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Why is it that some movie soundtracks released are markedly (or even wildly) different than from what appeared in the actual movie?

For example, the music from the final battle in Independence Day is very different in the movie than it is on the CD - and of course, what's on the CD is superior.

Okay, I can understand "maybe they changed the soundtrack a bit after they made the CD master" or something like that. But then why are there soundtracks that outright omit huge swathes of music, like The Search For Spock and The Wrath of Khan? It's not even like they were hitting length limitations because each of those CDs only clocks in at something like 45 to 50 minutes, and it's not like it costs more to stamp a CD that has more music on it.

What's going on?

My suspicion is that the music score for the soundtrack needs to be edited and rewritten, and then re-recorded in order for it to sound coherent enough to put on CD, instead of merely being played in snippets during the film.

If the marketing people aren't too bothered with the soundtrack, then they'll just chuck in whatever music that can be ripped directly from the film.

In a word, reuse fees. Most film score CD's have about half of the music from any given film because it is just too expensive to pay the extra reuse fees to the orchestra. Fees in the UK and New Zealand/Australia are less than in the US, which is why you get longer releases when the performing orchestra is from those countries. It's the main reason why we have the really nice Lord of the Rings complete CD sets coming out (Fellowship of the Ring is out now and worth every penny).

Most "special editions" or "expanded editions" of American film scores appear about 15-20 years after the film itself comes out, when the reuse fees expire. Recent releases include Star Trek The Motion Picture, Superman the Movie, and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

I expect, eventually, we will get the complete scores to AotC and RotS, but for different reasons, since the London Symphony Orchestra was the performing group for all 6 SW films.

There's a great film score site out there called filmscoremonthly.com. They have many articles and forums about this subject, and if you are into film/tv scores, well worth your time.