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The Amazing Spider-Man 2 Score Review



This is really an excellent effort by Hans Zimmer and his team. It's a vastly different approach to Spider-man than Horner's, but it's nonetheless quite good.

If you're anything like me, you were tempted to lock yourself in your bedroom and cry for weeks when you saw that Horner wouldn't be scoring The Amazing Spider-Man 2. However, when I saw that Zimmer was replacing him I breathed a sigh of relief.

Zimmer doesn't use (that I've noticed) any themes at all from Horner's score. He completely reinvents Spider-Man, and it's not a bad re-invention. Thankfully, he does keep one aspect of Horner's score, and that's a thematic approach to Spider-man. Electro's theme is pounding dubstep with predominant rap (yep, you read that correctly), the Goblin's theme is a haunting, reflective blend of strings and piano, and Spider-man's theme is a soaring, heroic melody. Another theme worth mentioning is the love theme. It's heard several times throughout the soundtrack, to great effect.

With this score, Zimmer has done something that he hasn't done before. He seemingly effortlessly blends many different genres into one, and the result is (wait for it...) amazing. Not every single moment will leap out and drown you in emotion, but a good deal of it will do just that. If you dislike electronic music, this score is definitely not for you. However, if you don't mind it, enjoy it, or love it, I highly recommend you give it a chance.

Some highlight tracks include: “I'm Spider-Man”, “My Enemy”, “No Place Like Home”, “We're Best Friends”, “Still Crazy”, “The Rest of My Life”, “You're that Spider Guy”, and “Cold War”.


Overall, I award it 4.5 out of 5 high-powered electricity bolts. Bravo, Mr. Zimmer.

You can buy it here.

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