you feel. Back in the 80's it took me a while to get into Jerry Goldsmith. I met a guy who was a big Goldsmith fan. But at that time, Goldsmith utilized a lot of synthesizers in his scores and a small orchestra. The synthesizer did the work of a large orchestra. Maurice Jarre even used it in his Firefox and No Way Out scores. Hollywood had amusicians strike. Back to Jerry Goldsmith. I remember buying the soundtracks to Patton, The Twilight Zone: The Movie, Gremlins and Poltergeist. I listened to Poltergeist and Twilight Zone in the dead of night and I was scared shitless. I had underestimated maestro Goldsmith and began to study his style, approaches and delivery. He was a man who used the music to get inside of a scene. He knew the precise moment to let the listener have and sometimes he'd use everything to give you a new experience. I have studied other composers and sometimes I could tell bu the approach in the music which composers it is. This is why film music is one of my great loves. It can take you to many places and it teaches you to listen closely. In the Shirley Walker score for Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Hans Zimmer played the synthesizer with a There in sound, offering a very creepy sound. I think you should listen not to make you feel a variety of emotions, but to experience the story as it is presented in the music.
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