I’ll be honest. I’m a sucker for big, epic-style movies. Stuff
\nlike
\nStar Wars, Krull, Indiana Jones, Excalibur, Stargate<\/i> –even
\nArmy Of Darkness<\/i>. I love it. I enjoy that sweeping feel that
\nthey have and the bad dialogue that can permeate these movies. And
\nI love the grand music that these films usually come with. There is
\nnothing quite like it. Sometimes, the music can surpass the film
\nand become even more memorable. (Easy example: The score to
\nDragonheart<\/i> vs. the actual movie. Which one will you
\nremember?)<\/p>\n
In any case, to accompany this year’s remake of the classic
\nhorror film,
\nThe Mummy<\/i>, the people in charge turned to composer Jerry
\nGoldsmith for the task. You may not remember his name, but his work
\nis well known. He created the theme for
\nStar Trek: The Movie<\/i> — which they later used for the TV
\nseries and other movies–and did scores for
\nAir Force One<\/i> and
\nStar Trek: Insurrection<\/i>. His work is well known. But I will
\nbe the first to say that this score is NOT the musically-complete
\nnor the most challenging nor the most artistic. I will even admit
\nthat this score is not groundbreaking nor a great score. However,
\nthis score is one thing: FUN!<\/p>\n
How would you create music for a movie that is set in Egypt?
\nSimple. Add Egyptian touches to the music. The main theme for this
\nmovie is introduced within the first track, “Imhotep.” In fact,
\nthis theme appears and reappears throughout the score at various
\ndifferent tempos to highlight the action that is going on. The main
\ntheme itself is nothing more than a few notes played slowly at
\nfirst on a flute and a harp, before the violins take over it. It is
\nsimple, it works and it is great.<\/p>\n
More of those Egyptian touches reappear throughout the score. On
\ntracks like “Giza Port,” “The Caravan” and “My Favorite Plague.”
\nWhile it is true that they are barely more than touches, they add
\nto the flavor of the soundtrack. For example, in “The Caravan,” you
\nare treated to a sweeping piece of music–like wind across the
\nSahara. Then, midway through, it dies and gives you the main theme
\nagain.<\/p>\n
The main theme is actually slowed down to a few notes to serve
\nas the love theme. This appears on various tracks– “Night
\nBoarders,” “The Caravan,” and “The Sand Volcano.” As a love theme,
\nthe music gains a new sense and serves to unite the quest the
\ncharacters are going through with the personal attraction the two
\nleads are having for one another. Sure, a more concrete love theme
\nwould have been better, but this one will suffice.<\/p>\n
Of course, a movie remake of “The Mummy” has to have some horror
\nscenes, right? In this one, the horror music appears early–in “The
\nSarcophagus.” Here we get more Egyptian flavor along with some
\nslow, creepy music that suddenly turns and starts building towards
\na climax. Some of the music here is repeated on “Rebirth” and parts
\nof “The Crypt” which also has this sense of danger.<\/p>\n
Then, there are some tracks that seem to be here just for the
\nfun of it. They are attached to the more action-oriented parts of
\nthe movie and they give off that feeling of action. “Tauger Attack”
\nstarts out with a speeded-up version of the main theme, before
\ndescending into a more-ordinary action fanfare. “Camel Race” is the
\nopposite. It starts out as action fanfare and midway through, it
\nreturns to the main theme and uses it as a climax. “Mummia Attack,”
\nand “The Mummy” feature some more of the action sequences, but here
\nis where you encounter the big problem of this soundtrack.<\/p>\n
I’ve already said that this soundtrack wasn’t the most
\nmusically-complete score out there and I’ve backed it up by
\nexplaining how the main theme is used and reused in a number of
\ndifferent ways. Well, the problem is that there is no diversity.
\nWhile the main theme is great and is used well, there is nothing
\nelse to compete with it. Think about it. In
\nStar Wars<\/i>, you had the main theme, the Cantina Band, the
\ntheme for Princess Leia and on and on. Here, the main theme is used
\nto cover the hero, the heroine, the villain and the action. Some
\npeople might find that a bit boring or uninspired. It would have
\nbeen one thing if Goldsmith had created one theme for the mummy,
\ngiven the hero and heroine another theme and then used the main
\ntheme to tie the movie together. Instead, the main one is used as
\noften as I’ve used the word “theme” in this review.<\/p>\n
What makes it worse is that the action themes — like “Mummia Like I said, I liked this movie and, overall, the soundtrack
\nAttack,” “Crowd Control” and “The Mummy” — then fade into one
\nanother. You can’t tell when in the movie this is taking place or
\nseparate into individual pieces. I realize that I can listen to the
\nfirst seven tracks — “Imhotep” to “Camel Race” — and then skip to
\nthe last one (“The Sand Volcano”) and it does not feel like I’ve
\nmissed anything. This is not good. After all, the climax of the
\nmovie, the danger, the sense of horror often hinges on the music’s
\nability to stand out and play a part. Here the music just becomes
\none large, undistinguishable, piece. (I also had that problem with
\nhis score for the movie,
\n
\nThe 13th Warrior<\/a>
\n<\/i> , where he tries to add Middle-Eastern touches, but fails
\nbecause there isn’t even a single unifying theme to the entire
\nmovie. Instead you are treated to various musical pieces that
\ndissapear into the void).<\/p>\n
\nworks. The album ends with “The Sand Volcano,” where the main theme
\nand its various uses are all repeated. However, I do feel like
\nGoldsmith might have just churned this one out quickly to tend to
\nthe many other soundtracks he was working on. This is bad. The
\nsoundtrack is halfway to being good, so why not complete it and add
\nmusic that will stick on your head? I don’t know. As it stands,
\nThe Mummy<\/i> is only half-good. Therefore, that’s the grade it
\ngets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":25059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5729],"rating":[5619],"class_list":["post-36264","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-soundtrack","rating-rating-c"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52151,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36264\/revisions\/52151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36264"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36264"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}