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 bad guy of eight mechanical arms, 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 led to Elfman's abrupt and angry 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
impressive 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. (The composer had headed off to London to work on
Tim Burton's 2005 films.) On the emotional side, his disagreement with
Raimi became heated and public, Elfman vowing at the time that the
director had become a different person with whom he never wanted to work
again. The spat represented one of the most public feuds between
longtime composer/director collaborators in the digital era of film
music, though time did eventually heal their issues, and they paired
together on multiple major projects in subsequent decades. Elfman
claimed at the time that Raimi had become obsessed with the temp track
of Christopher Young's famous gothic themes from
Hellbound:
Hellraiser II for the Doc Ock "birth" scene, and while Elfman had
written original music in nodding in that direction, Raimi was not
satisfied. At that point, the composer was both frustrated and out the
door, commenting that Raimi should simply hire Young himself. And so it
happened, and Young provided the director with temp-faithful music for
that Doc Ock scene and a total re-write for the later train battle
sequence due to Elfman's departure prior to final edits. For other
filler material, Hollywood music fixer John Debney was brought on board
to fill in three other short cues as reshoots and edits required. Not
surprisingly, despite receiving almost all the credit for the
Spider-Man 2 score and some initial rumors that he would
participate in
Spider-Man 3, Elfman was done with the franchise.
Ultimately, 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,
though, it's important to appreciate this sequel score as Elfman
intended it to be heard, represented by two album presentations 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 underlying demeanor 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 the work. 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 opening titles at the 1:20 mark in this
recording. Comparing the opening sequences 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 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.
The balance between the main Spider-Man theme and Parker's
responsibility theme is extremely well conveyed in this score, the two
sharing softer instrumentation in passages like "Peter's Turmoil" and
"Aunt May Packs" that mark a greater maturity for both ideas. The
responsibility theme continues to be Elfman's most alluring identity,
providing not only the work's most poignant character appeal but also
serving as a tool of accelerating anticipation for the main theme as
Parker's duties call to him. Casual listeners may hear nothing really
new in either of these themes' renditions here, or even in the less
heralded love theme, but the spotting and execution of these themes is
admirable. The villains' identities will garner far more attention,
however. 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 bloat, the kind of circus-like,
borderline-deranged rhythmic pomposity, to fit nicely in the genre.
There's also a stomping fanfare for Doc Ock's full menace, heard at the
starts of "A Hostage" and "Out for the Count." These moments are a bit
over-the-top in their personality, but this is a comic book villain;
that pomp factor is inherently expected. 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 surrounding music, acknowledging the character's
well-meaning origins and allowing the identity to be referenced smoothly
throughout the score's action sequences. In fact, the composer does a
very noble job of referencing all of his themes for the series in his
fast-paced passages of full 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 and the auxiliary ideas
in these sequels.
The interplay between fragments of the themes in
Spider-Man 2 is really smart, allusions running rampant for the
main theme's interlude sequence, which Elfman engages 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
performances 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 two
key sequences. Aside from the music penned by Young and Debney, small
contributions by orchestrator Steve Bartek and composer Joseph LoDuca
were reported at the time. The director made a habit of slamming
Elfman's music from the preceding films into both of his sequels.
Neither Debney nor Young's cues were included on the initial 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) while the "Open Heart" cue is about as
anonymous as a light piano and string character moment can be, doing
nothing to extend the narrative. But Debney focuses 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 few 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 split between a pair of "Runaway Train" cues. 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" in
Spider-Man
2 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
Hellbound: Hellraiser II. 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 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
Hellbound: Hellraiser II, only lacking the trademark tapped
cymbals of the prior performance. Yes, there are slight alterations to
the melodic structures, and some more original suspense interludes exist
in these cues, but there's no mistaking where this music originates
from. Composers are hired to ape temp tracks all the time, and if you
can forgive how awkward the placement sounds in this context, then you
can at least smirk at the audacity of the blatant rip as a fan.
Interestingly, in "Blue Light" and "Fusion," Young does start straying
closer to Elfman territory, and he deserves kudos for providing a
melodramatic introduction to the descending portion of Elfman's theme
for Doc Ock seamlessly out of the
Hellbound: 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, Young's music for Doc Ock causing discrepancies of style
that will likely irk people beyond the film music collecting crowd. The
Elfman-only 2004 score album for
Spider-Man 2 did provide an
opportunity to hear two Elfman cues that were dropped from the film. One
of these is the train fight sequence (preceding an ethereal cue for the
exhausted Parker in "Appreciation" which 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
a rare 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 to countless bootlegs of
the patchwork complete soundtrack, some with the ten minutes of Young
material. In 2024, La-La Land Records released a superb 3-CD set
containing the original album presentation (including the two song album
score suites), the full Elfman score as written for the film, and
finally a slew of alternate Elfman takes before the Young and Debney
cues. This product is a godsend for enthusiasts of the film, not only
for the obviously misplaced but still fascinating Young cues, but for
the full breadth of Elfman's narrative. He had tried re-writing several
cues for Raimi that are interesting to behold; the alternate ending for
"At Long Last, Love" is much superior as a sendoff to another sequel
than what was used instead. Amusingly, however, the notes and credits
for the product don't mention Young or Debney at all, except for a small
footnote credit in the track listings. Clearly, that was required for
licensing approval, but at least the music made it onto the album. In
the end, 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
prior entry, the highlight was "Costume Montage," 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. Regardless,
Elfman's work impresses with its intelligent thematic narrative and
enhanced choral role, defying the bizarrely rendered finished product in
the film.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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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 All Albums: ****
- Overall: ****
| Bias Check: |
For Danny Elfman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.13
(in 94 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.26
(in 154,621 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
The insert of the 2004 Sony album includes a list of performers
but no extra information about the score or film. That of the 2024 La-La
Land expansion offers details about both.
