2. Spider-Man (2002)
The other long-term collaborator in Elfmans career is director Sam Raimi, the pair first worked together on Raimi's 1990 superhero film, Darkman, featuring the director's original creation and most recently in this year's Oz: The Great and Powerful (which it could be said has Burtonesque undertones). Although they have worked together many times, their greatest combination of efforts is undoubtedly the Spider-Man films, arguably the best superhero film series. Yes, I said it. Elfmans rousing Spider-Man theme is perhaps superior to his Batman theme over ten years previously and the entire score is full of tense, suspenseful pieces. The soundtracks to the Spider-Man have their own sound, separate from Elfmans other work with Burton or on other films and match perfectly with the tone of Raimis films. Similar to his fall out with Burton, Elfman and Raimi had a temporary parting of the ways which meant Elfman did not return to score Spider-Man 3. That films soundtrack, composed by Christopher Young, keeps many of Elfmans refrains but is a very different score. As Spider-Man 3 is the seen as the film that killed the series and led to the, gulp, reboot coming five minutes later could it be that it was because the talent of Elfman was not involved? No, probably not.