The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Review

I started watching this film with all the eager anticipation of the previous two films, which I really enjoyed, and have watched several times.

I have to say though this film did not deliver, and as usual for a follow up film it didn't really add anything new. The plot was the usual fare, with a long lost emperor being resurrected, not even a true mummy to be honest. The usual scenes to prevent him becoming immortal and the inevitable beating at the hands of Brendan Fraser, who seems always to win when every other immortal in the film has been easily pushed aside by the bad guy. To add insult to injury the brilliant Rachel Weisz was missing to be replaced Maria Bello who didn't add anything to the role and I thought was very weak. She is believed to have signed up for another three mummy films.

The chase scene was very reminiscent of the chase in "The Mummy Returns", with a couple of new twists and to be honest I did find that part enjoyable. There was the usual ending with the now two armies facing off to decide the fate of the world. Brendan Fraser and John Hannah played there roles well as would be expected with the normal quick fire one liners. The film also introduces the son as an adult and I wonder if this is a way of moving the films towards a new main character and slowly resigning Brendan Fraser to a secondary role and eventually be pulled all together.

All in all a very disappointing third installment to the franchise and I suspect if the fourth mummy film, rumoured to be starting soon, does not deliver then these series of films will go the same way of many others.

For me I will give it 4/10

Guy Draper

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The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Movie Review

BOTTOM LINE: On it's own, this film is a major disappointment. When compared to the previous Mummy films, it's even more disappointing. None of the fun, adventure or thrills are present in this botched, insipid outing which does not come anywhere close to the standard set by the previous entries in this franchise.

THE GOOD: Being the third entry in the Mummy series, it was time to change direction away from Ancient Egypt and the filmmakers chose to exploit ancient Chinese history by basing this Mummy on an ancient Chinese Emperor (a perfectly cast Jet Li) who ruled millions in Ancient China but was put under a curse by immortal queen Zi Juan (again, a perfectly cast Michelle Yeoh) for killing her lover General Ming who was the Emperor's right-hand man. Imprisoned in stone, a warning was placed throughout history never to lift the curse otherwise the Emperor will rise and enslave the human race. Basically it's the same plot as the previous films just with different scenery and actors which is fine; you do not expect more than that from a film like this.

Brendan Fraser is back as Rick O'Connell, and together with Evie (a re-cast Maria Bello) they go to China on a mission but subsequently discover that their son Alex (Luke Ford) has dug up the Emperor and put him on display in the Museum. Before you can blink, a group of Chinese soldiers awaken the Emperor and all hell breaks loose. The rendering of Jet Li as the Mummy this time around is different, but well done. He's clay based, as with his Terracotta army, and has control over the five elements which means he can do cool things like breath fire and make sharp icicles to impale his enemies. Michelle Yeoh is great as the character of Zi Juan, providing much of the explanation as to what the Emperor is up to and what they need to do to defeat him. An unexpected surprise was the use of the Yeti, or in this case, three of them, who come to the aid of our heroes on request. The film has a couple of interesting things in it, but...

THE BAD: This film is an excellent example of studio/committee based crap designed to punch out the formula in the hope of generating the expected amount of revenue. I have no doubt that Mummy 3 will pull in its hundreds of millions, but the sheer lack of quality, direction and fun in this instalment will turn the audience away from this franchise when it didn't need to be. The reason both The Mummy and The Mummy Returns worked was because of an inspired sense of direction and staging by director Stephen Sommers (who isn't a master by any means, but he is a solid director). Rob Cohen on the other hand does not seem to have any touch on the material; the film is lifeless, poorly shot and insipid.

The actors look like their going through the motions. I felt sorry for Brendan Fraser; the poor guy not only had to repeat his old performance but he had to play it against Maria Bello, who is a good actress, but she cannot replicate the character of Evie as Rachel Weisz did leaving Fraser looking like he's lost most of the time. Alex's character isn't that great; I actually hoped he would turn in to Mummy fodder at some point. The epic first on screen battle between Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh is massively underwhelming; not only is it not that long, but it's not well done. The rising of General Ming's undead army works initially, but ultimately pushes the film in to an over reliance on CG, which is a fault of all the Mummy movies, but somehow because the rest of the film doesn't work then this doesn't either. Overall, I walked out of this film disappointed that I had wasted my money on it and hoped that the franchise can rest before it gets worse than this lame-duck effort.

For the original review, follow this link: http://www.allaboutmovies.net/filmreviewthemummytombofthedragonemperor.htm

Todd Murphy is a staff reviewer at the film/DVD review web site, All About Movies.net - for all the latest reviews on the newest releases. He also contributes reviews and articles for the Digicosm Film Blog: http://www.filmannex.com/Digicosm

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The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

This is honestly perhaps the worst sequel I have had the ill-fated misery of watching. I cannot honestly say how exceedingly terrible this movie is. When I arrived at the auditorium where the movie was playing, I found myself surrounded by old people and about 50 children, and that alone tells you how awful this movie is.

I've seen a lot of children movies, some that were truly amazing Shrek, and Finding Nemo to name a few. This movie might have done alright if a couple of things were changed. Rachel Weisz should have definitely been the female lead, even though this movie shouldn't have been made in the first place. The whole plot should be completely changed since it is basically identical to the first except in China.

The plot is completely childish and stupid, I believe anyone between the ages 7 and up could have written it better. Yak's throwing up in an airplane, Yetis scoring goals, I was cringing in my seat the whole time. The acting was pretty bad, but not terrible, with the exception of Maria Bello's just atrocious British accent. I have not been so appalled since I saw the third Pirates of the Caribbean, Spider-man, and Shrek. Both sequels for Shrek and Spider-man were great, but the third ones were completely unnecessarily.

The Mummy is like Pirates of the Caribbean. Both original movies were great, any other sequel after that was not necessary, I mean they were okay, but not needed. Now, the third in the installment was just completely flawed, stupid, childish, all over the place. After this movie, I don't think I'll ever see the third installment of anything for the rest of my life, it has been disappointment after disappointment over and over again. The only good trilogies I've seen were the Star Wars(the first three) and the Lord of the Rings. Even the Godfather is flawed, but still just okay. Has Hollywood run out of good original ideas, that they have to result to making sequel after sequel to gain more money? Horrible.

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