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Review of Spider-Man: No Way Home (Michael Giacchino)

FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:

Buy it... if you can admire Michael Giacchino's proficient but not spectacular handling of an extraordinary number of themes, some by Danny Elfman and others, in this aggressive mashup.

Avoid it... if you expect the composer to excel at enunciating those themes with memorable results, for this score makes the right amount of noise but fails to touch your heart.

FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:

Spider-Man: No Way Home: (Michael Giacchino) It's nearly impossible to surprise audiences with cameos in this age of film production, but Sony and Marvel did their absolute best with 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. The two studios almost failed to come to agreement over the future rights of the Spider-Man concept over the previous few years, but the schedule of this third film of the Tom Holland trilogy of Spider-Man movies managed to keep its place after blowback from throngs of concept fans. Whereas this concept's movies had at one time teased connections between each cinematic entry and the larger universe, Spider-Man: No Way Home sought to intentionally launch itself in the other direction, using the increasingly popular "multiverse" idea to explain the constant reboots of the franchise and conveniently bring heroes and villains from the prior Spider-Man franchises into the narrative of the current one. With Doctor Strange carrying over from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, his powers accidentally unleash a multiverse collision in which both Peter Parkers and many of their villains from the prior franchise iterations return to conduct an ultimate battle. For concept enthusiasts, seeing characters going back to the early 2000's in Spider-Man: No Way Home, some de-aged as necessary to maintain their original appearances, is an immense treat. The plot supplies Doctor Strange with a central role in both causing and healing the spell setting all of these characters in motion, and the movie takes an intriguing twist in that the three Peter Parkers endeavor to salvage the villains of all their various reasons for evil rather than outright defeat them. This decision is particularly poignant in the Otto Octavius character, who always remained the most sympathetic villain from the prior movies. In the end, Spider-Man: No Way Home is an ultimate "reset" story to shift all of the franchise's iterations back to their early narrative times, and audiences rewarded the effort with immense box office returns. The soundtrack for Spider-Man: No Way Home, like the story of the film, presented incredible potential for intelligent integration between the franchise iterations, and Michael Giacchino returned to tackle that delicate task.

Giacchino's output for the Spider-Man franchise has ranged from fairly proficient to occasionally impressive, a decent entry for 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming enhanced by a rousing villain's theme for 2019's Spider-Man: Far From Home. Without considering the sudden inclusion of material written by other composers due to the multiverse components of its story, Spider-Man: No Way Home falls somewhere in between its two predecessors in quality. The general palette remains the same, Giacchino's recordings lacking vivaciousness and often struggling to enunciate themes in ways that make them impactful. What nuance that does exist in Spider-Man: No Way Home has eluded some viewers because of the underemphasized mix of the score in context. When separated from the picture, the composer's trademarks are all in action here: solo piano for sensitivity, conservative choral applications for fantasy, and a touch of electric bass and other synthetic elements for coolness. The biggest change in the equation instrumentally is the carryover of the processed East Indian tones for Doctor Strange, though these influences are seemingly downplayed given the character's secondary role in this story. The symphonic presence in the work is extremely standard for Giacchino, which gives it a safe but rather generic tone that reinforces the composer as a prudent choice in the genre. The word "generic" is key, because it also extends to the phrasing of the composer's themes. Throughout the score, the structuring of his new themes is not always satisfactorily pronounced, causing the listener to think that a theme is constantly being hinted without actually being stated. Giacchino extends his tendency to use repeating phrasing in his themes while altering the chords underneath, and some of the new melodies build upon the same chord shifts as his main theme as a means, it seems, of keenly blending purpose. There may be intellectual merit behind these choices, but the end result for some listeners will be a set of themes that doesn't distinguish itself and therefore fails to stir memorable emotions. The primary reason Spider-Man: Far From Home remains superior in this trilogy of scores is because of Giacchino's rousing identity for Mysterio. No equivalent identity lingers in your mind from Spider-Man: No Way Home even though three new major themes are introduced.

Giacchino is due some credit for his juggling of his previous identities for this franchise and the three new themes. But, at the end of the day, it's hard not to get the feeling that many opportunities were lost in both the spotting and execution of the score. Some of this dissatisfaction may result from an album presentation that is missing key development of the new themes and references to old favorites. But the composer does not rise to the challenge of interpolating all of these ideas into the fantastic and, frankly, evolved and resolved potential experienced by the characters the themes represent. Simply repeating a phrase or two from a previous franchise theme is a really good start, but it doesn't mean squat if that reference has no more than the feel of a token insertion to check a box on the list. The main franchise theme consists of three segments, and only the primary segment receives considerable development in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Giacchino throws in a brief reference to Mysterio's theme, which is great, but the application of the MJ love theme in this work is sorely lacking, restricted to only one prominent performance. The Doctor Strange theme is all over the score but rarely follows the full breadth of the actual identity. Danny Elfman's music for the Tobey Maguire trilogy here includes the two primary themes for Peter Parker and those for the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. The pair of Andrew Garfield films is represented by James Horner's theme for Parker, which was inexplicably and inexcusably jettisoned by Hans Zimmer for the second Garfield film. Zimmer's theme for Electro is seemingly tracked into Spider-Man: No Way Home without formal interpolation. The Horner theme for the Lizard and Christopher Young's theme for Sandman were not referenced by Giacchino, the latter a particularly disappointing omission. These characters are more generally represented by the composer's new theme for the combined villains of this story, one that understandably builds upon some of the structural elements of Elfman's Doctor Octopus theme given that character's outsized involvement in this story. Joining that identity is a new theme of lamentation that serves as Giacchino's answer to Elfman's family and responsibility theme. Finally, an intriguing restoration theme rounds out Giacchino's score, applying itself to a hopeful resolution and providing the score's most significant fantasy presence.

Enthusiasts of Giacchino's main theme will appreciate how often it is conveyed in this score, though the second and third segments of the theme, in some ways its most attractive portions, are rarely accessed. Just as the composer has difficulty conveying the fuller ideas by Elfman and Horner, he struggles to afford longer, meaningful development to his own. The main theme debuts at 0:08 into "Damage Control," its underlying chords continuing for much of the cue. Pieces of it are entangled at 2:36, 3:28, and 3:40 into "Otto Trouble." A quick heroic burst finally prevails at 2:08 into "Ghost Fighter in the Sky/Beach Blanket Bro Down," and brief snippets aid the action rhythms at 0:19 into "Sling vs Bling," after which a fuller rendition at 1:32 fights for survival but accedes to a fragment at 2:34. Later in that cue, the main theme overlays the Doctor Strange theme at 2:34 and emerges on its own at 4:08 and 4:34 with choir. It's softly noble to close out "Octo Gone" and is again relegated to action fragments at 2:36 into "No Good Deed." The second segment of the theme finally appears in the solo cello performance at 1:02 into "A Doom With a View," and a slight reference persists at 1:25 into "Spider Baiting." The closing action scenes do offer the theme some breathing room, fragments on woodwinds at 0:25 into "Liberty Parlance" building up to action that culminates in a major choral and brass rendition at 1:02. It toils with battle rhythms at 1:01 into "Monster Smash" and closes "Arc Reactor" in the same stance. Horns and soft choir carry the theme more softly at 2:24 into "Shield of Pain," a single phrase on flute persisting at 3:36 into "Goblin His Inner Demons." This diminished posture continues on solo piano at the outset of "Forget Me Knots" and extends out of the Doctor Strange theme at 1:45; an epically sized, slow version at 5:47 eventually succumbs again to a solo piano reduction to end the cue. The main theme opens "Peter Parker Picked a Perilously Precarious Profession" on solo piano again before another major choral version sends the story off, this time with more female voices in the mix, at 1:06. The first two minutes of the "Arachnoverture" end credits suite are dedicated to the main theme, and it is only here that all three segments of the theme receive due attention. After rotating through the other themes, Giacchino returns to all three segments at 7:20, this time at a faster pace and with choir. Hidden at the end of this album track at 9:32 is the obnoxious version of the theme with rock-like Doctor Strange instrumentation for the humorous Undercroft scene, and it should be placed before "Ghost Fighter in the Sky."

Aside from Giacchino's main theme, the only identities from this franchise to return in Spider-Man: No Way Home are the MJ love theme and Mysterio's theme. The former is badly underutilized in this picture, conveyed only during the entirety of "Being a Spider Bites" on piano in very slight form and totally lacking gravity. This idea is supplanted by the family/responsibility theme in later conversational scenes. The brief statement for Mysterio at 1:21 into "Damage Control" on brass over groovy rhythms and guitars is a reminder of better musical times for this franchise, but kudos to Giacchino for tossing it in there. Of the three new themes for this film, the one for the villains stumbles in its attempts to define itself. A stomping series of downward phrases, this idea shares some phrasing and pacing with Elfman's Doctor Octopus theme. Its first four notes repeat several times at 0:40 into "Otto Trouble," and the theme takes on the Doctor Strange instrumentation while it stews during the villains' confinement in most of "Strange Bedfellows." That style persists with electric bass as the theme meanders through the opening of "Octo Gone" but turns more romantic and hopeful as Octavius is given new life. At 0:56 into "No Good Deed," the villains' theme consolidates into stomping action mode with organ and choral power, and Giacchino announces their arrival with a fanfare at 1:16 into "Liberty Parlance." Hints persist early in "Monster Smash," a brief phrase recurs at 0:52 into "Arc Reactor," and the theme extends out of the Doctor Strange identity for a huge choral crescendo at 4:33 into "Shield of Pain." The theme oozes from Green Goblin fragments for choral menace at 1:00 into "Goblin His Inner Demons." The villains' theme's presence in the "Arachnoverture" suite arrives at 2:32, though it starts from a poor transition out of the main theme into an eerie synth version that is slow and inert. Better structural connections with the main theme are revealed at 3:37 into the suite, and Giacchino offers it a massive choral passage at 4:04 that makes one wonder if he was alluding to the adaptation of Christopher Young's Hellraiser material for Doc Ock in the second film of the original franchise. The composer's restoration theme in Spider-Man: No Way Home is the best of the new ideas, its resolution following the same chords as the main theme. A solo synth performance at 0:20 into "Spider Baiting" yields to a string version, and the full ensemble handles the theme at 2:00 into "Arc Reactor." It shifts into major fantasy mode in the crescendo at 3:42 into "Shield of Pain," enjoys pleasant choral and string shades at 2:58 into "Goblin His Inner Demons," and is used briefly in accelerated form at 7:01 into "Arachnoverture."

The final new theme in Spider-Man: No Way Home is necessitated by the franchise's pointless need to kill off a major supporting character and treat this scene and its ramifications with a musical identity for lament that doubles as Giacchino's equivalent of Elfman's family and responsibility theme. It's a nicely touching theme, but its performances fail to provide any emotional power. The composer is really hit-or-miss with these themes of introspection, and this one is merely average at its task. Yet another Giacchino theme with repeating phrases over different underlying chords, this one moves in static fashion with no secondary phrase to swell into. Those chords alone occupy much of "Gone in a Flash" before the actual melody is driven by solo piano during all of "Exit Through the Lobby" and the opening of "A Doom With a View," the latter joined by light strings. It returns after the climax at 2:57 into "Forget Me Knots" on solo piano with light synthetics on top; it's a bit underplayed in this cue until finally a full choral performance with the ensemble carries the idea at 4:35. The lamentation theme is featured on solo cello at 4:21 into "Arachnoverture" before building to a large choral rendition for that suite. As for the pre-existing themes from other composers, only the work of Elfman and Horner is explicitly referenced, and the latter is in more casual passing. The Electro theme by Hans Zimmer from by far the worst score in any of these Spider-Man franchises, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, is likely tracked in for only a scant handful of seconds and would appear in between the "Ghost Fighter in the Sky/Beach Blanket Bro Down" cues combined on album. The Doctor Octopus theme by Elfman can be a little deceptive in Spider-Man: No Way Home, as it seemingly shares progressions with Giacchino's own villain theme. Some casual listeners also forget that the monumental horror-inspired material in Spider-Man 2 was technically not the character's main theme, and Elfman's identity has been somewhat marginalized over the years by comparison to the more glamourous replacement music in that film by Young. Here, Elfman's theme opens "Otto Trouble" on tortured strings, with one phrase returning at 2:42. At 3:54 in that cue, a more pronounced rendition of the first four notes exert brass force. The theme figures only very faintly at 2:23 into "Octo Gone," is afforded a brief brass burst at 0:05 into "No Good Deed," and concludes its presence with a single phrase at 1:46 into "Arc Reactor." All but one performance of this theme is presented on the album, though the two major Doc Ock tracks on the product are actually a combination of five or six separate cues.

Utilized just as frequently in Spider-Man: No Way Home as Elfman's Doc Ock theme is his earlier, sinister identity for the Green Goblin. The production's inability to avoid the allure of Willem Dafoe causes the Norman Osborn character to play a bigger role here, and Giacchino inserts his theme into at least five cues in this score. Sadly, though, the majority of these placements are not provided on the album release. It opens "Arc Reactor" with only one phrase, but its placement there is a bit odd given the narrative at that moment on screen. It's also very faint under brooding atmosphere at 0:20 into "Goblin His Inner Demons." The more prominent references remain unreleased. For the two alternate Peter Parkers, the Maguire version receives more musical respect than the Garfield one. For Maguire's Parker, Giacchino uses Elfman's primary and secondary themes, though only one outright light, affable phrase of the family and responsibility theme is heard on album at 1:50 into "Shield of Pain." Four notes of this same idea seem to mingle with Giacchino's lamentation theme at 5:12 into "Forget Me Knots" as well. The Horner theme from The Amazing Spider-Man is provided one solemn but pretty statement at 1:11 into "Shield of Pain." Given the screen time for the other two Parkers, the relative absence of the Horner and Elfman identities disappoints, and the enunciation of the returning villains' themes frustrates. It's great that the composer accessed these themes for Spider-Man: No Way Home, but their handling isn't spectacular, and some viewers may even miss them in the film. If a score wishes to truly embrace this strategy and the film is intent upon reconciling some major character relationships from those earlier franchises, then they needed more than what sounds like token placements. Even Giacchino's own returning ideas are muted, his opening logos theme slowed down and the MJ theme confined to the one cue. The Doctor Strange theme applications are decent but underwhelming, hinted in the drama at 1:36 into "Gone in a Flash" and stewing in ambience throughout "All Spell Breaks Loose" until its formal statement at 2:16. Its first phrase is repeated several times after 0:26 into "Sling vs Bling," extended at 0:52, more prominent on brass at 1:58 and 2:20, and manipulated into action at 2:57 before reasserting itself at 4:18. Single phrases return at 0:10, 2:14, and with greater emphasis at 4:29 into "Shield of Pain," turning melodramatic on strings at 1:08 into "Forget Me Knots." Like everything else in the score for Spider-Man: No Way Home, the Doctor Strange material fails to really connect, the overall product of sufficient volume but lacking in character. Opaque new themes, a disengaged mix, and the incomplete album negate a few epic choral highlights in this missed opportunity.  ***

TRACK LISTINGS:

Total Time: 73:53

• 1. Intro to Fake News (1:11) • 2. World's Worst Friendly Neighbor (0:52) • 3. Damage Control (2:17) • 4. Being a Spider Bites (1:05) • 5. Gone in a Flash (1:52) • 6. All Spell Breaks Loose (3:25) • 7. Otto Trouble (4:19) • 8. Ghost Fighter in the Sky/Beach Blanket Bro Down (2:47) • 9. Strange Bedfellows (1:45) • 10. Sling vs Bling (5:00) • 11. Octo Gone (3:34) • 12. No Good Deed (5:00) • 13. Exit Through the Lobby (4:15) • 14. A Doom With a View (2:00) • 15. Spider Baiting (1:35) • 16. Liberty Parlance (1:28) • 17. Monster Smash (1:21) • 18. Arc Reactor (2:57) • 19. Shield of Pain (4:51) • 20. Goblin His Inner Demons (3:54) • 21. Forget Me Knots (6:49) • 22. Peter Parker Picked a Perilously Precarious Profession (1:31) • 23. Arachnoverture (10:06)

NOTES & QUOTES:

The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information about the score or film.

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