The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

PG-1320081h 52mAction, Adventure,
5.213%30%
Archaeologist Rick O'Connell travels to China, pitting him against an emperor from the 2,000-year-old Han dynasty who's returned from the dead to pursue a quest for world domination. This time, O'Connell enlists the help of his wife and son to quash the so-called 'Dragon Emperor' and his abuse of supernatural power.
匚卂尺ㄥ reviewedFebruary 2, 2025
Stephen Sommers is not the best directors at work in hollywood, he isn't even one of the best but with the first two Mummy films he delivered thrilling action spectacles with some gripping set pieces and decent special effects. The first two boasted some levels of character development, great acting, coherent plots and plenty of thrills. However, it seems that with the departure of Sommers in the directors role (he is here assigned as a producer) the franchise has taken a bit of a nose dive. Rob Cohen helms this third film in the franchise and whilst he doesn;t do a terrible job he doesn't do a very good job either. His handling of the action, specifically the fight scenes between Jet Li and Brendan Fraser, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, are somewhat disjointed and blink and you'll miss it - which is unfortunate because the martial arts could have made this movie a very worthy succesor to its two predecessors. The cast also suffers a bit of a blow, though not as much as the direction. Fraser returns in a somewhat weaker role than before, and Rachael Weisz is unfortunately absent being replaced by Maria Bello who, whilst beautiful and talented, can't match Weisz's acting skills and her undeniable beauty. Arnold Vosoloo is not the eponymous mummy here and the legend is changed to be a chinese warlord who awakens to bring about the end of the world. Jet Li takes the role of the mummy here, and whilst his martial arts skills are brilliant he is vastly underused and at times looks like he doesn't want to be there. Another dissapointment is John Hannah's role that has been reduced to nothing more than comic relief, and because he has been saddled with some cheesy one liners and poor jokes he is underused and at times rather pointless. As for the special effects, they have improved upon the Mummy and The Mummy Returns, but even then they appear too glossy and perfect, not gritty or realistic enough and the yeti's were not a good choice of creature to include. Desite the problems i have listed above, this film is very entertaining. There is plenty of action and adventure, far off locations and some interesting sets. The final battle between a zombie army and terracota warriors is thrilling and a great climax. See this if you enjoyed the first two but don't expect it to be as good as them. This 1 disc edition, for those interested, is not a good choice if you are looking for special features, they are extremelt poor. The steelbook edition is the choice for those wanting featurettes and the like and the luxury box set is even better if you're a die hard fan. If you're only interested in the film, get this.

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