The postproduction troubles with the score for Spider-Man 2 were the stuff composer's nightmares are made of. Director Sam Raimi became overly fond of a temp score populated by Danny Elfman’s music from the first film as well as the fearsome choral music from Hellbound by Christopher Young for the early fusion accident scene that creates Doc Ock. Raimi was on a family vacation during the recording sessions, and when he returned he tossed a good chunk of Elfman’s score (some of those discarded compositions still made the original album program) in favor of the temp from the 2002 movie, including obnoxiously its fire battle music during the second film’s fire rescue scene that puts the Green Goblin’s theme into a moment having nothing to do with him. Young was brought in for two parts of the film; his Hellbound-like music really does overwhelm the fusion scene, but his energetic train chase music (with a few Elfman theme cameos, a nice touch) works quite well. Two of John Debney’s three contributions are fairly anonymous conversational cues, but the Silvestri-like action ruckus Raimi wanted for the opening pizza delivery scene was a bit big for the moment.

Elfman’s full score as composed was unable to avoid a few moments of cut-and-paste from the first film, but there’s still a lot of interesting new material to explore on La-La Land’s recent expanded album program. His original pizza delivery cue is more appropriate for the scene. His original Doc Ock creation music would've been a vastly more intelligent introduction to the character (with Elfman’s theme starting in a rare major key performance before sliding down to minor key), and the full score adds several fun appearances of both the villain's theme and the secondary eight-note motif for his mechanical arms. The climactic Armageddon is revised and expanded on relative to the original album track, and the result is superior here. The composer even took a pass at writing two montage pieces that were replaced by Hold On and Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head in the final cut of the movie, and while those song choices worked well it’s still fascinating to hear Elfman’s take on the scenes (the piano run in Happy Montage is especially delightful).

****½ for the score as originally written. Something decidedly lesser for the Frankenstein monster that followed it, though it is great to finally have a legitimately released version of Young’s train music.

A longer presentation of the score did leak out as a bootleg years ago, though this new release has even more music than that, not only because of the inclusion of several alternates but also because its version of On the Case (a terrific action cue partially unused in the film) is 30 seconds longer. The liner notes emphasize track-by-track theme appearances, but they lack the detailed comments that Elfman and others provided for the label’s expanded Spider-Man release two years ago. Whether this is due to the aforementioned challenges with making the score or Elfman’s more recent personal issues is unclear.

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Prior 2024 album posts
- Live and Let Die - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=131612
- Octopussy - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=131627
- Hellboy II - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=131961
- HTTYD: The Hidden World - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=132742
- Top Gun - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=132758
- Rock-a-Doodle - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=132825
- Something Wicked This Way Comes - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=134359
- Night Passage - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=134397
- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=134671
- Backdraft - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=134759
- Nightbreed - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=134774
- Scorpio - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=134915
- Star Wars: Rebels S3 & S4 - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=136026
- You’re Not Elected, Charlie Brown - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=136088
- For Love of the Game - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=136102
- Eye of the Needle - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=136116
- Dinosaur - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=136878
- Torn Curtain - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=136901
- Goldfinger - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=137378
- Jurassic Park III - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=137846
- The Godfather Part II - https://www.filmtracks.com/scoreboard/forum.cgi?read=137847