Review of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) by Mark R — 18 Jun 2011

The first two Mummy films are wonderful adventure-horror films with good stories, memorable characters, and those damn scarabs! Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is unfortunately a lackluster film, dull and unmemorable.

Thirteen years after Imhotehp and the Scorpion King bit the dust, a now adult Alex O'Connell finds the tomb of Emperor Han, who was cursed to become a teracotta mummy along with his army forever by a sorceress after he killed her lover General Ming. Rick, Evy and Jonathan soon pop up and hey presto the emperor comes to life to wreak havoc on the world.

This film is pretty poor. Rachel Weisz is not in it, and her replacement doesn't reflect on Evy's previous personality or backstory, and could easily have been replaced with a chair. Alex's new actor is Australian when the previous actor has a British accent. Rick and Jonathan are given very little to do, and the new characters aren't exactly all that memorable despite Jet Li now being an undying teracotta emperor with control over China's five elements. Imhotehp wanted to rule the world with the woman he loved, Emperor Han simply wishes to rule the world with no real motive.

The CGI is pretty naff, and what is up with those yetis that come and go for no reason. Looks like the producers took a page from the first film and awakened a creature that should not have been woken, as it sucked out everything good about its predecessors and left nothing of interest to watch.