John Williams is past his prime.

[Darth Tater]

I really hate to say it, but I was just listening to some clips from the soon to be released Harry Potter soundtrack, and I finally accepted the fact that the man has no creativity left in him. Everything he does is now the same. It used to be great, but really, you can get tired of the same score stuck on every movie! It's time for Hanz Zimmer and Howard Shore to take over

[noldo]

I agree, it was in the score of Episode 1 I discovered he had truly lost something.

[IronParrot]

John Williams is past his prime, but is still one of the foremost composers out there. I think what he's lost is the stereotypical JW "style" - hummable motifs that everyone recognizes.

What do people remember most about scores? Themes. And for a while, that was JW's foremost talent.

I'd say that there are two things we need to take into account: 1) his current scores have yet to stand the test of time - some grow on you, while you grow out of some. 2)

Take the score to Saving Private Ryan, for example. I thought it was contextually very fitting. However, is "Hymn to the Fallen" the kind of theme that even people who haven't seen the movie can recognize? Not really. Same with, say, the themes to The Patriot or A.I., two films that weren't received as widely, whose themes are long enough that it takes multiple listens to identify them clearly... though once identified, they are indeed quite beautiful.

What you gradually see is decreasing memorability in JW's themes due to increasing melodic complexity. "Anakin's Theme" in TPM is probably my favourite example of this.

The same will probably apply to the Harry Potter score, which I am actually fairly optimistic about - in fact, at this point, it's the thing about the HP film I'm most certain will turn out well.

"Everything he does is now the same."
Um, please substantiate... I'd say he's broadening into unfamiliar or uncharacteristic territory more than ever now (A.I. the most prominent recent example), and the fact that he is straying from what he does best is the cause of his supposed decline.

Regarding the other composers:

Hans Zimmer is far too inconsistent. He's put out two absolutely wonderful scores - The Lion King and Gladiator - but he doesn't have as much of a stable track record... Pearl Harbor's score was rather bland and contextually inappropriate, and I seriously hope Zimmer learns a lesson from that with the Black Hawk Down score...

Howard Shore, I'll talk to you about in a month. Stylistically speaking, he has never done a film like LOTR before.

[Darth Tater]

True, but then again Shore's produced some incredible stuff to go with not so great movies.

In regards to Zimmer: quite frankly, who cares about his failures? With a score like Gladiator under his belt none of his other work matters.

It is true that JW has done some work with styles and sounds that are a bit different then his previous pieces. The obvious examples are Angela's Ashes, where he finally figured out how to work with Celtic music, and AI, where he did something very scary which I don't even wanna talk about ;)

But what I'm saying is that all his stuff has the same feel to it. Sure, the instruments may change, but all his pieces try to evoke the same moods. The last brave move he made in a soundtrack was the chorals in Dual of the Fates, his last great peice of music. Since then, he's been beating that horse to death as well. Take a listen to the HP soundtrack clips and you'll see what I mean.

[Bregalad]

I agree with you, Darth. (Hey! We actually agree! <giggle>) I think that John Williams is past his prime, or maybe, he's just stretched himself too thin. The Harry Potter soundtrack did not bother me as it did you, I did find it suitably unobtrusive. But I did not find it especially memorable, except for one or two themes. It certainly was nothing like the score for the original Star Wars, or my personal favorite of his works, Hook.
You know that my personal favorite composer right now is Danny Elfman. Anything you hear today that is appropriate, immaginative, memorable and fun has been done by Danny Elfman.

For those of you not familliar with his work, here are a few of his credits:
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Beetlejuice
Batman
Dick Tracy (bad movie, good soundtrack)
Edward Scissorhand's
Nightmare Before Christmas (brilliant!)
Men in Black (also brilliant)
Sleepy Hollow

not to mention The Simpsons and Tales from the Crypt, both very memorable themes.