Film composer James Horner, who scored the first of the rebooted Spider-Man movies and who has scored films such as Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan and Titanic, recently spoke with a fan site that follows his work. He gave some insight into what he feels made for a “terrible” Spidey reboot sequel.
Via IndieWire:
Composer James Horner recently did an interview with fan site James Horner Film Music and didn’t hold back about his experience of jumping into the Marc Webb-directed first film, and why he decided not to return for a second round. It’s not pretty.
“He was very inexperienced and he and I had a very good relationship and the producers had their own opinion,” Horner explained about why he came aboard, and what happened behind the scenes. “And they didn’t want his input. And then Sony had their own, they just wanted action.”
“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,” Horner said. “But the next movie ended up being so terrible, I didn’t want to do it. It was just dreadful.”
–George Berryman!
Apple Podcasts
Google Podcasts
Spotify
Pandora
Amazon Music
iHeartRadio
Podbean
Amazon Alexa
Player.fm
Listen Notes
Stitcher
I’m going to join the minority and say I too enjoyed AMS and thought the only real issue with it was it needed more of a focus on Harry and what he was going through and to build more of the reconnecting with Peter. Lose the family/father hunt, add more Harry.
Yeah, people are way too rough on this movie. It has some major problems, but there’s a lot of good stuff in there.
I think I like to compare it to Iron Man 2. There is a good movie in there, but the focus was a little too scattered and the plot a little too concerned with world-building. Plus, the main villain in each was played by an actor who seemed more interested in “the craft” than the actual material.
After at least 4 viewings of ASM2 I really don’t think it’s that bad. The core love story between Gwen and Peter is nice, Dane Dehann is a really good Goblin, and Spider-Man’s costume and moment are captured perfectly. It endears itself to me in a way that Spider-Man 3 didn’t because even though it is a very flawed film, it still feel very genuine in parts.
I found both ASM movies to be tremendous, and I would love to see Marc and Andrew come back for a third film.
I loved ASM2, as well as the reboot franchise in general. It was a fantastic adaptation of the character and mythology. Did they exactly copy everything off the page? No, but I believe that to be good thing. Personally, I would get very bored very quickly if everything was just directly translated for every adaptation. I can understand some of the complaints with Electro in the second movie, but I found him to be a fun, enjoyable villain.
I would honestly prefer an ASM3 rather than a new MCU Spidey. I’ve been very pleased with what Marc, Andrew, and the team have done so far. They have my support for a third ASM.
I’m also not as hard on ASM 2 as most people are. I get their complaints, and even share some of them, but at the same time I still enjoyed the movie. I think the Amazing Franchise had a lot of potential but that 2 just got too bogged down in a lot of elements that prevented it from really taking off with audiences, not to mention the fact that people were still iffy on the reboot, despite whatever it got right. And I think the film’s definitely did get a lot right, as much as they may have gone wrong in how they adapted the source material or certain character elements, that makes me sad to see it end in such a manner.
I know I’m in the minority, but I really didn’t think ASM2 was all that bad. It was easily my favorite Spider-Man film since Spider-Man 2, and MUCH better than either Spider-Man 3 or ASM1.
I loved the action scenes, and thought they captured Spidey’s movements even better than the Raimi movies (which I thought were great…well, the first two at least). I particularly loved the scene in Times Square, when Spidey saved all the civilians from being electrocuted. It brilliantly showcased both Spidey’s speed, as well as his Spider-Sense. It was easily the best scene in the movie…Heck, even Spidey’s trademarked quips sounded spot-on this time around!
Finally, the relationship between Peter and Gwen was great, and I bought it much more than I ever did between Tobey and Kirsten. Gwen was a much more fleshed out character than she had ever been…which also made Gwen’s death all the more tragic when it did come. Even though I knew it was coming, it still was heartbreaking to watch.
Now yes, admittedly a lot of the dialogue could have been rewritten, the parents should have been ignored altogether, and the villains were kind of lame…but IMO they got the character of Spider-Man himself better than he had been in a long time. Frankly, after the last two stink-fests, ASM2 was like a breath of fresh air to me.