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Man, I saw SPIDER-MAN 2 last night and I have to say that I was completely floored by the music… in a bad way. This is only a guess, but I’m thinking that only about half of what Elfman did wound up in the finished movie. There was SO MUCH tracked in from the first score! And the edits were so clumsy! I have no idea what went down on this movie, but if I were Elfman, there’s no way I’d come back for part 3. Among the cues that were repeated over and over again in the film mix were ‘Main Titles,’ ‘Alone,’ ‘Revelation,’ and ‘Getting Through.’ Bits of some of the action cues from the first flick found their way in there as well. The new material sounded great — I loved Doc Ock’s theme — but there was just way too little of it. I hope that this was a case of Elfman getting screwed by last minute post production tampering, and not him taking the lazy way through this picture. I find it hard to believe that he’d say, “ah f### it, just use the cue I did two years ago!” He could have done that on MIB2 (a far crappier movie than this one with a much tighter scoring schedule), but he didn’t. I’m hoping that the forthcoming album contains a more interesting, cohesive score than what’s in the picture.
As for the additional cues, John Debney is credited with two: “Special Delivery” (which is heard very early in the film) and another cue called “Drop Girl” or something. I think I’m getting the title wrong, but regardless, Debney’s cues blend seemlessly into what Elfman did.
Chris Young is also credited with two cues, BUT his cues are credited “Christopher Young and Danny Elfman. He contributions are a bit more conspicious than Debney’s. He apparently reworked a cue from his own score to HELLRAISER 2, but using Elfman’s ‘Doc Ock’ theme. Sticks out like a sore thumb in the movie, but it’s cool. He also scored part of the train sequence (as heard in the clip available through iFilm). The cue sounds good, but it hard to hear through all the sound design.
All in all… I’ve gotta say that this one is kind of a mess. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for the album. When I saw Elfman speak at the LA Film Fest a few weeks back, he seemed really bitter about the whole process of scoring movies these days, particurally big action-oriented ones like SPIDER-MAN. Again, I don’t know what exactly happened on SPIDER-MAN 2, but if he was fully aware of how his music was going to be used in the final picture, his bitterness is 100% understandable.
I LOVED THE SPECIAL DELIVERY CUE!!! I don’t care who composed it, I loved that piece! It sounded heroic, but in a less heroic way…like comically heroic. Now Drop Girl…not sure where that was. Maybe towards the end, but I won’t give anything away. I knew that the music in Doc Ock’s presentation was too dark for even Danny, but I liked it. Oh, how I wish that the Special Delivery cue was on teh soundtrack. Maybe it is under a different name or something. Yes, I too was upset with the recycled music, I wish Danny would tell us what happened there. I’m still satisfied with the new music. He just has to come back for the third one to compensate, huh?
Hmm, I’m at ease now that people have confirmed my suspicions about the tracked-on music Spider-Man. Even though I counted several reused cues, I just didn’t want to believe what I was hearing (maybe 2 or 3 cues were just rerecorded, I thought), but here you have it.
I’ll echo Mullin’s comments. To quote “A Mighty Wind:” “Wha’ happened?!” Can anyone provide some sort of conclusive information as to why so many cues were recycled? Maybe the next issue of FSM will shed some light on this…(Ryan…any related info?)
-E
I’m afraid that he doesn’t have much say in what gets released. After all, we were all at the mercy of Sony Music in the release of the score soundtrack. I really wish that it included some of Chris Young’s and John Debney’s cues, because they were pretty good. And as for what Nobody said, his personal life could very well be a factor in the limited score. After all, he just got married to a beautiful woman and they’re probably settling down. Let’s just hope that he’s settled before Charlie and Corpse Bride!
Elfman is already in London working on the songs for CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. He left around the time the time the additional cues were being recorded. I don’t think he personal life had anything to do with it, honestly.
I’m with John on this : Danny is a professional and I don’t see how his private life could affect his work (He can’t write music because he’s happy ? Give me a break). He NEVER reused previous material on sequels and would never do it, it’s not in his temper; at least, never on a such important scale.
So, I’ll go with the director/studio modifications…I’m sure that the score cd will prove that he wrote more original music than what we can hear in the film…
yeah, I’m really sick of this whole “personal life affecting his music” crap.
Me too, sleepy!
But I’ve said enough about it already, I think.
-beth
“He left around the time the time the additional cues were being recorded.”
Additional cues? I thought there were 2 cues that were just reworked.
There were 4 that were reworked… at least four that are credited in the movie! Two by Debney, two by Christopher Young. All of them are for pretty major set pieces in the film and all use the themes that Elfman wrote.
The cues only use Danny’s themes or do they rework or extend Danny’s original music for those scenes ?
Hey, nobody, unless you’re Bridget Fonda, I think you should let Danny Elfman decide what is good for him…
Where are you getting all this inside info about Elfman’s personal life, seeing as how he keeps it pretty um… private?
If your using his music to form your adaption of the life of danny, well… if *you* were a “creative person” you would understand that it is not that simple.
Taking a piece of music for how it makes you feel and deciding that is exactly what the composer was feeling when he wrote it makes the whole creative process rather limiting, don’t you think?-beth
Yeah, I firmly agree with Beth and the others on this… whatever’s going on in his personal life, it’s really none of our business. Although Bridget Fonda is damn hot.
about the main tittle retracked.
It was slightly varryed although it began pretty much the same exception of keyboards instead of the chorus and the use of track 8 alone from 1 was the only noticable retracked cue(to me), I loved the late for class cue. It was something like Costume Montage.also I noticed that there was alot more base an gituar
Ah…nobody, you don’t know what you’re talking about. The Spider-Man 2 score fiasco couldn’t have been his fault. If (and this is a big IF, especially what happened with this movie) he decides to do Spider-Man 3, he may redeem himself. And let me point out that his score wasn’t “sucky.” What was “sucky” is how the first Spider-Man score was mixed in, which, again, I think wasn’t his fault. Those cues didn’t make sense. It was also “sucky” that Raimi had to change some scenes, so additional composers had to be brought in. THAT was “sucky.”
Possibly on the score cd there could be reworked pices
“player haters”?
haha. noob.
wha?
Hi, my name is beth and I am a player hater.
so relieved to finally have that out in the open.Hahah. It seems nobody’s posts just got deleted!
I thought i was the only one to notice this! They just used TOO much music from the first movie! I was also contemplating the whole”He just got married thing” then i think i went crazy or something cause i started thinking things like “Maybe hes sick or something”but i hope thats not the case! The new music that was used was great! Especially Doc Ocks themes! Just hearing stuff about The corpse Bride and Charlie and the chocolate factory make my maouth water! Cant wait for that stuff! The thought that Danny will be getting back to song writing! Wonder if hes gonna sing!
Remember Scrooged?
That one was dissapointing to Elfman. Unfortunately, he’s not his own boss.-beth
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