The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
The third Mummy film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor arrives in cinemas with a sad little fizzle. It’s so mediocre that it doesn’t even warrant working up the energy to rip it apart.
The Mummy franchise has always something of an Indiana Jones knock-off, and Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is no different. Adopting the same generation gap team-up that featured in this year’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evie (Maria Bello, replacing Rachel Weisz) coming to the aid of their suddenly grown son, Alex (Luke Ford), a college drop-out with dreams of fortune and glory.
Alex’s treasure hunting aspirations unleash Emperor Han (Jet Li), a cruel, magically gifted warlord who has been trapped in a terracotta shell for centuries. It’s up to the O’Connells then to stop the emperor before he returns to full strength and resurrects his army in a bid to take over the world.
This is, of course, where the problems begin. Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is just one of many films that suffer from over-revelation in its trailer. It’s really inadvisable to think deeply about anything in the film – lest you start poking at its many, many plot holes – but anyone who has seen the trailer will immediately realise that the various attempts to stop Han will fail until events culminate in the epic final battle.
All the audience has to sustain them while the action moves from one uninvolving set piece to the next (even the action scenes are dull!) is Alex’s tired “I hate you but secretly love you” bickering with the mysterious Lin (Isabella Leong), and the usual clichéd onscreen father-son squabbles between Alex and Rick.
Speaking of which, it’s a major miscalculation to have Rick and Evie’s son already an adult, especially since the O’Connells look to be in their late thirties, with not a grey hair or latex wrinkle in sight. Given how they don’t seem to have aged at all, it really doesn’t make sense to have the O’Connells retreating into the background and passing their adventuring baton to a bland twenty-something unknown. After all, after their exploits in the first 2 Mummy films, it’s Rick and Evie the audience care about. Not Alex.
So no matter how enthusiastic Maria Bello looks, or how determinedly Brendan Fraser throws himself into combat, they’re undeveloped character sketches. Michelle Yeoh, as a kind-hearted sorceress, similarly has little to do, and fans of Jet Li need to realise he has little more than a glorified cameo appearance in Tomb of the Dragon Emperor – probably because his character is way too overpowered by the screenwriters.
Tomb of the Dragon Emperor does have a few bright points, but these are confined solely to the special effects department. The yetis are nicely realised, as is the terracotta emperor’s treatment (Han’s clay shell frequently shatters open to reveal his charred body inside). However, while the first 2 Mummy films were groundbreaking visually, pushing new ground and winning awards, there is nothing in Tomb that jaded cinema goers haven’t seen before. Personally, I’m very tired of overblown CGI battle scenes now.
And that ultimately is the best way to describe The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Tired and tedious.
The Mummy franchise has always something of an Indiana Jones knock-off, and Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is no different. Adopting the same generation gap team-up that featured in this year’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evie (Maria Bello, replacing Rachel Weisz) coming to the aid of their suddenly grown son, Alex (Luke Ford), a college drop-out with dreams of fortune and glory.
Alex’s treasure hunting aspirations unleash Emperor Han (Jet Li), a cruel, magically gifted warlord who has been trapped in a terracotta shell for centuries. It’s up to the O’Connells then to stop the emperor before he returns to full strength and resurrects his army in a bid to take over the world.
This is, of course, where the problems begin. Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is just one of many films that suffer from over-revelation in its trailer. It’s really inadvisable to think deeply about anything in the film – lest you start poking at its many, many plot holes – but anyone who has seen the trailer will immediately realise that the various attempts to stop Han will fail until events culminate in the epic final battle.
All the audience has to sustain them while the action moves from one uninvolving set piece to the next (even the action scenes are dull!) is Alex’s tired “I hate you but secretly love you” bickering with the mysterious Lin (Isabella Leong), and the usual clichéd onscreen father-son squabbles between Alex and Rick.
Speaking of which, it’s a major miscalculation to have Rick and Evie’s son already an adult, especially since the O’Connells look to be in their late thirties, with not a grey hair or latex wrinkle in sight. Given how they don’t seem to have aged at all, it really doesn’t make sense to have the O’Connells retreating into the background and passing their adventuring baton to a bland twenty-something unknown. After all, after their exploits in the first 2 Mummy films, it’s Rick and Evie the audience care about. Not Alex.
So no matter how enthusiastic Maria Bello looks, or how determinedly Brendan Fraser throws himself into combat, they’re undeveloped character sketches. Michelle Yeoh, as a kind-hearted sorceress, similarly has little to do, and fans of Jet Li need to realise he has little more than a glorified cameo appearance in Tomb of the Dragon Emperor – probably because his character is way too overpowered by the screenwriters.
Tomb of the Dragon Emperor does have a few bright points, but these are confined solely to the special effects department. The yetis are nicely realised, as is the terracotta emperor’s treatment (Han’s clay shell frequently shatters open to reveal his charred body inside). However, while the first 2 Mummy films were groundbreaking visually, pushing new ground and winning awards, there is nothing in Tomb that jaded cinema goers haven’t seen before. Personally, I’m very tired of overblown CGI battle scenes now.
And that ultimately is the best way to describe The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor: Tired and tedious.
Comments
Also, Emperor Han wasn't resting on his pool of mercury? C'mon, that's one of the coolest things ever, and they screwed that up? At least Lucas and Spielberg had most of the Crystal Skull lore down and "correct".
The film suffered from bad casting - essentially resting on an Australian with a dodgy American accent and an American with a suspect English accent. Plus there was absolutely to chemistry between Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello. Fraser still had his part down but they reduced him to a secondary character.
Anyway the film lost what made the first two enjoyable, which isn't surprising since Rob Cohn was behind the camera.
Yup, Mjenks, there wasn't a single drop of mercury in sight, which definitely was a missed opportunity, especially in terms of effects.
Rob, I totally agree with you, especially in regards to your last comment. With Cohen behind the camera something was definitely missing. The film seemed to lack heart and energy especially, as if everyone was just going through the motions. Such a pity...