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Review of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Daniel Pemberton)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... even if it means giving this concept's music a second
chance, Daniel Pemberton discovering a much better balance of accessible
drama and contemporary attitude in this sequel score.
Avoid it... if the mere continued presence of heavy manipulation, record scratching, and wailing elephant effects in this score's hip portions make you audit your inventory of pain pills.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: (Daniel
Pemberton) After almost universal acclaim for the radical departure from
the core concept in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,
Sony and Marvel planned immediately for sequels, the first being
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The longest animated film
ever made by an American studio, the 2023 entry expands greatly upon the
"multiverse" aspect of the animated Spider-Man world, including 280
variations of Spider-Man over several universes that each feature
intentionally distinct animation styles. Even elements from the
live-action incarnations are thrown into the massive mash-up of
Spider-Man concepts, and while on the surface this maze of storylines
may seem ripe for confusion, the plot remarkably works wonders. In
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the lead African American
boy, Miles Morales, confronts existential realities relating to "canon
events" that must happen in each of the countless universes for
Spider-Man to exist, his circumstances accidentally intertwined with
another universe in ways that require his friends from the "Spider
Society," including Gwen Stacy as Spider-Woman, to rescue him. The
attitude of this sequel is less irreverent than that of the original
film, familial concepts and the gravity of the larger multiverse pulling
the franchise, as well as Miles, towards more serious ends. The songs of
the soundtrack for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, still
reflect the hip hop and rap personality as before, but Daniel
Pemberton's original score was forced to address the narrative shift
head-on. While the songs accompany the flashier moments in the story,
Pemberton is left supplying a greater range of emotional depth in the
sequel. His challenge was to somehow maintain the electronica, hip hop,
rap, grunge, punk, and rock personality inherent in Miles' spirit while
also developing multicultural drama and plain old symphonic action
alongside that core. Pemberton's prior score was highly polarizing as a
headache-inducing expression of digital manipulation, and while similar
techniques continue to rampage through this score, the composer is
careful to temper them alongside a more narratively palatable
approach.
Some listeners will continue to scoff at the brazen contemporary elements employed by Pemberton in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, but the increasingly dramatic pull of the orchestral portions causes the sequel to be a more measured and impressive score. You could hear the composer's thematic talents mature in the Enola Holmes scores, and that capability really helps him create balance in this score. Perhaps more importantly, the general techniques of cadence aren't as flippant here, the digital manipulation and cheap post-production tricks that dominated the first score still present but accessed far less. Aside from necessary infusions of Italian and Indian tones for particular characters associated with other universes, Pemberton also relies more heavily on 1980's synthetic tones akin to Vangelis in both his action and soft character moments, the latter soothingly ambient in "Under the Clocktower" and "Rio and Miles." Straight orchestral light drama for strings is the equivalent in "Hold the Baby" and "I Beat Them All." There are moments when Pemberton stretches his legs with unadulterated orchestral action, "Mumbattan Madness" generating impressive force with minimal manipulation. On the other hand, though, the stylish techniques that drove some listeners to madness return throughout the work in healthy doses, led by various record-scratching effects that remain as annoying as ever. Some cues are still completely insufferable in the screaming alert noises and tired processing, both "Across the Titles" and "All Stations - Stop Spider-Man" reminders of why the prior score was shunned by traditionalists. In between are the cool aspects of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, such as a return of the whistling in "Miles Sketchbook" that keenly shifts to become a tool of suspense in "The Anomaly." And, of course, it suffices to say that Pemberton's thematic constructs all remain extremely simplistic and repetitive, often applied as rhythmic devices and rarely exploring secondary structures of any meaningful depth. Without such complexity, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is again a score of all style and shallow substance, but it manages to work this time due to composer's more sensible balance of contemporary techniques with the surprising mileage he gets from his motifs with the smoother instrumental palette. Pemberton handles his expanding thematic base for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse with a mixture of character and concept-based themes. He uses one identity for all of the Spider-Man variants, though Miles also receives his own extension of that material. The three-note simplicity of the Spider-Man theme is just begging for "Spi-der-Man!" lyrics in silly 1980's form, and once you start hearing "Spi-der-Man!" in your head during its performances here, you'll find it difficult to stop. (One has to wonder if such lyrics will come to fruition at the culmination of the concept.) Miles is given a five-note secondary phrase in rhythmic formation that is fully explored in "My Name is... Miles Morales" and "Back Where it All Started," but it's the three-note motif that dominates the work and showcases Pemberton's knack for squeezing copious juice from it. This idea is all over the score, initially emerging out of the canon event theme in "Across the Spider-Verse (Intro)" and developing further into an affable character theme in "To My Son" with bird-chirping effects from the record scratches. Although the three notes are supplied at synchronization points throughout the action, the idea really flourishes during a victorious moment with symphony and synthetics in "Welcome to Nueva York (Earth-928)," a really fine cue of tonal attraction for the center of the multiverse. The brass treatments of the motif at the outset of "Peter and Mayday Parker" are appropriately noble, as is the burst of magnificence in the middle of "The Go Home Machine." The idea enjoys a rousing rock rendition at the end of "Across the Spider-Verse (Start a Band)" to set up the next film. For the Spider-Man variants from the other universes, "Spider-Man 2099 (Miguel O'Hara)" receives understandably nasty and manipulated tones, inheriting the humorously awful elephant noises from the villain the prior movie. This interpretation is reduced to stewing with whip-cracking sounds in "2099 Lab." Meanwhile, "Spider-Man India (Pavitr Prabhakar)" is ethnically hysterical, if not even a little insensitive in a way that induces giggles, while "Spider-Punk (Hobie Brown)" receives a logical punk rock alternative and "The Go-Home Machine" provides old-school synths for Spider-Byte (Margo Kess). Pemberton's choice to afford each of these characters with highly divergent stylized offshoots of the main Spider-Man theme is among the score's more intelligent choices, though it does make for a highly disjointed experience when appreciated apart from the film. Receiving her own, better developed variation on the Spider-Man material in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is Gwen Stacey as Spider-Woman. Her warmer but still defiant take on the idea is the most different from the others, offering attitude in "Spider-Woman (Gwen Stacy)" and "Vulture Meets Culture" and guiding "Guggenheim Assemble" to a cool merging with the Spider-Man theme's action mode. The tone of her material isn't as impactful when outside of her native universe, which is a bit disappointing given her allegiance to Miles and her spearheading of his rescue later in the picture. Affecting the Spider-Man theme the most is Pemberton's identity for the canon event concept, an idea of destiny and revelation that plays an important role in this score. An ascending, four-chord minor key theme of gravity under melodramatic progressions, this motif is sometimes used as a lead-in to the Spider-Man theme. It applies cyclical suspense to "Across the Spider-Verse (Intro)" under wailing synths and shifts to become a grungy identity midway through as it yields to Spider-Man's theme. After some muted, fragmented treatment in "Rio and Miles," the canon event theme asserts itself as a monumental force overlapping with the three-note Spider-Man theme in "Canon Event." It becomes dramatically distorted as a four-note action tool in "Nueva York Train Chase," thought keen ears will discern that the usage here goes beyond the Hans Zimmer-like characteristics of the performance in this cue; in actually, portions of Zimmer's cue "Gap" from Dark Phoenix seem to be interpolated by Pemberton explicitly, adding some of his quirky production techniques to the otherwise morbidly muscular Zimmer idea. (Don't be surprised if "Nueva York Train Chase" receives outsized amounts of praise; such is the appeal of Zimmer's music during this time, even in residual doses.) The canon event theme is more formally applied as an introduction to the Spider-Man theme at the height of "Falling Apart." This theme is perhaps a bit underplayed in much of the score, as it is tasked with handling the most serious repercussions of Miles' circumstances but doesn't throw its weight evenly throughout the second half of the score as the character realizes that his world is potentially upside down. The pair of "The Anomaly" and "Five Months" could have used more obvious additional development of this theme; Pemberton's alternatives are adequate, but they leave the score with a somewhat diminished core. One of the more fragmented aspects of Pemberton's score remains his villains' identities, their music in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse compartmentalized by the fact that they only appear in certain segments of the narrative. Chronologically, the theme for Vulture from Spider-Woman's realm is the first, its manner outlandish but arguably funny. Built from Italian operatic male singing that is highly distinct, the character's actual melody isn't defined well enough to matter. His phrasing, joined by chimes in "Vulture Meets Culture," does sonic battle with Spider-Woman's material, and their conflict in "Guggenheim Assemble" is one of the score's most likable moments even if the composer's digital manipulation there is obnoxious at times. More important is the theme for The Spot, whose slurred trio of notes fall and ascend in almost theremin-like tones. This idea interjects with bravado at the end of "Back Where it All Began" and persists in lesser forms in "Spot Holes 1," "Creation of the Spot," "Spot Holes 2," and "Indian Teamwork," but it has an appreciable impact on the second half of "The Anomaly." At the end of the picture, the Prowler theme returns from first score with its truly hideous, manipulated elephant noises and emulation of bass tones from Ludwig Göransson's Black Panther. Heard in the middle of "Five Months" and "Across the Spider-Verse (Start a Band)," expect this idea to persist in the next film as well. The elephant noises, which continue to sound like some nightmarish adaptation of the Imperial "red alert" sounds from the Star Wars franchise, remain one of the most atrocious musical devices in any franchise, and Pemberton continues to embrace it and the recording scratching and other effects of contemporary sleekness. Some listeners may give up on this score early, for the manipulation can indeed induce headaches. But by the middle, and especially the depth of character between "To My Son" and "Rio and Miles," you have to appreciate the more thoughtful and emotionally careful direction Pemberton is choosing. The regular score-only album for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a daunting 107 minutes in length, and an expanded edition shortly thereafter added another seven minutes of low-key, appealing drama. Either album will definitely need culling, and some listeners will be turned off regardless. But the composer has made important strides to find a smart stylistic balance between drama and attitude in this work, and the themes, while really simplistic, serve their purpose. The sudden insertion of a Zimmer theme at an important juncture is a bit disappointing, but it will aid in the appeal for some. Pemberton's maturation continues to impress. ***
TRACK LISTINGS:
Regular Edition:
Total Time: 107:07
Extended Edition: Total Time: 113:57
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts of the physical albums include no extra information
about the score or film.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are Copyright © 2023, Sony Classical (Regular Edition), Sony Classical (Extended Edition) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 6/10/23 and last updated 11/28/23. |
