Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb (Video Game Score)

Review by Thomas Glorieux:

Indy is of all ages, the movies that recently finally made it onto DVD remain legendary entertainment which didn't involve that much around effects, but more on sheer adventure. The scores by John Williams remain treasured items that stand well along his other classics, the video games went to explore either the adventure or the strategy and all this had one thing in common. The Indy theme! Naturally when exploring game music covering a movie franchise, the themes one way or another make appearances, and Clint Bajakian naturally doesn't keep it waiting since he composed the music for Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb. The good thing is, he made a variation of the theme to signal the heroic quest of Indy, meaning each time a fight ends he makes this variation sign off the music before it, and the good thing is that it starts with the first notes of Williams' theme before changing into something similar yet equally new. And to hear it over and over in the game is nothing of a distraction, since it basically is cool. And Bajakian also composed other themes for the characters but let the music present itself shall we. After the main theme, we receive 'Into the Sacred Caverns', covering Asian instruments and a more jungle sound, the brief changes from episode signal the Indy theme with the tone of the to play level, meaning you get a brief outing of several tones, like 'To Prague' carrying briefly the Von Beck danger theme, 'To Istanbul' carrying Arabic influences, 'To Hong Kong' with some Asian instruments and 'To Xian' covering Von Beck and another to use danger theme, namely the Asian one. Of course briefly presented here, they expand in the initial pieces. Of course, action or adventure is the largest playing role in the game and soundtrack and 'Vegas Lab' presents already a piece of that with a dark led march, covering that Nazi flavor and between that brief statements of Indy, sometimes even just notes of it.

A good example is for instance 'The Kraken's Lair' which is orchestral suspension music covering good pumping fanfares and fast whirling strings and flutes, it has got a John Williams air to it which makes the transition good to enjoy. 'Gondola Ride' is more of that with a lot of pace, and great drum led main theme statements in an otherwise rousing form. But you soon get the idea of things and while 'The Feng Twins' is equally enjoyable in its action packed form, it uses much of the previous mentioned material, while stating the good Asian danger theme. However some brief relief is needed and the theme of Mei Ying, Indy's love interest is just the ticket to that problem. Heard in 20 seconds clips in 11 and 12, its brief but lovely theme is nonetheless the respite you need. Its a simple yet most effective theme which makes it hummable for many hours and gets later on more attention thank god. 'The Bells of the Dead' uses basically the danger themes but don't come anymore fresh out of the oven. Same with 'Von Beck's Revenge', it has some menacing light choir and the Indy theme marching but states mostly what we heard before. 'Rise of the Black Emperor' is the climatic battle, covering 7 minutes of action adventure music and again this states most what we heard already. Yet, while we could have gotten just the main theme in a concert form, I'm glad to report 'Epilogue & End Credits' is a nice culmination of all the ideas of this album, starting with the wonderful Mei Ying theme growing with the orchestra to a more precious form, it also covers some of that action material, the danger themes and naturally the Indy theme, but only this in the last minutes. Especially the inclusion of Mei Ying's performance is excellent but sadly neither track covers the alternate heroic theme Bajakian used for each ended fight. A more complete CD is indeed available but we chose the more comprehensive album (without that brief variation) to make sure Clint Bajakian did a wonderful Williams like Indiana score, covering Williams' trademarks yet Bajakian's ideas.

\ตตต1/2/

Tracks

Single Disc

1. The Raiders March (2.52) Excellent Track

2. Into The Sacred Caverns (3.16)

3. To Prague (0.35)

4. The Dungeons (1.35)

5. Vegas Lab (4.34)

6. To Istanbul (0.46)

7. Istanbul Breakout (2.12)

8. Secret Of The Mosque (1.31)

9. The Kraken's Lair (4.41) Excellent Track

10. To Hong Kong (0.19)

11. Mei Ying (0.25)

12. The Golden Lotus (0.33)

13. The Black Dragon Fortress (1.52)

14. Gondola Ride (5.43) Excellent Track

15. The Feng Twins (4.35)

16. To Xian (0.18)

17. The Emperor's Tomb (2.03)

18. The Bells Of The Dead (3.40)

19. Von Beck's Revenge (3.52)

20. Rise Of The Black Emperor (6.52)

21. Mission Accomplished (0.30)

22. Epilogue & End Credits (5.55) Excellent Track

Total Length: 59.04

The use of artwork or photos is posted for non profitable reasons