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Following in the footsteps of Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, James Horner and others, Michael Giacchino returns to the Marvel Cinematic Universe with some fun accompaniment to the latest big screen friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man.

There’s a point at the start of Jon Watts’ movie when the Marvel Studios ident flickers across the screen and you go – ‘Is that? No? Surely not!’ But it is indeed Bob Harris’ theme tune to the 1960s animated series, sans those lyrics by Paul Francis Webslinger… Webster: “Spider-Man. Spider-Man. Does whatever a spider can.” It’s a full-blooded orchestral arrangement that sets out the movie score’s intentions right from the outset – to have fun.

The composer cut his teeth in the Marvelverse with last year’s Doctor Strange but has been composing superhero anthems since 2005’s Sky High and The Incredibles. This time round he hasn’t tried to up the ante – it’s tricky to go bigger than Alan Silverstri’s Avengers Theme – and instead gone for something a little more… local and neighbourhoodly.

That’s not say there isn’t scale and ambition – The World is Changing is a grand scene-setter contextualising Peter’s prior Avengers escapade. When he’s back home or at high school there’s a more jaunty accompaniment in tracks like ‘On a Ned-to-know Basis’. Yes, the groan-worthy puntastic track titles are back – Stark Raving Mad, Webbed Surveillance – which has become a tradition with Giacchino.

Monumental Meltdown underscores one of the movie’s most exciting action scenes and this is where the Spider-Man theme kicks in at full throttle, having swung in from stage left in a lower-key version in Academic Decommitment. It’s brassy, it’s jazzy, it’s joyful, and even if it’s a little generic it quite literally hits the right notes when needed.

Verdict: A melting pot of previous blockbuster themes and superhero soundtrack tropes, Michael Giacchino’s Spider-Man might be a hybrid of Elfman, Horner and Zimmer, but the fun strokes are all his. I doubt you’ll get a more spritely selection of cues this year. 8/10

Nick Joy