Well, it really depends on the quality of music in film and video game, and it also depends on what you appreciate in the OSTs in the first place, but I've noticed that films tend to have better soundtracks than video games for the most part.
It's simply because great film scores are leitmotivic (that is, they have certain themes for certain characters, locations, objects etc.) and most importantly these themes are developed as the narrative goes on, and thus music helps the film tell the story and give more depth to the overall narrative.
One of the best recent examples of this kind of leitmotivic approach is easily The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. If you listen to the Complete Recordings of each LotR film, you'll notice how subtly Howard Shore creates themes, uses counterpoint, develops the themes and motifs and builds a great underscore while toying with various ideas all the time. There's no dull moment in the CRs as they tell a story in a way only music can.
The problem with most video game music is that most of the time they don't have a leitmotivic approach and instead just use separate tracks which don't always help tell the story as consistently as a film score can (e.g. Ace Combat series soundtracks, although I'd say they do have some leitmotivic material but they're still mostly dominated by the 'individual track' approach anyway). Yes, the individual tracks can be great, but they rarely get developed and when they do, it seems almost artificial, although there are some exceptions to the rule.
It just depends on whether you prefer music to have a leitmotivic approach or not, but if you like consistent development, you won't find it in most video games. And it's understandable, because most games don't really need a leitmotivic approach in the first place. Music needs to change as you move from battle to a calm scene, for example, and this depends on how quickly the players does things, so you can't quite replicate the feel of a structured film score which is composed for a film that stays the same and doesn't change according to the one who watches the film.
However, this kind of trend is slowly changing. The video game soundtracks are becoming more like film scores (a good example is the recent video game score for Lair, composed by a prolific film composer John Debney), and in some recent films the scores aren't using the leitmotivic approach that much and instead rely on individual score tracks or songs to do the trick. As mentioned earlier, there are gems and duds in both, and once one realizes that films and video games are different from one another, one can understand the different approaches they often tend to have as far as music goes, although hybrid scores come about every now and then.
As good as Uematsu is, I prefer Williams for the reason that he's created scores that not only are consistent but also help tell the story. The way he structures his scores, constantly develops his themes and the underscore in general, and how he knows how to write for different instruments, shows his range of skill as a composer. Uematsu can do that too to an extent, but in my opinion he's a different kind of composer than Williams as far as the leitmotivic approach goes, so it's a bit hard to compare them in that regard.Originally Posted by The Ceej
Yes, Poledouris's score for that film was surprisingly good and certainly defined epic adventure scores for years to come. The robust tracks from orchestra and choir were great, and the main themes were wonderful as well. It's truly a classic soundtrack.
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