Buy it... if you have lingering affection for the 1990's Hans Zimmer/Media Ventures sound and seek Paul Haslinger's best attempt to resurrect it in true Trevor Rabin fashion.
Avoid it... if you can't handle the thought of Jack Sparrow and Batman becoming musketeers, because the derivative nature of this highly familiar score could drive you nuts.
The Three Musketeers: (Paul Haslinger) Financed with a substantial amount of support from various groups within Germany, Paul W. S. Anderson's 2011 resurrection of Alexandre Dumas' classic tale of 17th Century musketeers and their exploits in French and British political intrigue steers the concept into "steampunk" territory by including a secret invention of Leonardo Da Vinci as the centerpiece of its otherwise typical, character-centric plot. Betrayals and duels are once again the concentration of the story in The Three Musketeers, though fans of historical science fiction and alternate realities will appreciate the battle between Da Vinci's flying machines that attempt to alone justify the heavy advertising of the movie's 3D element. Despite the appeal of Orlando Bloom and Milla Jovovich, the latter a regular Anderson collaborator, in major roles, the movie didn't generate the positive buzz in younger crowds that the multitude of studios probably hoped for, its script often a target for ridicule. In the director's efforts to revise the concept for another generation, perhaps he forgot about similar aspirations made by the production of The Man in the Iron Mask in 1998, and nowhere is the overlap in focus more evident than in the music for 2011's The Three Musketeers. Anderson has rotated regularly through composing partners for his prior films, often with awful results (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil) or mundane orchestral efforts (Soldier, Alien vs. Predator). He has certainly established that he is not afraid to hire unconventional artists for these assignments, sometimes solo and at times in conjunction with an established composer, and in predictably unpredictable fashion for The Three Musketeers, he sought the services of Paul Haslinger. Although a veteran of film scores (notably in the Underworld franchise recently) and classically trained, Haslinger is best known as a sound designer specializing in industrial metal tones, a style that lends itself well to the darker corners of the fantasy genre. For The Three Musketeers, he branches out into a more classically inclined orchestral score, writing an uncharacteristically dynamic composition and recording it with a moderate ensemble in Germany. Accented with a few token cameos by solo strings, accordion, guitars, and harpsichord, these orchestral recordings were then layered with more typical Haslinger design techniques, lending a contemporary electronic feel to the finished mix.
Not surprisingly, The Three Musketeers will likely be among the most easily accessible scores of Haslinger's career for mainstream listeners and even some film music collectors. Unfortunately, it's also far more shamelessly derivative of other composers' work than the normal Haslinger score, making it a mixed bag at best. If Nick Glennie-Smith introduced Dumas' characters to the masculine Media Ventures sound in The Man in the Iron Mask, then Haslinger triples down on that tactic, producing what almost amusingly plays like a compilation of Media Ventures/Remote Control techniques over the prior dozen years. It has often been said that Trevor Rabin is the only composer of that late 1990's generation of Hans Zimmer spin-offs to still be writing and recording in the same mould in the 2011's, but Haslinger has, despite joining the party late, managed to accomplish exactly the same thing. In fact, one might be able to say that The Three Musketeers is an imitation of what Rabin would have written for the movie. You could take of all the intellectual criticisms leveled at the now-Remote Control sound and point them squarely at Haslinger for this one, including but not limited to simplistic power anthems, a lack of counterpoint, pounding percussion on each beat, sections of the orchestra playing in unison, constant metallic tapping effects, an overpowering bass mix, occasional wailing electric guitars, and tasteless electronic enhancements of a mix that already dilutes the organic tone of the real players. This repackaging is even more disappointing than it might have been given the orchestrating assistance Haslinger had on this project; Tim Davies and Matt Dunkley, the latter a veteran Craig Armstrong collaborator, had worked together on assignments like A.R. Rahman's Couples Retreat that featured infinitely more character than what you hear in The Three Musketeers. In the composition itself, Haslinger's emulation of possible temp track placements is distracting, too. The massive whole note barrage opening the score in "Only Four Men" is a derivative of Zimmer's Inception. In "Special Delivery For the King," you hear the major melodic ideas that recur throughout the score, starting with Jack Sparrow's theme from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise and shifting into a generic love theme at the end. An extension of the Sparrow material is explored in "Buckingham's Departure" before pounding repetition of synthetic-sounding Media Ventures-style figures blows out your ears at the end. For those who prefer Zimmer's early-90's feel-good melodies instead, enjoy the simple anthem at the end of "All For One."