“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” Movie Review

    As a big fan of “The Mummy” films that came before it, I was excited to hear Universal Studios decided to make a third film.  The film, “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”, promised to take the franchise in a new direction.  I wasn’t sure if it would work but I was more than willing to give it a shot.
    First thing I should point out is that I like that the film was willing to take a risk with a new setting.  Sadly, I don’t think it really worked this time around, but I applaud the effort regardless.  Rob Cohen took over directing duties of the franchise from Stephen Sommers and did the best he could do with the script he had to work with.  Cohen is known for his action films and the action sequences were top notch.
    What hurt the film the most was the cast.  Brendan Fraser, a highlight of the franchise, seems bored and disinterested this time around.  Maria Bello takes over the role of Evelyn from Rachel Weisz after Weisz passed on the sequel.  Not only does Bello not look remotely like Weisz, but she also doesn’t act like her.  Weisz portrayed Evelyn with a shy resolve, Bello instead portrays the character with a confidence not fitting the character.  Everytime Bello was on screen, it took me out of the movie.  On the plus side, Jet Li was a great addition to the Mummy cast as the antagonist of the film.  Also, it was nice to see John Hannah back in the franchise.
   Lastly, the film went over the top a few too many times for my taste.  Case in point, the yeti scene.  In a movie where I have to suspend my disbelief in regards to an undead army, throwing a yeti into the mix probably wasn’t the best idea.
    “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” isn’t a terrible film as a whole but the cast seems to be sleepwalking through a tiresome script.  There are still good stories to tell in this franchise, this just isn’t one of them.

Grade: C

“The Mummy Returns” Movie Review

    I was a big fan of the Stephen Sommers helmed remake of “The Mummy” so I was completely on board to see the sequel when it was announced.  I didn’t know how they could make the sequel work but I was open to be surprised.  Thankfully, when I left the theater of “The Mummy Returns”, I remember really enjoying reuniting with the characters.

    “The Mummy Returns” is an overall fun and crazy film which probably shouldn’t work but somehow does.  The film manages to bring most of the returning cast together again fairly quickly and fairly early into the film.  The plot revolves around Rick and Evelyn O’Connell’s son Alex accidentally putting on the bracelet of Anubis which will end up killing him in seven days unless he returns the bracelet to the Scorpion King’s pyramid.  Along the way he is captured by Imhotep, the mummy from the first film, who is looking to capture the power of the Scorpion King for himself.
    Like the first film, most of the sequel’s charm comes from it’s cast.  Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz return to lead the cast and the two have a great unlikely chemistry.  The two really seem comfortable with each other and it helps us invest in their adventures.  Other casts members to return include John Hannah, Oded Fehr, and Arnold Vosloo who all add a little more levels to their characters in this film.  Of course this film is famous for being the big budget debut of WWE superstar The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) in a film.  Dwayne Johnson basically had a glorified cameo in the film but he had a presence that was hard to ignore even in his cameo.
    Now, I want to discuss one of the main problems with the film, The Scorpion King himself.  The Scorpion King was a great concept and I loved the idea of creating a new Universal Studio monster for a new era.  There was so much promise there and the opening scenes featuring The Rock were undeniably cool.  Then we got to the Scorpion King in the final act.  Why?  Who cleared that terrible cgi?  When the Scorpion King arrives looking like something straight out of a PlayStation 2 game, it completely takes you out of an otherwise solid movie.  A movie that was already close to being as good or better than the previous film.  Why couldn’t Dwayne Johnson come out as The Scorpion King possessing Superman like strength?  It would have worked a lot better than the cgi nightmare we got.  Plus, while I enjoyed The Scorpion King character in his solo film outing, Universal ended up watering down the character and wasting him in tiresome direct to video films.
    So, I found the film to be really fun overall.  It built on the first movie really well and had a lot of things going for it.  Unfortunately, it also had massive wasted potential with the character of the Scorpion King.  That doesn’t kill the movie for me, but it may be too much for others.

Grade: B