Do you feel that the Lord of the Rings score could have been much better?

Yeah, I definitely felt that way after seeing the first two movies. Then I saw Return of the King, which I think was awesome and really elevated everything that came before it, including the music. I think the scoring in ROTK was spectacular. The lighting of the beacons music and the charge of the Rohan riders onto the field was especially good. With so much music there were bound to be some weak points. I didn't like the "Annie Lenox" motif and I thought the climactic music when the ring is destroyed sounds like a bad ripoff of the Sibelius 2nd. Anyway, I have complaints about lots of the themes in all the movies, but still I can't criticize Shore too harshly given the task he had. It was truly Wagnerian. To say he didn't do it as well as Wagner might have isn't helpful.