Maybe my expectations are too high. But when I get a CD soundtrack in the mail — say, the new Spider-Man 3 soundtrack (thanks, Sony Music!) — I kind of, well, expect the damn songs to be in the movie. Right? But when I went to a Spider-Man 3 screening last week, to my chagrin, it was more like song. The only track the movie wonks used from the soundtrack, for the soundtrack, was Chubby Checker’s 1960 dance-pop sensation, "The Twist." Which, IMO, is only slightly less lame than yelling "Free Bird" at a concert, or using Zeppelin’s iconic hit "Rock and Roll" in a Cadillac commercial. (Second prize in lameness goes to Snow Patrol and their weepy ballad "Signal Fire," which played to the closing credits — and to fans fleeing the theater in fear of drowning in waves of treacle.) PopWatchers, I have to admit, I was a bit baffled by this; why would Sony bolster its indie cred by making a soundtrack with hip/hot/happenin’ bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Flaming Lips, the Killers, and Jet if they weren’t even going to use them in the actual movie?
But then I noticed something: the fine print on the CD jacket, which said, ”Music from and inspired by…." And I thought about how bad, black-suited Spidey — in his civvies, Tobey McGuire with an irresponsibly trendy combover and heavy black eyeliner — was, in fact, the emo-embodiment of the music on the soundtrack! Eureka!
Those of you who’ve seen the movie: what do you think of Spidey’sbad-boy image? Has Spidey gone emo? Is there some sort of biggergood-citizen message here that says that emo bands are bad for you?(Personally, I’m inclined to agree.) Are you as picky as I am when itcomes to hearing the music you paid for (or downloaded, yes, I’m awareit’s 2007) in the actual movie? And finally, do you think bad Peter Parker looks more like Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz or Crispin Glover?
SO happy someone finally caled out Spidey for his emo-ness. Ever since the trailers started coming out, my friends and I immediately noticed “He’s gone emo!!!” Having seen the movie last night, I don’t think it was too terribly distracting or annoying, but I am disappointed that they had to resort to something so lame and cosmetic to try and illustrate the whole “inner struggle”/Bad Spidey thing…
I honestly thought the movie sucked. X-Men 3 was better! As for your emo call out, I totally see it. But in the end, I thought less about the music and more about how I had just wasted some serious sleep time. That’s the last time I head to a midnight screening!
The soundtrack is on Warner Bros., not Sony . . .
I haven’t checked out the soundtrack yet, and maybe it was just fatigue, but I liked the Emo-Spidey. I knew it was temporary and it was a delicious mix-up in my op.
Emo spidey is so *totally* Conor Oberst.
p.s. which makes me think I could kick his $@#.
He didn’t look like Pete Wentz or Crispin Glover… With the faint eyeliner and the hair falling in his face, Peter Parker looked like none other than Adolf Hitler.
This “soundtrack that not in the soundtrack” drives me nuts. I remember seeing American Pie 2 and thinking the songs in the movie were great a great collection of pop songs, then found none of them were on the cd soundtrack. Also, you can go back in the last 10 years or so and find a few songs that won the Oscar, but only played over the credits and didn’t play IN the movie (or only played the music with no lyrics).
One thing I cannot stand about emo is how the term is overused these days. Thanks to these bands elevating this subgenre of rock, now every dark and conflicted person (usually male) keeps getting typecasted as that emo BS. Spider-Man was always a somewhat depressed, self-loathing individual in the comics but all of a sudden he’s emo?! Ugh, that’s one word I wish to be eradicated for good, along with the phrases ‘get a life’ and ‘jumped the shark’.
“hearing the music you paid for (or downloaded, yes, I’m aware it’s 2007)”
Uh, those two things aren’t mutually exclusive. Anything you download should be paid for too.
i think the movie was fine. but what is emo?
I thought the emo-Spidey was utter crap… possibly because at one point emo-Spidey decided to relive Saturday Night Fever, creating some confusing pseudo-disco-emo hybrid.
Looking back on it now, I can’t decide if he looked more like Conor Oberst or Jared Leto (post 30stm).
…This was at the heart of why the movie was a big let down.
The music on the soundtrack isn’t emo. It’s pretty cool.
I got a huge Peter Petrelli vibe off the emo hairstyle.
He looked like Christopher Walken’s gay son in Wedding Crashers.