The uncle of Peter Parker is known for a few things, his influence on Peter and for a quote that stuck throughout the entire Spider-Man comic series and Marvel universe. "With great power comes great responsibility" sticks with many comic book fans and is a very succinct and inspirational quote, I want to look at the entire second movie's soundtrack from a perspective like this, though from a Nietzsche-like perspective.
According to Nietzsche there are, on very basic terms, two types of people: the ones in the herd and the ones with the will to power. The herd is the average Joe, a guy that just goes along with the world and accepts it for what it is, but the one with the will to power sees past society and sees the problems nobody notices. It sounds like a good thing, but as you look at the world you see many people that point out or stand against problems being looked down upon and hated by society. If the person is trying to do something to change things, why do the people go against them? People do not like change and while it seems to be accepted in this day and age, everyday I see people that fight change and despise those that want it. So who would be better to analyze this than a hero that wants to save his city and inspire those within to be better.
Peter has begun to come to terms with his not so new powers in the new movie and starts out with confidence in his abilities as he swings around New York to stop a hijacked truck and "I'm Spider-Man" comes on. He has found a type of happiness in his powers and has accepted them to be part of him and has fully taken up his will to power. The music also conveys this in its powerful starting trumpet movement, filled with staccatos. The music is fast-paced and serves as a confident background to his swinging as Spider-Man himself yells, "Woo-hoo!" Rather than losing his battle with his powers and shunning them he has finally chosen to rise from the herd and embrace this chance to rise above.
Though, one of the main points that Nietzsche makes in his philosophical text Will to Power is that "[The herd] will allow value to the individual only from the point of view of the whole, for the sake of the whole, it hates those who detach themselves - it turns the hatred of all individuals against them." (157). Spider-Man has taken it upon himself to go above the herd, so he will have others that try to stop him from differing from the rest, like Mr. Jameson. Apart from him, that is where the song "My Enemy" takes over. This song is a outstanding 8:04 long and it is has very menacing and insane overtone. It focuses on heavy electronic sounds and a mixture of voices saying "Lies to me," "Paranoia," "Cheated me," etc. This all comes from within the mind of Electro, aka. Max Dillon, a lowly electrician working at Oscorp that falls into an aquarium filled with experimental electric eels. The bits of thoughts and phrases spread throughout "My Enemy" are overwhelmingly negative. This is "the instinct of the suffering and underprivileged against the fortunate" (156). In his accident he has taken in this instinct as he is not saved by the hero he loves so dearly.
Max has received the same catalyst as Spider-Man, but his mind is clouded by the rage of being left to die. Instead of rising above the herd we get "I'm Electro." Instead of using his new powers to be extraordinary and be confident in this world, he becomes something else completely. Electricity is based upon circuits and needs the all of the pieces of the circuit to work in order to be complete. The herd is the same, without its massive network of people it would not be a herd, so the constant, electric pounding in the 0:47 of "I'm Electro" that is like a heartbeat, he embodies the hatred of the herd towards Spider-Man's inability to save everyone. It is at this point in the tale that Max, the man who had left the herd to support Spider-Man and new morality, leaves and becomes Electro, the hatred and suffering of the underprivileged against the fortunate. In this world, many people become disappointed in those that they support and end up being an advocate against their cause. They feel like those that wish the change did not help them, so they are in the wrong. The herd is cursed by a narrow mindset that only serves to build their anger and distaste for change.
The trend continues throughout the movie as we have themes for those with the will to power (Spider-Man) and the ones that are within the herd (Electro). As we see songs like "So Much Anger", "There He Is", and "Still Crazy" we seem to get a theme rising from both sides of the argument. Both believe in their own way and do not see the errors in their ways, shown in how fast-paced and riveting the aforementioned songs are. They all have their mixture of Spider-Man's confident, trumpeting sound and an equal amount of whispering, electronic noises as well symbolizing Electro. This is shown very well in "Still Crazy" as we see the final battle between Spider-Man and Electro. There sounds mix throughout and serve and battle for dominance as they overlap and fade in and out to make one or the other stand victorious. The herd is confronting the one with the will to power to end him before he can change how life normally works within that society.
Though as the movie progresses another character appears to have taken up the will to power, but in the opposite way that Spider-Man has. Electro has the morality of the herd in the fact his hatred is for those that differ from the suffering, but Harry Osborn has a different story. He is fortunate and rich, only suffering from a disease, but he is not satisfied with how the world ignores his condition. As Nietzsche says, "Very few manage to see a problem in that which makes our daily life," but Harry believes he has seen this "problem" and changes his morality to accommodate that. He will stop at nothing to get the cure to his disease to save his life from being ended before he wants it to end. In this tumultuous morality, we get the song "I'm Goblin" (catching a theme?). This song has the same confidence that songs like "I'm Spider-Man" and "No Place Like Home" but it replaces a strong orchestral string instrument with a trumpet with a very heavy tuba bass line and skewed string instruments. Its very dark and destructive, building up anger and resentment towards the herd as well as those fortunate, becoming a hybrid. Harry hates the herd for how little it actually suffers, but dislikes those with power, like Spider-Man because of how they act better than the rest of the world. This song continues building up and up throughout and gives tension as we see this herd-power hybrid move into the story line.
As I mentioned earlier, neither side of the argument between the herd and those with the will to power feel that the other can be right so there was always a mixture in songs like in "Still Crazy" with no actual blending between the two aspects. The worlds were parallel and unable to intersect. Though after Peter fights Electro and the Green Goblin, something tragic happens. His love interest, Gwen Stacy, dies right in front of him after he could not save her. "The Rest of My Life" is a very sad slow song that plays in the background of this scene as Peter begs Gwen to come back and stay. The song is broken and has a piano play a series of staccato notes to show Peter losing the thing holding his confidence together. Though rather than renouncing his power and returning to the herd, something very interesting happens, as he realizes he cannot be there for everyone at once, no matter how hard he tries.
"No Place Like Home" is the culmination of all that has happened to Peter within the span of this movie. It sounds very much like "I'm Spider-Man", but if you listen, you will hear how it has changed. There is a blend in this song, we have an undertone of that pulsating Electro sound with the confident Spider-Man. He realizes that he must keep going to stop the underprivileged from being overwhelmed by those higher than them, he is powerful, but he does not need to save everyone, he only needs to inspire the herd to move away from the herd. We see this in the very last scene of the movie as a small child steps away from his mother and stands up to the Rhino and puts on a Spider-Man mask. This song shows how the herd takes on "the exceptions above it, the stronger, more powerful, wiser, and more fruitful" as "guardians, herdsman, [and] watchmen" (159). They have begun to fully accept Spider-Man and are beginning to want to live up to his example as the kid shows. The scene itself is what really tells the tale, so please take a moment to watch:
Anyways, this is one amazing soundtrack and it did a really good job of giving each character its own theme within the music making it one of my favorites to review, but what really intrigues and makes me enjoy this soundtrack the most is how the authors blended the sounds of Electro and Spider-Man to show this evolution of Spider-Man and provide a middle ground in an extreme battle. So remember to break off from the herd every once in a while and listen to the background music.
Works Cited
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Will to Power. Trans. Walter Arnorl Kaufmann, and R. J. Hollingdale. New York: Random House, 1967. Print. 15 Nov. 2015.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Dir. Marc Webb. Perf. Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, and Jamie Foxx. Columbia Pictures, 2014. Film. 30 Nov. 2015.
Zimmer, Hans. The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack. Columbia Records, 2014. MP3. 29 Nov. 2015.
