First of all, I've made some changes to the look of the blog, so I apologize for the last few posts being difficult to read and I hope the color I'm trying out right now will work well.
Now, it's certainly been a while since I've posted anything, but I am pleased to say that the purpose of this blog- to review soundtracks- has stood the test of time. I was afraid I would lose interest! And, though I have made some excuses about getting back to this, I haven't actually wanted to give it up!
So, I will review The Amazing Spider-Man by James Horner (2012 I believe) and I give it *****. This is actually a very important soundtrack for me sense it triggered the idea of reviewing soundtracks.
And what was it exactly about this soundtrack that gave me the idea of reviewing? It was the very beginning of that movie and the music playing during the Marvel logo. At that point I knew what sort of a movie it was going to be- which was important sense it was (reboot?) new version of Spider-man and I didn't really know what to expect, but the music let me know in the first few moments.
I think, in fact, that this is one of the best examples of how music can tell the story and explore elements of emotion and character in only a matter of minutes. Listening to the music at the beginning of the movie, it tells me it's going to be an unusual, different kind of movie. The music has a very human, explorative, scientist-discovering-something-new kind of feel- which James Horner is very good at doing. But at the same time there's a side to it that's seems very alien, it's mysterious and not completely pleasant. The music in the first few minutes tells you everything you need to know about the movie, it's emotion, it's characters, what happens in the story, what the characters do and what's really happening. I could go on and on talking about each different element of the music, it's unexpected innocence, it's pure melodies that imply youthful heroism, it's quieter, sad underlines etc. but I would probably repeat myself for lack of explaining my thoughts and it would help to have audio.
In short, I think this is a very good soundtrack and it's one of my favorite of James Horner. Strangely enough I do actually have something to say against it: and that goes for the music playing in the fight scene at the school. For some reason I feel like it doesn't fit and I can never shake that, nor can I explain it.
But for the most part I think the soundtrack is probably one of the best parts of the movie (I really like the movie, by the way). It exemplifies the emotion and thoughts going through the main character's mind, as well as his drive and strength. It's a very human soundtrack, in that it has great strength but at the same time it has a weakness playing in the background that you can't shake, because it's a part of the strength.
The fact that James Horner didn't return for the second Amazing Spider-Man has always caused mixed feelings for me. I really love what he did for this movie and I would have been very interested to see how he would go on. It's almost a complete tragedy except (there's always that confused, reluctant 'but') that Hans Zimmer (and everyone else) replaced him. And what he did for that movie is really rather amazing (although I would have been interested to see what Steve Jablonsky would have done, sense he was also apparently going to do that movie). But that's a review for another time.
So what method did Horner use for the Amazing Spider-man? I would basically say that he used method 2 with a bit of method 3. That is, he used a theme throughout the movie, drawing out different parts or expanding upon different ideas. The fact that the movie is about Peter Parker, first gaining superpowers, then learning to use them, then learning what to use them for- which seems like it qualifies for Method 3- I think should mean that Horner used some of Method 3. But interestingly enough, the last couple of tracks on the CD are relatively quiet- not a theme being brought out to it's fullest extent and power. In fact I'd say that was done in the track titled (I think) Saving New York. So I'd say Horner successfully did Method 2.5, sense it seems he used complete themes throughout the movie, also developing and drawing them out bigger as the character required.
