Everyone loves piling on my beloved The Amazing Spider-Man 2. If you pay attention to the site at all, you know I’m a big fan of Marc Webb’s sequel (perhaps its biggest – and possibly only – fan). But now that it officially has been labeled as a disappointment, everyone comes out of the woodwork to dump on it. Co-star Marton Csokas says he’ll never watch it. Even Andrew Garfield admits that the film had a few issues. Well, he’s not alone in throwing Spidey 2 under the double-decker bus.
Composer James Horner worked on Marc Webb’s initial The Amazing Spider-Man, and was prepared to return for the sequel – until he saw it. In an interview with the site JamesHorner-FilmMusic, Horner said he and Webb "had a very good relationship," but the producers of the film "had their own opinion. And they didn't want his input." So when it came down to Horner returning for the sequel, he said:
To me, the whole thing about doing the movie was, I liked the director and there was a chance to write something for the two lead characters -- and then she dies in the next movie. But the next movie ended up being so terrible, I didn't want to do it. It was just dreadful."
Candid. I appreciate his honesty, even if I disagree with his assessment. If you don’t recall James Horner’s work on the original, his main theme sounded like this:
The irony of the situation is that James Horner was replaced on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 by Hans Zimmer, and Zimmer’s heroic score is one of the things even detractors liked about Webb’s sequel. The fact that Zimmer brought in A-list collaborators to create a memorable audio bed gave Spidey 2 a boost that Horner’s score couldn’t (or didn’t). So it might have been a win-win for everyone involved.
Will there be a third Spider-Man? And who will score it? We really have no idea, but I’m guessing, after these comments, that James Horner won’t be anywhere near it.
