“The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior” was the first direct to video movie in “The Scorpion King” franchise. Universal Studios had planned to make a proper theatrical sequel starring The Rock but after putting it off and passing on scripts, Universal decided to take the franchise is a different direction. I remember being excited to buy it hoping it would be a good movie. I was very naive then.
The film isn’t actually a sequel to “The Scorpion King”. This may get confusing so you might need to reread this, the film serves as a prequel to “The Scorpion King” which in itself was a prequel to “The Mummy Returns” which was a sequel to the 1999 version of “The Mummy” which was a remake of the 1932 version of “The Mummy”. ::Breaths in and out:: That is probably the most interesting thing about this movie sadly.
The film focuses on Mathayus’ quest to avenge his father’s death. Most of the adventures in the film seem like time fillers and are almost instantly forgettable. I really wanted to enjoy the movie but there wasn’t much in the movie to make you feel invested.
The film was directed by Russell Mulcahy of “Highlander” fame. Seeing Russell Mulcahy’s name attached to the project gave me some hope. Mulcahy is a capable film director so a direct to video movie should be no problem for him to handle. Unfortunately, this movie was more “Highlander 2” than “Highlander”.
Michael Copon takes over the role of Mathayus from The Rock. Copon is no Dwayne Johnson and has almost no charm. One has to imagine even on a direct to video budget, there were better actors for the money. Randy Couture of UFC fame plays the main villain of the movie. I imagine they cast Couture because of his fame in the UFC at the time and they figured they would create a movie star like they did with The Rock. Randy Couture isn’t terrible given his limited acting experience, but he doesn’t command the screen presence of Dwayne Johnson.
Lastly, what is with the ending of this film? In “The Mummy Returns”, The Scorpion King emerges as a terrible cgi effect and ruins the ending. In this film, the lead villain turns into a giant invisible scorpion. Did the filmmakers run out of money? It certainly seems so and the scene is laughably bad. Maybe I was just too disappointed at the time to care but I tried my best to give the movie a fair shake. I remember liking the movie more when I first watched it. This movie doesn’t improve with rewatching though. I have seen worse but for a feature film, the movie doesn’t offer much entertainment value.
Grade: D-
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