I actually didnt have a strong musical preference in film music until I started listening to his music, and then eventually his station on Pandora, which led me to like other types of instrumental music and then other genres of music like rock. I credit Zimmer for my love of film socres, he is amazing.
His music for Interstellar is breath taking. The Gladiator Soundtrack does that for me, as well.
That whole sequence on the water planet is just stunning.
Through most of this piece there is a single note played at a regular interval, indicating time on earth. The right hand starts at this timing then slowly speeds up, indicating the time dilation sensed on the ship as it has left earth. Then it goes batshit before it comes back to sync with the original timing.
While I agree that learning to read music is a life skill that is transferable, if you get too bogged down in learning music without actually playing an instrument, then you'll quickly burn out on the entire thing.
There's something to be said for learning an instrument by repetition while at the same time learning the music that complements it. It gives you that drive to continue, while also helps you slowly pick up music.
Most film music is heavily inspired by late 19th century composers. Dvorak, Rachmaninov, even Brahms. This particular music reminds me a lot of Chopin's raindrop prelude in d flat. The way Zimmer uses that constant E throughout the piece is very reminiscent of Chopin's constant A-flat. After the 'A' section (or exposition, whatever you want to call it) Chopin repurposes the A flat into G sharp and modulates to G sharp minor, a huge distance from d flat major in key relationships. It's pretty amazing.