Spider-Man 2: (Danny Elfman) With the first
installment of the
Spider-Man franchise performing very well on
the big screen in 2002, the cast and crew of the hit film soon began
signing contracts for not just one sequel, but two. The comic-book hero
is certainly not short on villains with whom he can battle in these
movies, with a new badguy, Doc Ock, seeking his death in
Spider-Man
2 and shades of that old Green Goblin coming back to haunt Peter
Parker as well. The sequel has been heralded by both critics and
audiences as being superior to the original, with a better combination
of stress and love, a more intriguing villain, and the further
development of tension between Parker and his crush, Mary Jane.
Particularly striking in all three of the original
Spider-Man
films is the extremely sympathetic nature of its villains, each entry
yielding progressively three-dimensional foes for the protagonist and
each of whom requiring some dose of forgiveness for their actions.
Despite the popularity of Danny Elfman's score for the first film in the
series, the situation concerning director Sam Raimi and his evolving
taste in music for the concept started causing problems in
Spider-Man
2 that would lead to Elfman's departure from the franchise. He still
completed a full score for the second film, however, strengthening his
reputation as a superhero music guru in Hollywood. Despite a plethora of
other active contemporary composers with more training in orchestral
writing, Elfman brings an element of imagination and capacity for
frantic artistry that allows him to perhaps better keep pace with
Spider-Man's vast swings, both emotionally and quite literally, than
others in the composer's field. He is also no stranger to sequel
scoring, either, having written an intellectually marvelous score for
Batman Returns that loyal fans of the composer cite as one of the
best sequel scores in memory (despite its devastating performance and
recording issues). Regardless of the fact that Elfman was happy with
what he wrote and recorded for
Spider-Man 2, Raimi requested
substantial re-writes to his music too late in the post-production
process for Elfman to complete (he had headed off to London to work on
Tim Burton's 2005 films). At that point, a number of other composers,
including veterans Christopher Young and John Debney, stepped in to
adapt Raimi's temp track or rearrange a number of important cues in the
film. Not surprisingly, Elfman, despite some initial rumors that he
would participate in
Spider-Man 3, was done with the
franchise.
What exists as another very strong composition by Elfman
for
Spider-Man 2 is surprisingly one of the few strangely
dissatisfying aspects of the film itself. Before discussing how the
composer did (or did not) get dangled from the short end of the web,
it's important to appreciate this sequel score as Elfman intended it to
be heard, represented by a commercial album presentation loyal to his
work. Unlike
Batman Returns, the arguably less complicated
Spider-Man 2 remains much more consistent in tone, thematic
development, and instrumentation to the original film in the franchise.
Elfman seems to have become better able to harness the excitement of
comic book heroes and their villains without going overboard on each
individual character's musical identity and thus losing focus of the
overall tones of the franchise. Some listeners have remarked that the
very consistent extension of musical identity from the first to second
score is the weakness of the latter, and during the opening credits and
finale, the rehashes of identical bars of music may indeed bother those
seeking greater narrative evolution. But where Elfman maintains the
orchestral integrity of the first film to a triumphant degree is in the
central mass of
Spider-Man 2. The opening titles and finale
pieces were probably rehashed note-for-note at the demand of the
filmmakers, although Elfman does offer the new Doc Ock theme as the
appropriate interlude in the titles at the 1:20 mark in this recording.
Comparing the titles for sheer power of performance, a case could be
made that the recording of the second film's score features a more
robust stance, highlighted by the statement of the main theme at 1:40
and offering Elfman's choral colors at their best. The rest of the
Spider-Man 2 score similarly improves upon the first score's
symphonic stature, the composer pulling some very impressive,
awe-inspiring action sequences out of his hat and thus keeping the
sequel refreshing to the ears. The choral presence, extending out of the
titles and into several major cues, is managed well in
Spider-Man
2, culminating in the inspiring "Really Big Web" cue near the end.
The love theme for Peter Parker and M.J. has a more believable heart
behind its performances as well, a greater quantity of tender moments
between them in this score leading to additional development of the idea
(and culminating in the still slightly troubled "At Long Last, Love").
Most importantly, Elfman's techniques at mutating and weaving themes
together can be heard extensively in the entirety of
Spider-Man
2, the significant amount of time devoted to their interactions a
definite plus.
Whereas the Green Goblin theme in
Spider-Man was
technically challenging to reference in more linear rhythms due to its
smartly twisted progressions, the Doc Ock material in the second score
is conveyed with a static series of movements that emulates portions of
Spider-Man's own theme, making it rather easy for Elfman to
appropriately mingle their phrases. The fact that Doc Ock's theme
consists of eight notes is reportedly due to the coinciding number of
limbs on the villain, yet again pointing to Elfman's sense of humor. The
theme contains just enough comic book swing, the kind of circus-like,
borderline-deranged rhythmic pomposity, to fit it nicely in the genre.
But unlike times in the past when Elfman nearly wrote an entire
carnival-appropriate piece for the villain, the Doc Ock theme consists
of the same orchestral construct as the rest of the music, acknowledging
the character's well-meaning origins and allowing the identity to be
referenced smoothly throughout the score's action sequences. Elfman, in
fact, does a very noble job of referencing all of his themes for the
series in his fast-paced moments of adventure. Just as the
Batman
theme could be linked anywhere with as little as two notes, the same can
be done with the primary
Spider-Man theme, its interlude sequence
(which Elfman switches to when the hero is in flight), the Doc Ock theme
(which is littered throughout their confrontations), and even the Green
Goblin material, which has its cameo performance at the end as necessary
but whose progressions are hinted ever so slightly in "Armageddon." In
the film, it's much more difficult to experience the full extent of the
success of Elfman's music, because there are sudden stylistic shifts
caused by Raimi's replacement of several key sequences. A bit of temp
track fever struck the project from the outset, not to mention that the
director made a habit of slamming Elfman's music from the preceding
films in the franchise into both of his sequels. Late edits also plagued
Spider-Man 2, and with Elfman having moved on, the filmmakers had
to turn to outside assistance to finish and/or rearrange cues for
changes made to the final version of the film. While small contributions
by orchestrator Steve Bartek and composer Joseph LoDuca were reported at
the time, two well-known composers were brought on to complete larger
portions of the score. The first is no surprise; John Debney could make
a living off of his ability to be available to provide just these kinds
of services. More interesting, however, was horror-score veteran
Christopher Young's hiring to provide music for two key sequences in the
film, the first of which a straight adaptation of one his own classic
works.
Neither Debney nor Young's contributions are included
on the commercial Elfman album for
Spider-Man 2, but in the film,
the abrupt differences in style from scene to scene are hard to miss.
Debney's contribution was a more nominal one, including the "Cake Girl"
conversational cue of little significance (though tacked again in the
next score in the franchise) but focusing on the comedic pizza delivery
twist of heroic proportions in "Special Delivery." Whereas Elfman chose
to score this scene's initial gauntlet of bike and cars with the
slightly contemporary, funky drums heard elsewhere in the score, Debney
instead provided straight action material that could have come out of a
trailer music library. Both versions segue into the usual main theme
statements when Parker takes to the air to complete his delivery. While
Debney's couple of minutes of music in
Spider-Man 2 is a small
footnote, Young's role is both significant and perplexing. Elfman's
music for the fight scene between Spider-Man and Doc Ock on the elevated
train was fully replaced by nearly five minutes of new Young material.
Interestingly, just like the "Special Delivery" cue, Elfman chose to use
a fair amount of his drums for the first half of this sequence, and
perhaps their somewhat exotic tone is what Raimi objected to in both
circumstances. Young's version of "Runaway Train" is a bit more
streamlined in its rhythmic flow and brassy action personality, though
Elfman's cue, when tracked to the film, would have been fine by most
accounts. In fact, Elfman's version intelligently slows its pace as
Parker brings the train to a precariously teetering halt, whereas
Young's mad tapping of the snare and chimes comes to an alternately
crashing halt. Far more notorious in regards to Young's involvement with
Spider-Man 2, however, is his adaptation work for the scenes in
which Doc Ock first demonstrates his metallic tentacles and is fused
with them. Fans of film scores and the famous villain Pinhead were often
surprised and, in some cases, dumbfounded, when the demonstration and
fusion scenes were treated to almost intact sequences from Young's score
from
Hellraiser II: Hellbound. The theme from that Young classic
is well enough known that its transfer from the temp track into a new
recording by Young for
Spider-Man 2 is something of a shock,
regardless of how good (and effective) the music is. Five minutes of
this rather straight forward adaptation, spanning the sub-cues "The
Reveal," "Blue Light," and "Fusion," offer the female vocals, pounding
timpani, rising and falling string rhythms, staggered brass notes in the
bass, and outright thematic progressions of
Hellraiser II, only
lacking the trademark tapped cymbals of the prior performance.
Composers are hired to ape temp tracks all the time,
and if such a blatant rip of
Hellraiser II was in the destiny of
Spider-Man 2, then at least you have to give Raimi credit for
approaching Young and, alternately Young for at least tailoring the
theme to this new home. Interestingly, in "Blue Light" and "Fusion,"
Young does start straying into more original territory, and he deserves
kudos for adapting Elfman's theme for Doc Ock seamlessly out of the
Hellraiser II material in the former cue, almost as to announce
the character's official creation. For Young, he handled the situation
well enough to replace Elfman entirely for
Spider-Man 3, though
even there, his music would contend with reuse of Elfman's themes (and
entire cues) and additional new material from Debney and Elfman
assistant composer Deborah Lurie. You can't really fault any of these
composers for simply doing their job; the blame for the mess is clearly
Raimi's responsibility, and while he may have though that bringing in
Hellraiser II music for Doc Ock was cool, it really does cause
discrepancies of style that will likely twinge people beyond the film
music collecting crowd. The Elfman-only score album for
Spider-Man
2 does provide the listener with the opportunity to hear two Elfman
cues that were later dropped from the film. One of these is the train
fight sequence (followed in the same track by an ethereal cue for the
exhausted Parker in "Appreciation" that did make the final cut), with
its satisfying inclusions of choir and Doc Ock references where
appropriate. The rejected "Aunt May Packs" cue is curious because it is
the only obvious use of contemporary tones in this score, the acoustic
guitar a nice, singular touch. A plethora of other Elfman cues, rejected
or otherwise, did not make the album, leading (sometimes along with the
ten minutes of Young material) to countless bootlegs of the patchwork
finished soundtrack. Ironically, if there is one major criticism to be
leveled against Elfman's score, it would be the lack of a distinctly
contemporary style. In the original score, the highlight was the
"Costume Montage" cue, a passage that not only sufficed in its build-up
to the introduction of a superhero, but also a cue that offered New
York's newest savior with the hip, modern style that he demands and
deserves. The fantasy of Peter Parker and Spider-Man merit the kind of
style that you hear from Elfman's trademark electric bass,
guitar, and hip rhythms (supported by the full ensemble), not with the
wackiness of
Men in Black, of course, but with just enough spice
to add that cool flavor to the urban fantasy character. In any case,
Elfman's work impresses with its intelligent thematic narrative and
enhanced choral role, defying the bizarrely rendered finished product in
the film.
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- Music as Written by Danny Elfman for the Film: ****
- Music as Written by Christopher Young for the Film: ***
- Music as Written by John Debney for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on Album: ****
- Overall: ****
| Bias Check: |
For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.22
(in 76 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.32
(in 134,187 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert includes a list of performers but no extra
information about the score or film.
