Review of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) by Brandon W — 13 Aug 2013

At first, I had a bad feeling about this movie. I thought that this was going to be a last ditch attempt to squeeze as much money as they can out of this dying franchise. The first 45 minutes were just boring but it quickly got exciting when they travel through the mountains in China.

You have Brendan Fraser back as Rick O'Connell but for some reason I feel like he wasn't good here. Maybe it was just bad writing but I liked his character in the other two movies better. They replaced Rachel Weisz with Maria Bello.

I really liked Maria Bello as an action star because she really sold those action set-pieces she was in, but I still believe that the best Evelyn will always be Rachel Weisz. Luke Ford as Alex was completely useless.

I did not like this character what so ever. They tried to tie in a romance story with some immortal chinese woman but it was so bland and forgettable that it really took me out of the movie. John Hannah as Jonathan is great in all 3 movies and is probably my favourite character in the whole series.

The back story was really cool with the emperor and Zi Yuan although forgettable, but thumbs up for doing something different as opposed to going back to Egypt for a third time. The action is where this movie excels.

The whole series thrives in this category because whenever an action scene starts, you are instantly involved and committed to it. The action scene in the mountains reminded me so much of Uncharted 2 which was a nice treat.

I would only recommend this movie to fans of the series or fans of mindless, and ridiculous action and plot. I had fun with this movie, but I believe it's only because I am a fan of the previous two films.