Deluxe Edition

Composed by Brian Tyler

Back Lot Music, out now

Brian Tyler’s score to the film that’s launching Universal’s Dark Universe series of movies is a rousing, full-blooded enterprise, and far better than you might remember.

If such a phrase was in common parlance, ‘Never judge a score by its film’ would be very apt with the latest work from the Fast and Furious composer. Walking out at the end of The Mummy, so disheartened was I by the onscreen mayhem that I barely noticed what Tyler had composed, and that’s a real shame, because he’s written something far better than the movie deserves. Whether it just got lost somewhere in the mix, or the cacophony of noise buried it, listening to it in isolation is a revelation.

Stripped away from Tom Cruise’s million dollar smile and the creaky dialogue, the composer has written something very old school. It’s romantic, sweeping, lyrical, and there’s a good half dozen motifs and themes that weave their way through it. The generous Deluxe Edition reviewed here runs for two hours and five minutes – longer than the movie itself – which surely means every beat recorded at Abbey Road by the 84-piece orchestra has made its way onto the release.

Following in the footsteps of Jerry Goldsmith and Alan Silvestri (The Mummy and The Mummy Returns respectively) would send a lesser composer running away into the desert, but Tyler has been writing this sort of epic stuff since his 2003 Children of Dune and has clearly relished delivering something punchy and grand.

Opening tracks The Mummy and The Secret of the Mummy really benefit from the absence of the clunky voiceover exposition dumps, introducing the main thematic material that will soon be crossing time and space. Nick’s Theme (I like the sound of that!) is more generic action hero stuff while The Call of the Ancients is reminiscent of Chevaliers de Sangreal from Hans Zimmer’s The DaVinci Code.

A Warning of Monsters and The Lost Tomb of Ahmanet have a John Williams Ark of the Covenant feel to them (must be an ancient artefacts thing), while The Sand of Wrath lets loose the percussion session with furious banging of drums and male chorus.

This may indeed be an abundance of riches and two hours a little too much – but what a great problem to have, creating a playlist of your favourites. And if you just want a nice distillation of what’s come before, just spin the epic-length The Mummy End Title Suite.

Verdict: Brassy motifs and swirling strings, this is a score that deserves to be in a far better film. Brian Tyler’s The Mummy can proudly stand shoulder to shoulder with the composers of the bandaged-one’s previous big screen outings.  8/10

Nick Joy