The Last AirbenderLakeshore Records ****

Since his debut film, The Sixth Sense(1999), director M Night Shyamalan's career has gone into a steady tailspin with each subsequent projdect. In contrast, the career of Shyamalan's longtime composer, James Newton Howard, has blossomed, as his scoring continues to prove original and daring despite (because of?) Shyamalan's increasingly plodding film- making: The Village,in fact, is one of the veteran composer's career best. Newton Howard's new score for The Last Airbender,Shyamalan's latest clunker, is supremely accomplished and dynamic, effortlessly combining long melodic lines and sinuous rhythms with spare orchestration, brooding electronica, and ethnic instrumentation. Evoking the bright classicism of golden-age scorers (Korngold, Herrmann), this is a masterful score of remarkable dramatic power – unlike the rest of the film. See lakeshore-records.com

Download tracks:Flow Like Water, The Airbender Suite