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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of The Scorpion King (John Debney)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you are open to the idea of hearing a touch of metal
flair in the otherwise predictable orchestral majesty suitable for the
franchise.
Avoid it... if the use of ripping electric guitars for a 16th Century warrior cannot be compensated for by John Debney's more usual layers of orchestral and choral bombast.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Scorpion King: (John Debney) Inspired by the
legendary Egyptian warrior introduced in The Mummy Returns, the
third installment of The Mummy series concentrates on the
character of The Scorpion King and his 16th Century battle
against an evil visionary and ruler of the famed city of Gomorrah. The
film was not much more than an excuse for a regurgitation of the set,
costumes, and visual effects templates seen in the previous film; upon
the unexpected level of success of the original 1999 entry, Universal
gave the green light to two sequels that were intended to be released in
snapshot succession, and by the release of The Scorpion King in
2002, the concept was stretching for marketability. Not experiencing the
same staleness factor at the time was wrestling star Dwayne Johnson
(otherwise known for some reason as "The Rock"), starring as the
Scorpion King and bulging with 21st Century nutritional supplements, but
nevertheless battling ancient, evil henchmen to the sound of John
Debney's action packed score. Debney, whose action music often needed no
supplement, followed Jerry Goldsmith and Alan Silvestri as the composers
of the films in the series (the former refusing to join the carryover
crew for the sequel because of his decision that The Mummy was
mere trash). His music eclectic in style and his career spanning nearly
every possible genre, Debney has been a master at both orchestral themes
and synthetic rhythms throughout the late 1990's and 2000's. Of all the
composers producing large orchestral works in Hollywood during this
time, Debney is also among the most talented at the creation of
satisfying rock and roll music as well. These talents have always landed
him some less than desirable scoring assignments (The
Replacements is a prime example) and for a long time, his mastery of
both the orchestral and synthetic realms had not yet merged on a grand
scale. Finally, The Scorpion King changed all of that, throwing
the two stylistic sides of Debney's talents into one surprisingly
cohesive, kick-ass piece of music. It is no surprise that when Universal
beat a dead horse by resurrecting the concept again in 2008 with The
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the man called in to supplement
Randy Edelman's underachieving music with a continuation of his
orchestral ass-kicking was none other than Debney.
Imagine the scope of Basil Poledouris' Conan the Barbarian accompanied by a handful of ancient instruments primed and ready for The Passion of the Christ and an assortment rip-snorting electric guitars, synthetic percussion, and drum kits, resulting in a score that combines the contemporary metallic enthusiasm of the actor in the title role with the orchestral and choral magnificence of Debney's own classic score for the not-so-classic Cutthroat Island. The music for The Scorpion King will either blow you away or, at the very least, leave you staggering from an orchestral experience that often teases the heavy metal genre along its journey. Many listeners had been skeptically curious as to how the melding of Debney's two worlds would sound, though ultimately most of the composer's collectors considered it either an enormous success or, at the very least, a substantial guilty pleasure. Indeed, even if you can't readily enjoy the work apart from the film, The Scorpion King is a fascinatingly original score. It plays to the stereotypes of Egyptian chord progressions, explodes into its electric guitars whenever The Rock flexes a pectoral muscle, and releases incredible amounts of straight forward choral and orchestral majesty for the film's grand vistas. The score also lovingly borrows a few clear ideas from other popular film scores, including the repeated ensemble striking of the same note from Bernard Herrmann's The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and the wavering fluctuations of octave-separated trumpets and horns from Don Davis' The Matrix. Some of the more unashamedly bombastic portions will remind of Goldsmith's The 13th Warrior as well. Still, though, Debney's work is creative enough from the opening bar to compensate for any intentional or unintentional lifting. Don't let the "Boo!" track at the start of the album discourage you from the rest of it; if you've never heard a heavy metal cue accompanied by full orchestra and chorus, it might catch you off guard. Obviously, the studio and director were content to immediately distinguish this entry from Alan Silvestri's purely Cutthroat Island style of swash and buckle for the previous film. The greatest reason for the success of Debney's score exists the fact that he incorporates the electronics (of which the guitars, synthetics, and drums were often arranged by his own talents) with an orchestra highlighted by two harps and a few ethnically appropriate accents without allowing the electronics to ever detract from the main group of players. The Scorpion King is, at heart, a fully orchestral and choral score that has become best known for its occasional, awesome accompaniment of attitude, spirit, and power from The Rock's electronic persona. On album, the majority of the serious heavy metal ripping is concentrated near the start. By "Mathyus Arrises," Debney employs the guitar as an ultra-cool bass region transitional element, extending that use of the instrument into a two-bar phrase in "Die Well Assassin" that is otherwise already momentous with its percussion clanging and choral chanting. Debney's thematic constructs for The Scorpion King once again take the franchise in a new direction, understandably jettisoning all of Silvestri's ideas for mostly unrelated characters. These themes don't reach out and grab you like Silvestri's did, which might disappoint some listeners. The majority of action pieces generally avoid grand capitulations of the themes, but they still display a remarkable respect for pleasant harmony and rhythms. The instrumentation is creative and sometimes haunting during the slower, more reflective moments of the score, and more cues utilizing the ethnic vocals would have been welcomed. Those female vocals, while maintaining a certain stereotype of the setting, serve well to represent the erotic nature of the evil visionary, too. The final cue of the score flourishes with an almost Stargate-like majesty, topping off a strong, 34-minute album presentation that may still be too short for some fans. For Debney, The Scorpion King was his flashiest work in a while, merging the orchestral and electronic halves of his career with strong results. Only the need for a more dynamic and memorable theme, along with a longer overall length on album, keeps this product from a higher rating. It is nevertheless the most unpredictable and snazzy score of the franchise, though many orchestral purists who can't get past the initial shock of the score's first track gravitate towards the previous entries. ****
TRACK LISTINGS:
Total Time: 33:54
NOTES & QUOTES:
The insert includes a list of performers but no extra information about the
film or score.
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