Customer Reviews

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As fan of the scores by Goldsmith and Silvestri for the first and second part of this trilogy, I had great expectations for the work of Randy Edelman. The fact that his carreer has no real success ( except his participation to Trevor Jones' Last of the Mohicans and the well known theme from Dragon's Heart )affraid when his name was announced, but I bought this CD with some hope... and was not disapointed ! OK, he didn't make an epic theme full of percussions, but un lyrical adventure score, pursuing the evolution of the franchise's soundtrack that Silvestri started with tracks like "Sandcastles" or "Medjei Commanders" in Mummy Returns. Here, three great themes are making us travel throught the story : The main theme as theme for the O'Connell family is a well writted track that keep us in the adventure ambient, the second is more dramatic, sad but beautiful, with a asian-typed reprise called "Ancient China" and remain all allong the CD, and the love theme, most rattached to the sad theme. Developping them with talent, Randy Edelman make it to create a new ambient and a great score, sometimes romantic, sometimes full of action and dynamism ( Shangai Chase, Reign of Terror, etc). Maybe not the best soundtrack of the year - nore the best of the franchise - but he hasn't to be ashamed of : We already are immerged with the O'Connells, back in action ! And that's all the fun I was hoping for !

After watching this film on tv last night I was struck by the beauty of Helen Feng's voice. I searched and searched for more about her but only found this as a way to hear her again.
I hope she will make a cd and soon! I will buy it and surely others will as well. Haunting voice!! beautiful song.

The title for the review says more than you think. After the first time listening to this soundtrack, I was pleasantly surprised with it. Randy Edelman did a great job with this score. The theme from the mummy three is very "superhero theme like." The score overall, though, is adapted to fit the new location of China. I have a respect for the way that he made this score, because like Silvestri before him, he made the themes his own. Each soundtrack is different, and this one is fairly good overall, and is the second best of the soundtrack trilogy. The soundtrack has various peices to fit all the different parts of the movie. I give it four stars for it's new spin on the series, but it is not one of my absolute favorites, even though it is great.

I'm not a huge fan of Edelman's (I loved his work on Ghostbusters 2, though), but his main theme for this movie is just so darn catchy, I find myself humming it often. The action cues aren't as strong, but definitely show some structure. Too bad most of his work was replaced in the actual movie. That makes this score an odd listening experience, and 30 tracks is way too many, but the main theme alone is worth the price, in my opinion.

This soundtrack has great music and it sounds great. It is a good soundtrack to get, go and buy it.

There have now been three incarnations of The Mummy in what has become a small film franchise (three films, a movie spin-off, and theme park rides) each with a different composer, and surprisingly, following Jerry Goldsmith's fine lead and Alan Silvestri's excellent sequel, each have been different and quite good including the newest, Randy Edelman's score for Rob Cohen's The Mummy, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. The soundtrack album begins with Edelman's "call to adventure" theme which sets the stage for the romp to come, but then goes immediately to what is initially a somber and sorrowful theme for solo cello (Anthony Pleeth) with distinct Chinese undertones (actually all of Edelman's Asian/Chinese themes and motifs work very well). This theme becomes the musical foundation for much of the rest of what is really a solid score, at times nearly tragic, but also quite grand and again adventurous (note composer Edelman on piano) with a couple of comical twists and a tribute or two to other films and composers. Another theme/motif for the Dragon Emperor emerges often juxtaposed with the adventure theme and/or the main Chinese theme. This is a much more dynamic score than expected and works wonderfully well on this recording (note that bits and pieces have appeared during the various broadcasts of the Bejing Olympics...of course Edelman is providing other music for this event). Oddly, it seems almost muted on the screen at times, and that is too bad. The 1940s style vocal (by Helen Feng) included at the end is now expected, but in this case is actually part of the film, and is serviceable. Well produced by Varese with solid packaging.

my son, is mildly retarded and suffers with cerebral palsy.

he is a movie fanatic. if left to himself he watches his (extensive) movie collection, over and over and over and over again!
he loves this particular mummy movie.

The fourth film in the Mummy franchise, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, was unceremoniously ripped apart by film critics as by the far the weakest link in the franchise. The films have been getting progressively worse and worse as they made their way from The Mummy to The Mummy Returns to The Scorpion King to this film, and straight-to-DVD sequels notwithstanding, director Rob Cohen's film looks to have finally sounded the death knell over what was once a successful set of films. Brendan Fraser returns as adventurous archaeologist Rick O'Connell, who this time finds himself in the far east in the company of his wife Evie (Maria Bello) and almost-adult son Alex (Luke Ford), crossing paths with the resurrected mummy of an ancient Chinese emperor named Han (Jet Li), whose vengeful spirit was encased - along with his vast army - inside terracotta statues by a sorceress (Michelle Yeoh).

Rob Cohen's composer of choice is Randy Edelman - the pair have worked together previously on movies as diverse as Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Dragonheart, Daylight and XXX - and so, he was natural choice to pick up the reins from Goldsmith, Silvestri and Debney here (that, and the fact that the film has the word `dragon' in the title, which clearly secured the deal). After writing what seemed like 20 scores a year throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Edelman went through a couple of years of not writing many film scores, and it's nice to see him back in the saddle. Edelman's hugely individual style of writing has endeared him to some while alienating him from others, but one thing which cannot be denied is that he is a truly original voice in the film music world. Whether you appreciate what he does it purely a matter of taste.

Against my better judgment, I actually really enjoyed Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It's clearly an inferior score to both Goldsmith's original Mummy, and to Silvestri's powerful Mummy Returns, but Edelman's work has a sense of unprepossessing adventure, of light-hearted fun, and is completely free of any of sense of cynicism or self-parody. It's a straight out, old-fashioned romp of a score, and makes for refreshing listening. Listeners familiar with Edelman's music will notice a number of recognizable touches which earmark themselves as being clearly from the composer's canon. Some of the chord progressions are clearly inspired by possibly the most popular Edelman score of all time, Dragonheart, although this is not necessarily a bad thing.

The main theme - "A Call to Adventure" - is a prototypical boy's own melody, full of whimsy and an infectious can-do spirit. It's clearly much lighter in tone than any of its predecessors, and completely lacking a sense of menace, but as a standalone piece it's actually really good. It's anchored by the familiar, wholly unique Edelman synth-strings which have dominated everything he has written from Gettysburg onwards, but unlike some of his less ambitious scores, has a much beefier orchestral sound, which is pleasing indeed, and is no doubt due to the presence of the London Symphony Orchestra before Edelman's baton. Even the electric guitar, which joins in the fun towards the end of the cue, doesn't seem out of place. The theme re-occurs several times throughout the score: accompanied by whooshing wind effects in "Crash and Burn", in a more contemporary style in "Yang Follows the O'Connells", in an action setting (and on a Wurlitzer!) in the exciting "Shanghai Chase"; as a sprightly English pastoral flute piece in "Rick's Long Rod"; and in the rousing "Finale".

However, where Tomb of the Dragon Emperor really shines is in its sub-themes, some of which are quite wonderful. There's a thoroughly gorgeous romantic theme which first appears in "Silently Yearning for Centuries", and is based around a resonant three-note cello motif which gradually rises to encompass the higher end of the string section, a softly cooing choir and ringing horns, to lovely, tingly effect. This continues on in the equally impressive "Open Wound", in which husky-voiced throat singers and low bass chords gradually give way to mewling erhus. Anyone who has read my reviews over the years will know that I am a sucker for Chinese music played by a western orchestra, especially when authentic oriental solo instruments are added into the mix, and this is no exception. Recapitulations of the Chinese theme, in cues like "Reading the Scrolls", "Ancient China" and "Heartbreak" are welcome.

Other moments of note include the swooping brass clusters which first appear in "The Reign of Terror"; the lovely, delicate piano motif which appears during the touching "A Family Presses Close" and later in "Love in the Himalayas" and "A Warm Rooftop"; the growling horns at the end of "Crash and Burn"; the simply gorgeous cor anglais solo in "Alex and Lin"; and the unexpected baroque dance in "Memories, Retirement and Dinner".

Possibly the only parts of the score which seem a let down are the all-out action cues, some of which sound somewhat unfocused and chaotic, as though Edelman simply threw a jumbled mass of music together in the hope it would be exciting. Edelman has never been a great action music composer, and cues like "Entering the Tomb", "The Emperor Versus Zi Yuan", "Rick and Evy in Battle" and "Shielding a Son" seem just a little under-developed and simplistic. There's also a slightly disappointing over-reliance on drum machines and synth samples to add an internal rhythm; the influence of Zimmer knows no bounds, it seems.

However, while clearly a step behind its predecessors in the franchise, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is nevertheless a fun and enjoyable action romp which, assuming one can overcome the inherent `cheesiness' in the main theme, actually contains a great deal of good and worthy music. In fact (and discounting Gods and Generals, which was primarily a John Frizzell score), I'd go so far as to say that this is easily the best Edelman score in over a decade.

Jerry Goldsmith and Alan Silvestri showed us how a Mummy score should sound like.

Unfortunately Randy Edelman's music for "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" is comparing to the fantastic scores of the mentioned composers quite simple and weak. The quiet parts are quite nice and listenable, also the last song is a good one, but the action tracks are horrible. That's why they have been replaced in the movie by the producers with John Debney's action music.

If you would like to listen to great Mummy scores, get "The Mummy" or "The Mummy Returns".

The mummy saga continues, this time in China, and by the second generation of "mummy-busters'.
The director needs to be complimented for having completely missed every single opportunity that millenary culture and civilization of China had to offer to make this movie amazing, and creating something totally commonplace and closer in spirit to a TV sequel than a great action movie sequel. This is a phenomenon in reversal of talent that needs to be marked for the record. Not everyone can go wrong that consistently.
Luke Ford plays Alex O'Connell, son of Richard 'Rick' O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) who made his fame exploring Hamunaptra and finding the mummy of Imhotep.
This time the action switches to China where Imhotep is the name of the club/bar that Eve's brother, Jonathan (John Hannah) is running with the money that came out of their last adventure. Actually the dance sequence at Club Imhotep with a chorus line of gorgeous Chinese dancers doing an Egyptian number was the highlight of the film. His sister is now played by Maria Bello who does not have the funny antics of Rachel Weisz, but also tries too hard as the retired Evelyn O'Connell, who is a book writer and lecturer. Both Eve and Rick love their retired life in a huge country estate in England that has enough wood panelling and stained glass windows to pass fro the sacristy of Westminster Cathedral. However, they both miss their adventurous, younger days and when a secret service agent lands in their house asking them to deliver the eye of an idol to the Chinese they jump at the opportunity. The moment when this eye becomes activated with a drop of Eve's blood is the only other interesting highlight of the film.
The only decent moster moment came when the Yeti appeared in Shangri La, but it was a cameo appearance, and they left too soon.
Alex is such a boring college kid he is not even excited about his great discovery, the tomb of the First Emperor of China. There was HUGE potential here to make this an unforgettable film, particularly the scene in the tomb with the world famous terracotta army, but it soon turned into a cookie-cutter action B-movie. To see the army of terracotta battling the army of the dead workers buried in the great wall was very depressing. They were both computer generated nightmares of repetition and dusty aggression.
The emperor himself is a huge bore. Neither particularly striking or creative with his inherently EVIL nature, this one acts and thinks more like a Red China Cultural Revolution bureaucrat. Michelle Yeoh plays Zi Juan, a sorceress that had been in love with one of his generals. She is the guardian of the sacred waters in Shangri La and a total bore too, so is her daughter who incidentally happens to be Alex's girlfriend. These two women are unbereable together, except when they are being attacked and kicked by the raging emperor who wants to kill both. When they both give up immortality I had to sigh with relief.
The mummy deserves a better sequel. This was too trite and unimaginative..