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I don’t want to stir up the hornet’s nest here but the new dvdign.com review of Spiderman had a few unkind words about Mr. Elfman’s score.
Don’t take it wholeheartedly.
Instead write him, the reviewer here, at: jeremy@ign.com.
I did. I wrote giving him a lengthily description, drawing parallels to Batman and Superman’s score proving Spider-Man has its own fantastic merits. Moreover, I pressed the importance of leitmotif and the jigsaw puzzle of themes to his tin ears.
Here’s what he had to say:
“Danny Elfman’s score is one of the most bland film scores in recent memory. It’s not nearly as horrendous as the X-Men soundtrack (or lack thereof), but it doesn’t live up to what a character such as Spider-Man deserves.”
“Both Superman and Batman feature very memorable themes that identify the character whenever they are heard. There’s a “theme” for Spidey, but it’s easily forgettable and in no way identifies itself with such an iconic character such as Spider-Man. The rest of the score just seems like white noise.”
Remember, don’t flame him; just disprove him. I’d be great for him to get an inordinate amount of Emails proving how shallow his judgment is.
God, “bland,” has to be the most OVERUSED description in film score reviews. I should count how many times I’ve read that…oh, if I had a nickel for every one of those times…
in fact, people didn’t get Parker’s character :
he’s not 100 % hero, like Batman or Superman were; it takes him all the entire movie to accept his powers ! And when he does, it is by sacrificing his private life. So, the theme just can’t be as heroic as the superman theme !
If you play the theme on a keyboard for example, you’ll see it is constructed like that : 3 steps forward, 3 step backward. Is there another way to express Parker’s doubts ??People always wait a theme played by brass, with a strings background. They have their habits and really don’t want to make any effort to try to understand why this one is different.
I used to regularly visit IGN (before they made you pay for the good stuff), so I can safetly say that most of the editors there are dumbasses, anyway, it seems.
In the broad scheme of things, who the hell is Jeremy at IGN and why should we give a sh-t about what he thinks?
Let US enjoy the music.
Ryan
Go, Ryan!
Critics are creepy–it’s best to run in the other direction whenever you see them approach. Whether they say good stuff or bad, in the end they’re only vocalizing their own opinion–which really doesn’t matter when you tend to disagree.
Generally the guy does fine dvd reviews. But his opinion on the score is so misguided I felt he needed a stern taking to about the concept of suitable film composition.
“In the broad scheme of things, who the hell is Jeremy at IGN and why should we give a sh-t about what he thinks?
Let US enjoy the music.”
I do enjoy the music but I want many more people to enjoy it too. Several weeks ago I found out that my co-worker knows about Danny Elfman and then he hummed the MIB theme! It was great! But it’s one in a million… Almost all people here in my country still don’t know Danny Elfman and bad reviews like that sure don’t help…
BTW (promotion coming), please check my site
, I’ve been trying to collect all the links to Red Dragon, MIB2, and Spider-Man reviews:“Both Superman and Batman feature very memorable themes that identify the character whenever they are heard. There’s a “theme” for Spidey, but it’s easily forgettable and in no way identifies itself with such an iconic character such as Spider-Man. The rest of the score just seems like white noise.”
I must say that the Main Theme in Spiderman’s Main Titles is definitely one of the most ingenious and sonorous themes Elfman has ever wrote. It might not be as easily perceived as is for instance the Batman theme, but the complexity of the harmonic and melodic structure makes it more interesting and “curious” to listen.
It is just pity that the theme in it’s whole entirety is introduced only in the main titles in the movie.
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