About the Soundtrack: "The Mummy" saga continues with "Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," featuring both new and older characters alike in this outing with the most notable introduction in the cast being that of Jet Li as the Dragon Emperor. Also new to the series are the creative leads who brought us this third installment, including Composer Randy Edelman who follows up Jerry Goldsmith and Alan Silvestri, respectively, in the series. Edelman is a composer who offers a distinctive sound all his own and this is his first assignment in quite sometime that allowed for all of his melodic sensibilities to be showcased in a complete manner. Beyond the specifics, however, the soundtrack offers quite a bit of score material and one song track, which is tacked on at the end of the disc. So as a consumer/fan, there is plenty of music for your soundtrack dollar, though as usual, I recommend downloading the score from iTunes (or a similar online presence) at a far cheaper price.

What You Need to Know:  What is it with Edelman and movies that have 'Dragon' in the title? Or more specifically, it's his collaboration with Rob Cohen that enables him to produce some of his best work. Dating back to "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story" to "Dragonheart," their work together has produced fruitful bounties of memorable film music. "Gettysburg" not withstanding, I would say these entries are the best in Edelman's career. Add the "Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" to that list.

I will say that when the score first got underway with the initial track, I was a bit worried. The synthetically driven sound design of Edelman's work was a bit too prominent for me with the first cue, which is entitled "A Call to Adventure (the theme from Mummy 3)." I had to get into the mood of the score before I could later appreciate this track from the leadoff spot and the eventual use of its campy main theme in throughout the score. What makes the score work so well are the secondary themes that Edelman has written for this picture along with the use of real, authentic instruments, which when heard, provide a stark contrast to the electronically aided portions of the soundtrack.

While the main theme may put off some of the more conventional listeners of film music with its dainty flair, there should be no gripes with the melodies heard in the motif that represents the Dragon Emperor and the heroes who chose to stand against him. These moments in the score are touching and heartfelt and truly convey a sense of emotion that I felt was lacking in the previous 'Mummy' scores. There is also a nice love theme that offers a dash of old fashioned romance, especially when Edelman uses the piano to add a classical presence to it. The use of a piano, when done so in balance, always brings a certain elegance to film music, I feel, and it was a welcome addition to the "Love In the Himalayas" and "A Warm Rooftop" tracks.

The adventure and action music from this soundtrack is passable, though the more effective and exciting cues are heard early on in the score. Some of the weaker sounding action motifs seemed to have been replaced in the movie by Composer John Debney, who as rumor has it, came on board to write additional material for the film. However, in the case of the soundtrack, I found that by the time the album was rounding out its lengthy running time, I was beginning to grow weary of the similarly styled action cues that made up a good portion of the score's latter stages. Likewise, the main theme began to overstay its welcome as the score played on. The album's length began to play against the material. Had this soundtrack been reduced to 20 tracks, than these issues would not have come up and the overall grade would have been higher. Alas, more is not better and that impacts the overall listening experience. However, don't let that sway you in too negative a manner. Edelman's score is an above average entry and features some of his best work in many years.

Final Score: Randy Edelman stays true to his style in "Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" and unlike his outings in recent years, he had more room to maneuver with this one given the scope of material. To that end, he's delivered a score that offers multiple themes that range from the lighthearted to the touching and dramatic, and achieves an overall scope not heard since his "Dragonheart" score. Had this album been produced differently, then we would have been talking about a significant and memorable soundtrack as opposed to a listening experience that falls in the 'very good' category, which is certainly not a bad consolation.