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FILMTRACKS.COM
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Review of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Hans Zimmer/Various)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you accept the Hans Zimmer vision of alternately
gloomy and aggressive, overstated and simplistic constructs and
renderings in the superhero genre, with all subtlety lost in the
creative process.
Avoid it... if you expect either the elegance or the heart of Danny Elfman and James Horner's music for this concept, Zimmer and his eleven other writers incapable of striking the appropriate emotional chord in this disappointing entry.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Amazing Spider-Man 2: (Hans Zimmer/Various) As
obnoxious as franchise reboots can be, the seemingly unnecessary but
nevertheless profitable 2012 resurrection of the "Spider-Man" concept
with a new cast and crew proved to be a surprising artistic success.
Even before the triumphs of director Marc Webb's The Amazing
Spider-Man, Marvel and Columbia envisioned a renewed series of
sequels and spin-offs, and the first of these continued fiscal
powerhouses is 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Not as satisfying
in its narrative is this entry, some of its Oscorp and Green Goblin
concepts competing unfavorably with the renditions of that storyline in
the prior decade's "Spider-Man." The star of the show, however, is Jamie
Foxx in the role as the sympathetic villain (aren't most of them?),
Electro, whose haphazardly uncontrolled capabilities with electricity
provide this tale's main challenge. Young Peter Parker, still searching
for his true identity, a sense of family, and his romantic future, once
again cannot resist the urge to save New York, where, for the first
time, an entire "Spider-Man" movie was shot. Despite the carryover of
most of the primary cast and crew, composer James Horner did not return
for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. This franchise has been blessed
with music from many of the great composers of the 1990's, including
Horner, Danny Elfman, John Debney, and Christopher Young, and it is
perhaps only fitting that another star ascendant during that decade,
Hans Zimmer, received his crack at the concept for the 2014 film. Now
the composer of choice for blockbuster superhero films due to his
marketability, Zimmer has conquered the realm of "Batman" with varying,
debatable degrees of success while offering completely misguided music
for the 2013 reboot of the "Superman" character. Not surprisingly, the
shift from Horner to Zimmer for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 brings a
completely different procedural and emotional dynamic to the table,
tossing aside traditional methodology for Zimmer's super-hyped
collaborative process of creation. Not to waste any such opportunity,
Zimmer collected six primary artists (Pharrell Williams, Johnny Marr,
Tom Holkenborg, Mike Einzinger, Andrew Kawczynski and Steve Mazzaro) and
five ghostwriters to ultimately form a dozen minds alike for this
project, the former group termed the "Magnificent Six" while the latter
toiling in the shadows like usual Remote Control ghostwriters.
Comparisons to the Elfman and Horner legacies in this franchise are inevitable. Both composers wrote highly effective themes for the title character and wrapped them in a tasteful blend of symphonic heart and synthetic intrigue. When Horner stepped on stage to accept the Max Steiner Award at the 2013 Film Music Festival Hollywood in Vienna, the orchestra performed a rousing arrangement of the composer's main identity for The Amazing Spider-Man that easily confirmed its place among the top five scores of 2012. The most important achievement by Elfman and Horner (and continued by Debney and Young to a limited degree) for this concept was the vital balance between coolness and loneliness, the geek of Peter Parker defining Spider-Man rather than the fantasy of the costume defining the heart of the wayward young man. The Elfman and Horner scores emphasized the awesomeness of Spider-Man from the perspective of a character mutated out of a nerd. Parker's center of gravity always returns to his lack of belonging, the absence of family, and the awkwardness of his communication. For all the soaring themes with trumpets, cooing choirs, and nimble electronic accompaniment, the music for this concept has the irresistible urge to return to the basic familial piano and the heartfelt expressions of loss that accompany it. Elfman and Horner resisted the urge to provide music that suggested either technological prowess for the character or a bloated sense of bravado, their scores usually emphasizing the treble ranges in an effort to remind audiences that Spider-Man isn't a big man wearing a heavy black suit and riding around in 5-ton vehicles. This hero is a spider, soaring effortlessly and using his airy genetic capabilities and nerdy demeanor to reluctantly accomplish his mission. There are many parallels between Parker and Clark Kent, both hopelessly awkward in their personal lives, lacking a feeling of belonging and family, struggling for a normal love life. It should come as no surprise, after all of these basic facts are considered, that a composer like the contemporary incarnation of Hans Zimmer would have difficulty addressing the heart of either character. And, just as Zimmer completely failed to capture the spirit of Kent in Man of Steel, he has become the first composer in the "Spider-Man" franchise to completely fail to capture the spirit of Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. It is painful to hear a composer strive to innovate and yet miss the mark so badly on something so basic as the heart of the primary character. What you have in the music for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a composer who approached this assignment asking the question "How can we make this more cool?" rather than "How can we better enunciate the main character's emotions?" By concentrating on the former, Zimmer once again collected a desired group of music industry collaborators and, as the director stated, "hammered the chord progressions" into the form of a score. Zimmer's admitted purpose of these collaborators was to have them write individual songs and score elements that would address the pop culture that Parker is exposed to in the story. The filmmakers go so far as to suggest that Parker sits around listening to Pharrell Williams music. Thus, they would argue, Elfman and Horner got it wrong; Parker and his alter-ego require music with greater "Zimmeresque" sensibilities, including brooding baselines, minor-third perpetuity, electronic elements in front of symphonic ones, simple thematic statements without counterpoint, limited shifts to the major key, lower choral depth, and long lines of ambient background sounds. In other words, yet another superhero comes to Zimmer rather than Zimmer addressing the actual character needs of the superhero. The question then becomes this: Does the score for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 exist as a simplistic, masculine form of its predecessors because that is the only realistic result that a person could expect from a collaboration of pop stars (including, at this point, Zimmer)? Or is Zimmer himself actually incapable of realizing anything else? He made a point of declaring this score different from his prior writing. Really? A few performances by trumpets and woodwinds in the major key and the rest of the electronic droning and manipulation is no longer a defining factor? Make no mistake about it, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a very typical Zimmer score of the 2010's, yet another exercise in the cycling of steroids to film music in an effort to satisfy personal and industry expectations that deeper, lower, bigger, and more experimental is the desired direction of blockbuster soundtracks. This score makes feeble attempts to resemble some of the best of Horner's preceding effort. It uses a piano and woodwinds for understated and cold themes of romance and family. It applies trumpets to a main theme that tries but fails to evoke the same flighty heroism espoused by Horner, instead yielding a tepid blend of Randy Newman and Aaron Copland tradition that is stated sparingly and in token fashion. These elements are an afterthought compared to Zimmer's concentration on aggression and power. You have to wonder if Zimmer becomes hypnotized by the villains in his superhero scores. One of the fundamental rules of superhero music writing is to concentrate first and foremost on the protagonist. Make his theme the most obvious, state it most frequently, and give it the most emotional development. Zimmer and his crew not only ignore these proven techniques, but they do it enthusiastically in the name of innovation. It should be no surprise that an unhealthy concentration on the coolness and awesomeness factors, especially when it comes to villains, is what produces a cue as hideously inappropriate and insufferable as "Still Crazy" in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. If you have a group of pop artists sitting around in Zimmer's dimly lit, bizarrely ornate studio toying with ideas in front of photographers, what else would you expect? The groupthink mentality that strives for that perfect guitar effect or minor-third sweet spot is not concerned with subtlety, and the total absence of subtlety in this score is its ultimate failure. Every hand is overplayed in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. The main theme sounds forced and hokey compared to surrounding material. The softer material is overwhelmed by droning bass and atmospheric effects. The villains' themes are literally pounded with stock Remote Control hits and electric guitar rips. Any attempt at "mystery" in this music simply rehashes Batman-related darkness. The identity for Electro has been widely praised for its originality, and Zimmer does deserve kudos for this particular experimentation. But even here, the mix of the chanted words of hate is too prominent, making it arguably laughable. Once again, subtlety is swept aside for outright musical representations of a character's instability. However effective it might be in context, that effect exists between intolerable and humorous on album. If you back up and look at the spotting of the score for the film (who knows if Zimmer even bothers with such traditions anymore), you'll note that the villains' musical identities receive far more air time than Spider-Man's, precisely the opposite of the way effective superhero scores function (unless the villains win, Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back a great example of inversed thematic emphasis). When you have the hero and villain locked in battle during a scene, you have to give them at least equal melodic and stylistic air time in their music. Zimmer and his crew, quick to emphasize the cool force of the dominant villain material, manage to screw it up. In fact, the musical interplay between good and evil in this work is almost non-existent, a stark contrast to Horner's fantastic sonic battles. In sum, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is a score that serves as evidence that the process used by Zimmer is inadequate to address certain emotional realms. The fact that a blend of The Da Vinci Code and The House of the Spirits is featured in ultra-typical Zimmer mode in "I Need to Know" is indicative of artistic stagnation. The reliance upon bass elements, even in an emotional expression as in "No Place Like Home," is still constricting. The minor third progressions have become obnoxious to the point of hilarity. Can't any of Remote Control-related artists come up with foundations more interesting? Not just textures and effects, but foundations? One has to wonder if Zimmer simply suffers from a general inability to address emotions on screen with any subtlety whatsoever. You heard him toil badly in 12 Years a Slave, a very poor and insufficient score that sends you fleeing to John Williams' Rosewood as a vastly superior alternative. Perhaps Zimmer's skills as a composer have eroded away as he has pursued his enthusiasm for serving as a producer. If he took his compositional and arrangement duties as seriously, you might have heard utilization of Horner's themes in this work. Some franchise enthusiasts claim to hear pieces of Horner progressions here, such as the rising violin line late in "In Need to Know" and early in "You're That Spider Guy" (as well as some hints midway through "Harry's Suite"). These are not obvious, however, and there still exists no good reason for Horner's fabulous themes to be jettisoned. Ultimately, this score will be remembered for its unnecessary attempts to push the envelope. The Electro material and wailing siren effects throughout are too obvious, especially compared to the crew's more effective web-like electronic background element (sparingly applied). From a neutral standpoint, the 2-CD expanded album for The Amazing Spider-Man 2 contains much of the better music in the score, the duo of "Harry's Suite" and "No Place Like Home" worth your time if you appreciate the rest of the work. On the other hand, both CDs' collection of pop songs is completely useless in its refusal to adhere to any one genre style, and the "Electro Remix" at the end will send you off into the streets to find something to throttle. It's difficult to say that anyone expected Zimmer to able to compete favorably with Horner and Elfman in this franchise, especially given how popular their scores remain. Zimmer's music alternates between frightfully irritating and sadly disappointing, both because of the simplicity of his constructs and renderings. His assumptions need checked as well, because given the hopeless geek that Peter Parker is, regardless of what he's shown listening to on screen as a marketing ploy, he might be the type to appreciate James Horner music more than that of anyone in the "Magnificent Six." *
TRACK LISTINGS:
Regular Edition:
Total Time: 65:57
Deluxe Edition: Total Time: 115:02
NOTES & QUOTES:
The inserts include a note from the director about the score. The packaging of the
Deluxe Edition is abnormally sized in portrait orientation and its cardboard structure
makes it difficult to remove the CDs without potentially scratching them. Who designs
such impractical nonsense?
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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 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 are Copyright © 2014, Columbia Records (All Albums) and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 5/10/14 (and not updated significantly since). |
