Review Summary: He lied to me he hates-a me he shot at me he's dead to me he's using me fragility electricity afraid of me he's dead to me BWWWOOOOM WUBWUWBWUBWUWBWUBWUB
It struck me on opening night of
The Amazing Spider-Man 2, a film that was truly awful, worse than the third movie in the Raimi trilogy and a contender for worst of the year. During the scene in which Spider-Man takes on Electro in Times Square, underneath the dialogue, was ominous creepy music with Gollum-esque babbling of "He lied to me, he hates-a me", etc. As soon as Electro began attacking, the music suddenly slammed into a white noise of dubstep and supersaw synthesizers. From there on, was where it became clear: since day one of the reboot trilogy,
Spider-Man is no longer about the story, it's about the status. And it's not even ashamed of it either. I can't think of a clearer reflection of this than Hans Zimmer's soundtrack. Here, the beautiful, dark, film noir-esque stylings of James Horner's score have been replaced with typical Hans Zimmer "BWOOOONG" noises, and in addition, collaborations with a band called The Magnificent Six and Johnny Marr. "But", you say, "Johnny Marr is a fantastic guitarist and his little sprinklings of guitar on the
Inception score were fantastic and helped it greatly! How could it be bad in any way?" Well, it can be bad. In fact, don't let Marr's supposed presence here fool you. It's hardly apparent, and Zimmer rarely leaves his comfort zone. When he does, we get electronic score that sounds like a cat having a bad acid trip who just fainted on a keyboard. Which leads me to mention The Magnificent Six's credit: only 15 people wrote this score, and so the supposed Magnificent Six are merely just ghost writers.
That being said, the majority of this score is the same stuff over and over. Not that that this is anything new for Zimmer, but here he plays things painfully straight as if it's the most shocking and original thing ever. Yeah, there's flutes underneath the dubstep bits, so what? Mind you he does go so far as to add some trumpets in here and there, but they're nothing more than cheesy and tacky, not in a superhero way either. In fact, it also goes to say that even without the visuals accompanying the music, you end up wondering if Zimmer actually watches the films nowadays. In fact, it's clear that he watches maybe 20 minutes of the film then pulls out his superhero guidebook and abides by it. So given the nasal tone of the trumpets and Zimmer's apparent "ah fuck watching the film, who does that anyways" mindset he seems to have, it's hardly surprising that the music that is meant to detail Peter Parker's relationship with Gwen Stacy are nothing more than lazy piano tinklings with flutes added every now and then. Times that are vital, such as the collapsing of Goblin and Spidey's relationship, are just slapped on with a typical "oooh dark and brooding" theme (such as "I'm Goblin").
Speaking of which, that brings to light another issue with the soundtrack. Since
The Dark Knight trilogy was focused mostly on the villains, it would seem natural that this formula works for him almost all the time. Problem is, not so much here. The main focus of the film should be Spider-Man; none such luck here in the score. About 2/3s of the score is devoted to Electro and Goblin, and that's a problem. Neither villain was interesting enough in the film here, and neither is the score. In fact, he utilizes a trick he used for
The Dark Knight Rises by way of creepy voices over ominous music, and this time, on "My Enemy", we get that whispered
"Fragility, Electricity, Afraid of me, He's dead to me" whispered chanting before the "BWOOOOOM WUB WUB WUB" synths kick in. In the film, it's awful, by itself, it's just plain embarrassing and it makes you wonder how this came from the mind who gave us "Don't Think About Elephants" from the
Inception score and "Why So Serious" from
The Dark Knight. Even worse, sure, the important parts of scores are "expressing the story through music, themes, imagery", but to me, the biggest and most important part of any score should be how well it stands on its own. And not only does it not stand well on its own, but it's also impossible to listen to, and I'm concerned that if listened to loud enough, physical injury could be caused.
In short, this score is only just an addition to the idea that since the sequel was announced, the sole intention was making the film "cool" as opposed to good. Like the focus was solely on music, advertising, and special effects. And the score is probably the best representation of that there is. While this isn't the worst score I've ever heard, at the same time, it solidifies the new Spider-Man franchise as one that is more about its status than its stories. Gone are Horner's beautiful sprinklings of mystique and wonder. Gone is that gorgeous mix of darkness and heroism. In their place are a white nose of frenetic orchestras and loud, grating electronics. It's safe to say this spider is running out of silk, and could meet its death by a broomstick by a scared 22-year old arachnophobe, and maybe it's time this series met that fate.
