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Review of The Mummy Returns (Alan Silvestri)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you seek one of the few adventure scores that can
compete with John Debney's Cutthroat Island in terms of
adventuresome spirit, sustained tonality, and noisy bombast.
Avoid it... if you demand thematic continuity in the scores of this franchise, none of which exists amongst the shared instrumental stereotypes exercised in each entry.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Mummy Returns: (Alan Silvestri) When 1999's
The Mummy surprised Universal and grossed $400 million worldwide,
the studio decided immediately to develop a franchise out of the
concept, assembling almost the entire cast and crew from the first film
for 2001's summer blockbuster, The Mummy Returns. The only
problem with that idea was in the dryness of the well from which
inspiration was taken for its script. There simply existed nothing new
for The Mummy Returns to add to an already spent equation, and
the insertion of a small role for wrestler Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as
the Scorpion King was an obvious move to establish a connection for the
third film in the trilogy that indeed did come down the pipes not long
after. The same characters once again face off in ancient and 1930's
Egypt with the aid of curses and resurrections, their chemistry strained
by familiar suspense and action circumstances. The production values of
The Mummy Returns are undeniably improved over those in the first
film, but a sense of deja vu in the plot cripples the entire film. One
person who thought that the franchise was trash from the outset was
legendary composer Jerry Goldsmith, whose grandiose score for the 1999
film is revered by his collectors as a guilty pleasure at the least.
Goldsmith's public dismay with the fact that his career had diminished
to extent that it included films like The Mummy obviously removed
him from consideration when it came time to score the sequel, this
despite the respect he had earned from Stephen Sommers. The director had
originally wanted Alan Silvestri to score his horror/adventure flick
Deep Sea Rising before Goldsmith stepped in for that
embarrassment, so he turned to Silvestri for this project instead. Fans
greeted the assignment with curiosity and some optimism; with his
previous two scores representing minimalism (Cast Away) and
parody (The Mexican) with decent results, some were skeptical
that Silvestri could pour on the orchestral might necessary for this
non-stop action thriller. But with Silvestri came an equally experienced
adventure scorer, a man who had impressed audiences through the years
with this highly functional and occasionally memorable action
material.
Along with the sequel film's attempt to be a cinematic marvel with its improved special effects, the script has very few moments of extended peace in its narrative. The challenge for Silvestri was to produce almost two hours of unyielding action music heavy on brass and chorus for The Mummy Returns without allowing the music to become a cliche of generic scores of the genre. The composer ultimately succeeds in keeping the pace of the score moving without allowing it to become too repetitious or missing opportunities for valuable tonal statements of grandeur. Goldsmith's score for the original film was highlighted by a handful of momentous bursts of thematic material, though the vast majority of music from The Mummy blended together in the kind of anonymous fashion that Goldsmith had tended to embrace in the last years of his career. Because of Silvestri's basic approach of scoring each battle or chase with a rhythmically and thematically melodramatic technique, Silvestri's music is ultimately more enjoyable than that of Goldsmith in terms of quality ruckus. Silvestri avoids the use of the orchestra as a mere sound effect, as Goldsmith did, developing each cue into a substantially tonal piece of music and causing The Mummy Returns to be a more listenable score when divorced from the visuals. As heard in the context of the film, Silvestri's work does tend to be mixed so heavily that it becomes wallpaper at times, and some listeners may find the same to be true on album. Like its predecessor, this score is rooted in stereotypical faux-Egyptian chord progressions and instrumentation. In other words, Silvestri doesn't attempt to re-invent the wheel. Although he uses a considerable amount of percussion for his music, it is easily the brass section which dominates The Mummy Returns. If an adventure film calls for a score of enormous presence in the film (if not for the mere fact that it has to compete with the sound effects), there is no better method of success than hiring a large brass ensemble to blast the score into relevance. In this case, the composer had all the sections, including the chorus, recorded together as a single unit on the stage, but for the action scenes aplenty, Silvestri sets up a primary base of almost constant, rhythmic percussion (mainly in the form of a variety of medium-range drums) and then layers the trombones, trumpets, and French horns into lengthy performances of the thematic ideas on top. Stylistically, if you're allergic to cymbal rolls and crashes, then watch out for the obviousness of The Mummy Returns, because there are countless synchronization points that Silvestri accentuates with these metallic elements and others. The brass performances are so blatantly heroic that they may remind some listeners of the classic swashbuckling scores of the Golden Age or, more recently, John Williams scores of the 1980's, with brief, pulsating blasts from one brass group weaving in and out of triumphantly extended whole notes on others. This could be the single brassiest score in the early 2000's, and if you're a fan of explosive horn sequences, this is your dream come true. On top of the constant level of noise, the full ensemble also performs a variety of new themes that Silvestri created for the sequel. The Goldsmith themes are not explicitly performed at any time, and this choice was intentional. In many ways, this decision is a shame, because Goldsmith nailed his themes even if his underscore was scattershot. His Egyptian theme in particular, the one that opens The Mummy in "Imhotep," remains the most impressively powerful identity in the entire franchise. That said, if you listen closely to the subtle counterpoint in busy action sequences of the sequel effort, such as a few bars of music two to three minutes into "Scorpion Shoes," you can hear Goldsmith-influence phrasing that suggests some connections between the scores, though they may also be purely coincidental. Silvestri adds three new primary themes to the sequel score, each of them developed to satisfaction. First is the new theme for Rick O'Connell and his heroic deeds, brazenly blasting a trail in "Evy Kidnapped" and "My First Bus Ride." This brass theme, usually aided by wild flute or piccolo figures in their highest ranges, eventually dominates the late portions of the score with its swashbuckling optimism. It's related to the old "B-rated" sci-fi adventure themes of the early 1980's and is about as basic in structure as one can get. Still, as a general-purpose adventure theme, it gets the job done and will remind of the same spirit that made Silvestri's Back to the Future theme so adorable. The second theme is the heavy-duty, Egyptian-flavored representation for the love affair between the villains, with strings and woodwinds building to exotic statements that mirror some of the tones heard early in David Arnold's Stargate. Listen for a particularly muscular rendition of this idea at the end of "Train Chapter." The final and most elusive theme of The Mummy Returns is a melodramatic, romantic identity for Rick and Evy that is introduced in "Just an Oasis" and, despite a few flourishes on strings later in the score, is somewhat short changed by the presence of the other themes until really exposing its potential in "Come Back Evy" and the suite, "The Mummy Returns." There are a few incidental subthemes along the journey as well, including one for viola that grows into a wondrous and magical variant on the idea for the villains and accompanies curses and other fantasy elements of the film. The chorus builds upon this mystique with enchanting presence at times, though its chants never occupy very lengthy sequences of the score. During some passages, they do remind of the primal presence in Silvestri's Predator 2. All the ideas that Silvestri conjures are packed into the frenetic and lengthy "The Mummy Returns," which serves as an exceptionally strong editorial suite of themes from the score. The sound quality of the Sinfonia of London Orchestra and Chorus, as recorded at the resounding CTS Colosseum in England, is crisp and dynamic, with enough reverb added back into the mix to maintain both the scope and dynamic tone of the genre. In some moments, the oud and other exotic accents get lost in the mix, but they can still be followed. The original 2001 Decca album offers a phenomenal presentation of the score, with almost seventy minutes of unadulterated Silvestri action providing for an exhilarating and enjoyable hour of noisy fun. There does exist an additional 45+ minutes of material missing from the album, including a few notable fanfares and almost all the music from the last act of the film (due to recording and mixing schedules lagging behind the album master). These omissions were rectified by Intrada Records in 2018, when the label released both this and Goldsmith's The Mummy as outstanding, expanded products. Like the preceding work, some of the previously unreleased Silvestri cues are atmospheric and tend to slow the flow of the listening experience significantly. The inclusion of the source-like "Gong" for 18 seconds is amusing but could have been moved to the end of the presentation. Still, the final twenty minutes of the score is an essential addition for any enthusiast of this music, especially with the love theme in "Wrong Girlfriend" and main heroic theme in "Happy Ending." An extension of the Egyptian theme in ambitious rhythmic mode occupies "The Mummy Returns - End Credits," offering more of the flavor heard in the first minute of the formal suite. The 2018 Intrada album for The Mummy Returns is an all-around more impressive expansion than the label's sibling release for The Mummy. After the nearly 110-minute score presentation and the inclusion of the film's song (more on that later), Intrada offers several notable alternative arrangements, some of which featured on the Decca album but all of them testimony to the haphazard editing Silvestri had to make to this work. Generally, outside of substantial disappointment that Goldsmith's themes did not carry over to the sequel, The Mummy Returns is a resounding success. In its consolidated presentation, which can be smartly expanded using the Intrada product, the score hits all the right crescendos and pauses just long enough from the ruckus to allow you to come up for air. There are percussive, hand-to-hand battle cues that will clang. There are male and female choirs chanting along with marching armies of fighters. There are spontaneously swelling moments of strings for vistas and emotional interludes. And, most importantly, there are thematic statements on brass unlike many others. The most impressive aspect of Silvestri's score is how he weaves it all together into such an effective whole, balancing each element with equal bombast. Where Goldsmith's effort often degenerated into uninteresting noise, Silvestri's work never becomes boring, and it thus functions very well on even the longer album. The song included on both products, performed by the group "Live," is a horrendous example of nonsensical hard rock encroaching further into the realm of the orchestral domain. Other than the mandatory benefits of marketing, of course (something that could apply to this entire production), there's really no reason for this hideously intolerable addendum, or any other from its genre, to exist in this film. Nevertheless, the Decca album was the only one on which you could obtain the song until it was released by the group on its own product a few months later. It is perhaps fitting that John Debney entered the franchise to compose for The Scorpion King the following year; if The Mummy Returns were to be compared to any existing score at the time, then Debney's Cutthroat Island would have been that reference point. Silvestri's work here reaches the same scope of sustained tonal bombast and often touches upon a similar swashbuckling style in its main theme. This is clear evidence that Silvestri could have produced a capable, if not outstanding score for the first Pirates of the Caribbean film in 2003 had he not been thrown overboard. Do yourself a favor by listening to The Mummy Returns instead and imagine the possibilities. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
2001 Decca Album:
Total Time: 73:34
2018 Intrada Album: Total Time: 147:27
* Previously unreleased
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert of the 2001 Decca album includes extensive credits and pictures
but no extra information about the score or film. It is arranged in a folding poster
layout that is difficult to condense once opened. The insert of the 2018 Intrada
product includes extensive information about the film, score, and release, with the
exception of a list of performers.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from The Mummy Returns are Copyright © 2001, 2018, Decca Records, Intrada Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 5/1/01 and last updated 1/18/19. |
