The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Review [3]

Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz on 08.05.2008

Flawed but plenty fun.

"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" Review

Brendan Fraser- Rick O'Connell
Jet Li- Emperor Han
Maria Bello- Evelyn O'Connell
John Hannah- Jonathan Carnahan
Michelle Yeoh- Zi Yuan
Luke Ford- Alex O'Connell
Isabella Leong- Lin
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang- General Yang
Russell Wong- Ming Guo
Liam Cunningham- Mad Dog Maguire
David Calder- Roger Wilson
Directed by Rob Cohen
Screenplay by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on a screenplay by Stephen Sommers and a screenplay by John L. Balderston
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Rated PG-13 for adventure action, violence, and language
Runtime- 112 minutes
Websites: http://robcohenthemummy.com/
http://www.themummy.com/

"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," the third flick in the "Mummy" franchise that started way back in 1999, is probably going to get slammed by most critics because it essentially falls prey to the alleged "Law of the second sequel." It's not as good as "The Mummy" or "The Mummy Returns." It has plenty of issues that have the potential to make any other fairly successful movie franchise unsuccessful quite quickly. However, through shear personality, charisma, and the surprising steady hand of usually lackluster director Rob Cohen, "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" more or less overcomes its shortcomings and is a fun two hours of action- adventure entertainment.

The flick once again stars Brendan Frasier as world renowned adventurer Rick O'Connell, now in 1947 post WWII Great Britain living the quiet life on his family's vast estate (he's taken up the fine hobby of fly fishing to pass the time). O'Connell's wife Evelyn (Maria Bello, taking over for Rachel Weisz, who starred with Frasier in the first two flicks) has become a best selling adventure novelist, turning her experiences with the mummy from the first two flicks into stories devoured by a hungry public yearning for romance and adventure and whatnot. Despite their attempts to convince themselves that they're happy being out of the adventuring business, they're clearly unhappy. They both miss the action of their past. So one day, as luck would have it, the O'Connell's are asked by the British government to deliver a special jewel to the Chinese government, the Eye of Shangri-La. They don't think about the offer for long and quickly accept. Little do they know that they're son Alex (Luke Ford) is in China, having just found and excavated the long lost tomb of Emperor Han (Jet Li).

The entire O'Connell clan eventually cross paths while in China (John Hannah's Johnathan Carnahan also shows up, owning a night club) and find out that the Eye of Shangri-La jewel is needed to raise the once powerful Emperor from his present stone statue state, and that renegade Chinese Paramilitary General Yang (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) has plans on raising the Emperor so he can bring order "back" to the world. General Yang succeeds with his scheme, and so it becomes a race against time for the O'Connell clan to see if they can stop the Emperor before he achieves total world domination (because that's what long dead rulers brought back to life always want to do). They're going to need the help of a wise and powerful woman named Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh), who also happens to be alligned with Alex's assumed girlfriend Lin (Isabella Leong), and a bit of good fortune to see if they can, once again, defeat a mummy.

The flick starts off with a lengthy flashback chronicling ancient China and the rule of Jet Li's Emperor Han and how he became a master of the elements and the supernatural. I'm normally against these kinds of opening flashbacks because they're usually unnecessary, and a compelling argument could be made that this flick doesn't need one, either, but for some reason this time it didn't bother me. We get a decent bad ass performance here from Li, and we get equally good work from Yeoh's Zi Juan and Russell Wong's Ming Guo character, and the sequence moves along quickly enough that it doesn't bog down what comes after it, the start of the movie for Fraser's Rick O'Connell. And, it's a great way to give Li more screen time as a flesh and blood human being, instead of as a CG special effect (a special effect that's actually pretty decent, especially the bit where the "living" Emperor statue breaks down as it moves only to regenerate its whole self every so often). But, what we see could have been easily expressed via wicked quick flashbacks during the course of the movie and plot information relayed by the characters. It's not really a knock against the movie, just an odd way to start a movie (well, to me anyway).

And, yes, it's cool to see Li and Yeoh fight, but the fight goes by too quickly and isn't meaningful enough. The flick doesn't need a ten minute, flying in the air kung fu wire fest, but, the flick should have provided more.

Fraser is back after a seven year absence as O'Connell, and he hasn't missed a beat at all. He's still funny, still handy with a gun (with several guns actually), and he can still kick undead butt. Although I think it's odd that it doesn't seem like he's aged all that much in the twenty or so story years between the first movie and the third. You'd think that it would be something worth mentioning at least once.

Maria Bello tries very hard to both duplicate the chemistry Weisz had with Fraser (which was integral to the success of the first two movies) and to make the Evelyn character her own thing, and she almost accomplishes both. She's much better later in the movie, when she engages in the action and adventure with Fraser and Ford and the others, but when the movie begins, she's just weird. It's Maria Bello with an English accent and for some reason it's hard to take in. And there are moments where Bello looks much much older than Fraser, making it look as though Fraser is married to his mother or Bello is robbing the cradle. The big dinner scene at the beginning is a case in point. Look at Bello's face in comparison with Fraser's. It's like she's talking to her son.

John Hannah is back for the comic relief Jonathan, and he's still just as much fun as he was the first time. Luke Ford does a pretty decent job as Alex O'Connell. He has slightly better chemistry with Fraser, but they don't look like father and son, more like older brother and younger brother. Isabella Leong is okay as Lin, but there isn't much more to her character beyond potential love interest for Alex and martial arts butt kicker, so as long as she accomplishes both that's fine. I would have loved to see a little more from Liam Cunningham, who plays an old French Foreign Legion pal of Rick O'Connell, Mad Dog Maguire, but what we get is good stuff. David Calder is downright dastardly as Roger Wilson, Alex's college professor and adventuring buddy. And Anthony Wong Chau-Sang does a good job as the second tier villain, General Yang (I would have loved to see more from him, too, because it looks like he could kick some serious butt as a bad guy if given free reign).

Now, I've never been a fan of director Rob Cohen. Sure, he's always been technically proficient, he's always made movies that look good (even a movie as bad as "XXX" still looks good), but he's never been a director who could make a movie "play" all that well (he's got the flash down pat, but that flash is often incoherent). This time, though, he holds himself back a bit and tries to keep things coherent. It probably would have been a good idea to escalate the spectacle at the end in the war between the Emperor's terra cotta soldiers and the skeleton army (some of it plays a little flat), but what we get is fun and easy to understand (you can actually see what's going on), and that's what you need in a movie like this. "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" is easily Cohen's best movie.

If the flick does well (and, based on the previous two movies' box office I can't imagine it not doing well), I'd love to see a movie chronicling the O'Connell's adventures as spies during World War II. I'd prefer that the supernatural not get into it, but then again, the flick would be dealing with Nazis, and as we've seen with the "Indiana Jones" franchise, the Nazis (at least in goofy action adventure fantasy movie franchises) are all about finding supernatural doodads and bringing back monsters (and, hey, Indiana Jones was a spy in WWII, too. Maybe he can run into O'Connell at a Hitler dinner party or something).

"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" is a flawed but good action adventure flick that's definitely worth your time checking out. It's fun, features some pretty decent performances, and is the best movie of a flashy but generally lackluster director. Welcome back, O'Connell family.

But someone should try to get Rachel Weisz back. Give her whatever she wants.

So what do we have here? Interesting use of the Universal Pictures globe to explain where the story is going to take place, gratuitous voice over about ancient China that helps set up the gratuitous extended flashback that sets up the main points of the story, gratuitous Jet Li, looking at scrolls, gratuitous moment where Jet Li destroys three assassins, knife to the chest, village pillaging, multiple decapitations, gratuitous building the Great Wall on the dead bodies of Jet Li's enemies, gratuitous bit where Jet Li's hands are on fire, gratuitous Michelle Yeoh, old wooden keys, gratuitous sanskrit, gratuitous pulling apart someone with five horses, Jet Li puking mud, gratuitous Jet Li turning into a statue, gratuitous Brendan Fraser, gratuitous Brendan Fraser fly fishing, fishing hook to the neck, shooting at fish with a gun, gratuitous Maria Bello with an English accent, slyly making use of the titles of the first two movies, sexual innuendo, bullet biting, gratuitous Maria Bello fake swordfighting in her writing office, snoring, a big ass booby trap, a massive terra cotta army, acid burning a guy, an ancient automatic arrow shooter, flying razor discs, a Feng Shui compass, buried concubines, ninja attack, attempted head crushing, gratuitous Chinese New Year, a happening "Egyptian" themed night club, slow driving a car, a hot chick with a scar on her face, a massive museum fight, fire spitting, gratuitous use of two handguns at the same time, more decapitations, stone horse riding, destroying a Rolls Royce, a giant firework, exploding street train, face throwing, one of the nastiest looking jumping out of a car stunts ever filmed, gratuitous testicle icing, eyelash pulling, gratuitous going to the Himalayas, a barfing mule, gratuitous Liam Cunningham, a spectacular plane landing, gratuitous Liam Cunningham making Chinese food in the plane, creepy mother-son sex life talk, talking about guns, gratuitous bazookas, gratuitous Abominable Snowmen, ice cicle attack, dynamite with a grenade on it, green blade to the back, a big ass avalanche, heaven in a cave, a giant three headed dragon, summoning a skeleton army, a skeleton kicking another skeleton's head off, blue shirt ripping, a massive arrow attack, hair cutting, great use of a fighter plane's machine guns, exploding jeep, body crushing, exploding villain, and dancing the night away before the Communists take over.

Best lines: "I have too much to do for one lifetime," "You will never keep your word. You're right," "Now, join General Ming in hell," "You can run but you can't hide!," "There's a hook in your neck, sir. Shall I go fetch the wire cutters?," "Isn't this blissful?," "Li Tung, what's for lunch?," "I'm ready to be inspired," "Unfortunately, this is not the dead man who is going to make us famous," "It's only the greatest find since King Tut," "Excuse me, I have some excavation to do," "I'm his father. It's implied," "The O'Connells are in Shanghai," "Do the words 'rest in peace' mean anything to you two?," "Roger, how much did ying and yang pay you?," "Here we go again!," "Whoa whoa whoa,! Sorry, pal, there's a mummy on the loose!," "God, I love a woman who can drive a truck," "You guys are like mummy magnets!," "Your ass is on fire!," "Alex O'Connell, you get on the back of this horse this instant!," "Rick, could you get the cab? Does it look like I have a wallet?," "You don't believe in the concept of personal space, do you?," "I'd tell you to fasten your seatbelts, but I was too cheap to buy any!," "The yak yakked!," "Abominable Snowmen?," "She speaks Yeti?," "I hate mummies! They never play fair!," "Whoa! Is this Shangri-La? I could live here. Lots of opportunites. A casino?," "If this is heaven it looks pretty good so far," "You're not supposed to die, you're Rick 'ochet' O'Connell, right?," "Mad Dog can outfly a three headed lizard any day of the week," "Rick, should I quit drinking?," "Hey, that was my favorite blue shirt!," "These are the good undead guys, right?," "Welcome to the 20th century!," "The next time I say we've been in tougher scrapes than this, I mean this!," "Die you mummy bastards! Die!," "I dug you up and I'm going to put you down!," and "There's something incredibly romantic about vanquishing the undead."

The 411: "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" certainly could have been worse than it is, and while it isn't perfect, it is quite good and plenty of fun. Rob Cohen deserves credit for making a fairly coherent movie. Now, as I said at the end of my review, if another "Mummy" movie is on the horizon, the producers should do whatever it takes to get Rachel Weisz back. Maria Bello does what she can, but she's not as good as Weisz. The movie suffers a bit for it.

Final Score:  7.8   [ Good ]