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Is Hans Zimmer's 'Amazing Spider-Man 2' the greatest Spidey score ever?


Hlao-roo

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38 members have voted

  1. 1. What is the best Spider-Man film score to come out of Hollywood?

    • Spider-Man (2002)
      4
    • Spider-Man 2 (2004)
      5
    • Spider-Man 3 (2007)
      10
    • The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
      14
    • The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
      5


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I haven't heard Zimmer's yet, but at the moment my order goes (1) Elfman pt 1, (2) Elfman pt 2, (3) Horner, (4) Young. This is based on the three score albums, plus my memory of Young's score from the one time I saw Pt 3 in theaters (I don't listen to promos, boots, etc). I'm sure it would most likely go up somewhat in my estimation if it got a release.

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It's a tie-up with Young's score for Spidey 3, but Zimmer's edges it.

No, go with Spidey 3.

Horner or DEATH!

I'll take Death by snu snu.

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Christopher Young's Spider-Man 3 will always get my vote.


I don't listen to promos, boots, etc

That's a shame because the near complete sessions or even the promo (which has the best highlights) for Spider-Man 3 is great. You can't go by just what you heard in the film.

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There's only one thing I don't like about Spider-Man 3. How he uses the actual theme from Elfman. It never feels natural, mostly a copy & paste job. Not so with other tunes - the Goblin theme gets updated and feels like it belongs in that musical world.

Karol

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There's only one thing I don't like about Spider-Man 3. How he uses the actual theme from Elfman. It never feels natural, mostly a copy & paste job. Not so with other tunes - the Goblin theme gets updated and feels like it belongs in that musical world.

Karol

I always felt he kept them to preserve the continuity for the music. He wrote new themes for Sandman and Venom / Black Spidey but he rightfully kept the main themes for Spider-Man and Peter. That was the back bone for his score.

There were a couple of small places that were I believe just tracked music but that probably was something requested from Raimi.

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There's only one thing I don't like about Spider-Man 3. How he uses the actual theme from Elfman. It never feels natural, mostly a copy & paste job. Not so with other tunes - the Goblin theme gets updated and feels like it belongs in that musical world.

Karol

I always felt he kept them to preserve the continuity for the music. He wrote new themes for Sandman and Venom / Black Spidey but he rightfully kept the main themes for Spider-Man and Peter. That was the back bone for his score.

That's not what I'm talking about. I don't like HOW he uses the theme, that it doesn't sit well with his own style. When he quoted Goblin theme (or Doc Ock theme in Spider-Man 2) it was adapted to his own voice.

The only time that it feels right is when he hints at it during Black Spidey transformation sequence.

Karol

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It is the polar opposite! I knew Zimmer was badly declining nowadays but never expected him to be that bad (MoS, Spider 2, Pirates 4) :(

Holy mother of fuck, what is wrong with you, several bad days in a row? How can you write such a hateful and insulting post.... please stop that.

I am sorry for every unprepared user that comes in here in good mood and has to read such a thing

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There's only one thing I don't like about Spider-Man 3. How he uses the actual theme from Elfman. It never feels natural, mostly a copy & paste job. Not so with other tunes - the Goblin theme gets updated and feels like it belongs in that musical world.

Karol

I always felt he kept them to preserve the continuity for the music. He wrote new themes for Sandman and Venom / Black Spidey but he rightfully kept the main themes for Spider-Man and Peter. That was the back bone for his score.

That's not what I'm talking about. I don't like HOW he uses the theme, that it doesn't sit well with his own style. When he quoted Goblin theme (or Doc Ock theme in Spider-Man 2) it was adapted to his own voice.

The only time that it feels right is when he hints at it during Black Spidey transformation sequence.

Karol

I actually liked that bell-tower scene, musically. The way Young deconstructs Elfman's theme as 'struggling' out of the Black Spidey motif is quite clever with the images on screen, and the Black Spidey theme mutating into the Venom motif. And a lot of the tracked-in Elfman material for Spider-Man 3 was re-arranged and re-recorded by Deborah Lurie and John Debney... Young mentioned that they were brought in because he was still working on the construction site battle and he didn't have time to re-score those scenes.

I actually picked Elfman's Spider-Man 2 score, with Horner's Amazing Spider-Man and Young's Spider-Man 3 tying for close second.

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There's only one thing I don't like about Spider-Man 3. How he uses the actual theme from Elfman. It never feels natural, mostly a copy & paste job. Not so with other tunes - the Goblin theme gets updated and feels like it belongs in that musical world.

Karol

I always felt he kept them to preserve the continuity for the music. He wrote new themes for Sandman and Venom / Black Spidey but he rightfully kept the main themes for Spider-Man and Peter. That was the back bone for his score.

That's not what I'm talking about. I don't like HOW he uses the theme, that it doesn't sit well with his own style. When he quoted Goblin theme (or Doc Ock theme in Spider-Man 2) it was adapted to his own voice.

The only time that it feels right is when he hints at it during Black Spidey transformation sequence.

Karol

I actually liked that bell-tower scene, musically. The way Young deconstructs Elfman's theme as 'struggling' out of the Black Spidey motif is quite clever with the images on screen, and the Black Spidey theme mutating into the Venom motif. And a lot of the tracked-in Elfman material for Spider-Man 3 was re-arranged and re-recorded by Deborah Lurie and John Debney... Young mentioned that they were brought in because he was still working on the construction site battle and he didn't have time to re-score those scenes.

I actually picked Elfman's Spider-Man 2 score, with Horner's Amazing Spider-Man and Young's Spider-Man 3 tying for close second.

Oh yes, that's another great one. But, again, I wasn't talking about the "tracked" material at all. I know the story behind the score and what the original intentions were for those scenes. I'm talking about Spider-Man theme statements in Main Title, in Final Confrontation. Not the stuff they directly re-used, just what Young himself originally incorporated.

Karol

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What's wrong with just viewing the forum in the main browser? Why download a separate app at all?

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I used to view on the Tapatalk app, but it's pretty much rubbish. at the time it didnt even show youtube links.

The mobile version as viewed is a browser as a bit too callow, but overall it works if you get used to it and dont expect fancy text features

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What's wrong with just viewing the forum in the main browser? Why download a separate app at all?

So you have fancy "Sent From" thingies added on to your posts. ;)

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Because this dedicated app streamlines out all the unnecessary garbage of the forum like signatures and all the fancy formatting, which is better for my limited data plan. I also see a speed increase.

Granted, my old phone was slower than a turtle in January, hence the decision to try this app. I no longer have to worry about my browser resetting tabs, or a careless finger bump converting from app view to full view, which is a major pain in the ass and usually clears what I was typing. This app is streamlined and fast, and I like it. But since I know it bothers you and the Etrentulator to discuss my inability to see polls, I will not say Tapatalk again.

Sent from my XT1058

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Wojo, the mobile version of JWFan in a normal browser has no signatures of formatting either.

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Wojo, the mobile version of JWFan in a normal browser has no signatures of formatting either.

And the button for "Full Version" is one errant thumb bump from the "Post" button, which is right above the row of guess words in SwiftKey.

And as Steef will tell you, guys with pig faces have big thumbs.

The mobile version of JWFan in a browser is worthless to me. I have accepted it.

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Is Hans Zimmer's 'Amazing Spider-Man 2' the greatest Spidey score ever?

Hell no. I love his theme, but to my ears the score is total rubbish.

It's Spidey 3 vs TASM for me. There are things I like and dislike about both.

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Spider-Man 2 easily.

It has almost all the goodness of the original, plus Doc Ock's great music. Young's score can't be judged properly because the film score is butchered. And since it's attached to such a wretched, dead dog of a film, it'll never get my vote.

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Spider-Man 2 easily.

It has almost all the goodness of the original, plus Doc Ock's great music. Young's score can't be judged properly because the film score is butchered. And since it's attached to such a wretched, dead dog of a film, it'll never get my vote.

I agree. The score to Spider-Man 2 is amazing.

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Spider-Man 2 easily.

It has almost all the goodness of the original, plus Doc Ock's great music. Young's score can't be judged properly because the film score is butchered. And since it's attached to such a wretched, dead dog of a film, it'll never get my vote.

So is Spider-Man 2. Young got the worse of it though.

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I'm still not sure how Zimmer's Spidey happened.

I mean...it was a low point, even for Zimmer, who typically at least makes something primally engaging. Nope, not here. Just noise.

The Dark Knight series, for all the grief it gets, had exciting music to say the least. Music you could drive around to and visualize the pistons in your car pumping away to the rhythm of "Introduce a Little Anarchy" for example. I still can't find a place where TASM2 would be appropriate. Hell maybe?

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Spider-Man 2 easily.

It has almost all the goodness of the original, plus Doc Ock's great music. Young's score can't be judged properly because the film score is butchered. And since it's attached to such a wretched, dead dog of a film, it'll never get my vote.

So is Spider-Man 2. Young got the worse of it though.

Never is SM 2 as butchered as SM 3. Cues were inserted into SM 2, but not in such a careless hackjob way as in SM 3. The crane rescue alone is horrid.

Plus, SM 2 has a proper score release (both official and unofficial), so we can make sense of Elfman's music, while SM 3 is just a complete mess.

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There's only one thing I don't like about Spider-Man 3. How he uses the actual theme from Elfman. It never feels natural, mostly a copy & paste job. Not so with other tunes - the Goblin theme gets updated and feels like it belongs in that musical world.

Karol

I always felt he kept them to preserve the continuity for the music. He wrote new themes for Sandman and Venom / Black Spidey but he rightfully kept the main themes for Spider-Man and Peter. That was the back bone for his score.

That's not what I'm talking about. I don't like HOW he uses the theme, that it doesn't sit well with his own style. When he quoted Goblin theme (or Doc Ock theme in Spider-Man 2) it was adapted to his own voice.

The only time that it feels right is when he hints at it during Black Spidey transformation sequence.

Karol

I actually liked that bell-tower scene, musically. The way Young deconstructs Elfman's theme as 'struggling' out of the Black Spidey motif is quite clever with the images on screen, and the Black Spidey theme mutating into the Venom motif. And a lot of the tracked-in Elfman material for Spider-Man 3 was re-arranged and re-recorded by Deborah Lurie and John Debney... Young mentioned that they were brought in because he was still working on the construction site battle and he didn't have time to re-score those scenes.

I actually picked Elfman's Spider-Man 2 score, with Horner's Amazing Spider-Man and Young's Spider-Man 3 tying for close second.

Oh yes, that's another great one. But, again, I wasn't talking about the "tracked" material at all. I know the story behind the score and what the original intentions were for those scenes. I'm talking about Spider-Man theme statements in Main Title, in Final Confrontation. Not the stuff they directly re-used, just what Young himself originally incorporated.

Karol

Remember that Raimi was again his usual control freakish self on this score. Could well be that those Spiderman theme statements were mandated by him and not Young's own intention.

I have never been much of a fan of the character nor these movies nor the scores but I think it is a tie for me between Horner and Young scores.

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Never was a fan of the Raimi-scores, Horner is great if you're in the mood for Horner, Zimmer works great if you want your comic music a bit more funky. But the real hoot is the Filmtracks review of ASM 2 where Clemmenson goes apeshit about Zimmer being too superficial, lacking the apparent deepness of Elfman and Horner...or whatever....

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It has a very nice theme and the underscore often does narratively pleasing things with Horner's key themes and motifs but it's also rather cold coffee content-wise. A bit BEAUTIFUL MIND, a bit RCP percussion, a bit cute piano doodlings, boy soprano - the old Horner problem, technical accomplished but wholly unoriginal. The Zimmer is certainly more playful though of course not nearly as polished musically.

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I haven't listened to it and don't plan to

The last two tracks on disc 1 of the deluxe edition are the only bits I liked, and they're rather pleasant.

If nothing else, give them a spin before totally dismissing this one.

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Spider-Man 2 easily.

It has almost all the goodness of the original, plus Doc Ock's great music. Young's score can't be judged properly because the film score is butchered. And since it's attached to such a wretched, dead dog of a film, it'll never get my vote.

I agree that it's great - it has the great Doc Ock music and the softer guitar stuff later down the line in scenes with Peter and Aunt May.

I had trouble deciding between the two Elfman scores, but came out ahead on Pt 1 basically because it has some "highlights" early on that, for me, are sort of iconic - the part where he first climbs the wall, the costume montage, the music when he takes his revenge on Uncle Ben's killer.

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They are all good, and every single one of them has some drawbacks.

I voted for Spider-Man 3 in the end. It is the only that made a truly great impression on me when I first watched the film. Yes, it is butchered and re-scored with familiar material from previous films, regrettably. But there are several stand out sequences in the film in which you can actually hear the score. Not just subconciously experience it, but really hear it - the both Black Spider-Man transformations, Peter/Harry Fights (both of them), Sandman creation, Sandman's redemption. It's so rich in themes and motifs and almost feels like an old Shirley Walker kind of music (not style, but general approach) Not to mention a very nice theme, which Young composed for the Peter/Mary Jane and it wasn't used. It feels like a maturation of Elfman's unrequited love idea. The Herrmann-esque Sandman monster theme is nice, too. It's such a pity the official album never came out - thank god for the "promos".

Karol

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To be perfectly honest, I don't think any of the Spidey scores are really good. Never been a particularly big fan of the comic book hero in the first place either. Despite being the biggest Elfman fan in the room, I've never cared much for his two scores (beyond the theme, anyway). Young's I've barely noticed. Horner has some fine highlights here and there, but ultimately he tries to mimic Zimmer too much, and that's not his forte. So yeah -- I guess when all is accounted for, Zimmer's score is indeed my favourite; what I consider the best score of them all.

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I enjoy all the scores, but my least favorite is Young's S-M3. His approach didn't blend well with Elfman's first two scores, imo.

And I never felt Horner mimicked Zimmer's style for TAS-M

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I enjoy all the scores, but my least favorite is Young's S-M3. His approach didn't blend well with Elfman's first two scores, imo.

And I never felt Horner mimicked Zimmer's style for TAS-M

Really? The ostinato-style, horn-of-doom type sound is all over it -- loads of sample/acoustic blends going on. I happen to like that style, so it didn't bother me very much (and Horner's own, more traditional voice came through), but I found it very striking. Unquestionably the most Zimmerish score Horner has composed, IMO.

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Hanz score is crap. On the flip side it's that sand paper like toilet paper you get at state parks. It's Burger Kings' Herb the nerd marketing campaign. It's new coke.

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