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I'm very much afraid you may be projecting an ironic point of view that didn't come to be part of ...well, pretty much modern lifestyle until the nineties on a seventies project.

While of course 1978's Superman winks heavily at Supes' boy scout image (and even manages the work in the "truth, justice and the American way' line without it sounding insanely jingoist and anachronsitic), Superman (the film)'s strength lies in its sincerity. This is NOT the camp Batman of the sixties, NOR the veritably irony-laden, one-liner spouting heroes of the nineties. This is honest. This is awe-inspiring. "You *will* believe a man can fly!"

Of course it's not to be taken seriously.
It's about a super powered alien, for God's sake!
But that doesn't mean it's automatically ironic.

For a true (if rather over the top) ironic musical statement, check out Williams' work on 1941.
The title march is a massive send-up of American military music of the forties.

NP: The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep - James Newton Howard

Howard's last truly great score.

-Erik-

Tongue in cheek?! Nah! It's heroic, patriotic, exciting, powerful. Everything that embodies Superman is in that music. Williams held nothing back! It's not goofy, cheesy or comical. It's film music perfection.

-Erik-

Actually the way I hear it to me proves the perfection even more.

A list! Great idea, Steven! My favorite three scores from 2013 are.

1. AFRICA - Sarah Class
2. GAGARIN: FIRST IN SPACE - George Kallis
3. EPIC - Danny Elfman

To Christopher's post:

I really liked the clips of the Kallis score I heard.

I'd agree if we're talking about the score as heard on the album, but given a few cuts and reshuffling here and there, it really does make a great 40 minute album. One of the biggest mistakes was to put the suite at the start.

I'm am talking about it on CD (in your order as well) and in the GOD AWFUL film. Here was a chance for Howard to write the grand daddy of all fantasy adventure scores with multiple, lyrical, long lined themes for each of the elements and what do we get? Well, not that.

Maybe my own presumptions are getting in the way of me enjoying the score the way you do but I'm sure you remember a time when shitty films of this sort had gorgeous scores full of lyrical themes... BEASTMASTER 2, LEGEND, KRULL, etc.

-Erik-

I'm going to give it another chance after I'm done with Kevin Kaska and John Debney's excellent score to LAIR. I haven't listened to Howard's score since it first came out.

-Erik-

Definitely that's a conventional difference, though I don't think that the Superman theme is comic-book like. I don't know why, but I do sense a bit of a sincere wink to the audience, though.

It's not a realism vs. older conventions, I think. I mean, I think the strength of the Donner film is that it combines a true heart and sensitivity with the awareness of having an absurdly optimistic and positive character at heart of the story. The dialogue between Lois and Superman which I quoted in another thread (which gave me a good natured laugh for the rest of the helicopter rescue sequence, mostly due to the brilliance of Lois' realization and the word play taking place) shows that the filmmakers were much aware of things that were happening on screen with a real almost romantic and sincere heart.

With all the potential cheesiness the story had (also conveyed by Hackman's hilariously over the top - though never crossing the line somehow! - Lex Luthor) a sense of being self-aware of that cheesiness. I think this is the biggest strength of Donner's film. I think what makes it that more believable is that we know they know some of the ideas presented are downright silly.

One of things I didn't say in that post where I discussed the differences was something that shocked me when I watched the Donner film right after Snyder's (I saw the 1978 film long time ago, but Man of Steel made me want badly to watch it again, I also had to compare certain scenes for the sake of analysis of the score) and that is how Snyder's film, with all the development of CGI, special effects, is at times much more... straightforward in certain scenes. I hope this won't be much of a spoiler, because it's something both movies share - first the "execution" of Zod and his men - in the 1978 movie they made it basically a huge effect sequence, using some kind of projection effects, I'd like to know how it was made at the time with the glass featuring screaming faces (was the crystal thing the Phantom Zone already?), in the new movie they are taken over by something and just vanish. Another thing was the Fortress of Solitude - Marlon Brando's face superimposed over the set of the Fortress as opposed to basically interacting with a hologram... basically normal actor on actor filming (no effects whatsoever).

Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine - Sol Kaplan

To my ears easily the best original Star Trek soundtrack ever created. What a shame Kaplan didn't get to do any more episodes! I love the growling theme for the Planet Killer and the dramatic sequences for Decker and the Constellation.
In fact, this may well be my favourite oldskool Trek, period: both music, story and flow work REALLY well in this one.

Decker? The Star Trek: The Motion Picture Decker?!

Which is exactly what I meant? Though possibly I called it irony wrong, what I definitely meant it's not a theme (or score) taking itself seriously.

I think the sense of gravity of the new Superman movie is one of its downfalls.