“What so many modern movies feature as music is a tuneless, thin, watercolor wash — musical doodling. It’s wallpaper music, music without a profile. I defy anybody to whistle a theme from any of the Lord of the Rings movies, which is precisely the kind of moviemaking that demands a great score. Even the occasional modern movie that summons some primal force, such as the recent King Kong, labors beneath a James Newton Howard score that’s thin gruel — not terrible, not inappropriate, but pallid compared to the force of the images.”