This is an NGADM Round 1 review.
--
This is definitely one of the strongest cinematic tracks of this round. That was beautifully-composed. Plenty of wonderful harmonies all over the place. I especially love your cadences. You end phrases with such lovely chords, such as at 3:19, and 1:34. Sure 1:34 was that really overused sus4 -> maj progression that I saw coming from a mile away, but it worked so well over there that I forgive you! Your thematic development is spot on. Everything feels perfectly developed, and if you were aiming for making a track that sounds cohesive, then you have certainly succeeded. Your leitmotif is highly memorable. I could go on and on about the little things I like about this track like how you toned all the rhythmic elements down in volume at 0:53, or the pause at 2:33 which led to a very uplifting reintroduction of your leitmotif, but then this review would turn out too long!
What I noticed which kind of ruined the feel of the track at times would be that your foreground orchestration ends up falling apart into blandness at times. You sometimes stick to the same instrument playing the melody for too long, and rarely introduce some counterpoint, layering more instruments or melody-answering by other instruments. 1:07, for example, starts getting bland halfway through because while all your underlying elements are excellent, the foreground instruments just remain the same for quite a while - 3:34 is an example of what I want to hear more; introducing a new instrument to everything to heighten the melody. Moreover, in the quieter parts you have strings playing almost all the time, whereas woodwinds could've worked a lot better sometimes. Some smaller issues; the pause at the very end felt a bit artificial. I wish your approach that wonderful outro was a bit more subtle, rather than stopping everything and then throwing it in. However, the actual ending is nailed.
Your opponent delivered an fantastic track, which is hard to compare with this. His had a few issues, so does yours. Thematically yours is better by far, but his production and originality trumps yours, so I think I'm going to give you both the same score!
Score: 8.6/10