The Amazing Spider-man Soundtrack Review

• 5th Jul 2012

Composer: James Horner

James Horner takes a bash at the comic web-slinger franchise and comes up with something quite delightful. Previous composers like Danny Elfman may have imprinted on us memorable tunes from the previous trilogy, but it’s good to see a fresh composer giving us an alternate take on the material.

Oddly Horner doesn’t stray too far away from what we are already familiar with. He blends almost seamlessly with the previous scores (yes plenty of high-pitched choir vocals), but Horner goes deeper than ever before with some truly beautiful cues throughout. It isn’t all action, there is a heck of a lot of dramatic tension within the tracks which probably reflects the fact that this film is more of a study of peter parker than it is Spider-man.

Horner also very cleverly mixes his traditional orchestral score with some neat electronic work  as well. It may not have as well a defined “Spider-man theme” as we tend to hope for in each of these franchises, but it a mature score that will keep both Spidey and Horner fans very satisfied;  like many of his scores the real greatness is all layered within.

Steven Hurst