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A film review by
Gareth
Von Kallenbach @ KGHP FM.
The
Summer movie season is back and with it comes a slew of
big budgeted films all vying for box office dollars. The
Summer movie season is also the time when a barrage of
sequels are unleashed on the movie public, while some are
good, most fail to live up to the original film in the
series. Who can ever forget such classic flops as "Predator
2" and "Jaws 3D" that existed solely to
milk money from the success of the previous films.
When the original "Mummy" opened with a $43
Million dollar weekend, a sequel was quickly put into
production, as even if the sequel does 1/3 of the
previous films revenue, with a built in audience from the
first film, and overseas, cable, and video sales, sequels
are almost sure bets to make more money for the film
studios.
The "Mummy Returns" is the creation of Stephen
Sommers who wrote and directed both films in the series.
The film centers around Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser)
and Evelyn O'Connell (Rachael Weisz) who in the eight
years since the first film, have gotten married and had a
little boy named Alex (Freddie Boath) Evelyn is still
always after the ever elusive Egyptian legend to
excavate, while Rick is constantly worried about his
wife, and watches over his family as a proud and loving
father and husband.
Through an incredible opening scene filled with dazzling
CGI recreations of Egyptian Kingdoms, the audience learns
the story of The Scorpion King, played by WWF legend, The
Rock. It seems that the King sold his Soul to Anubis to
be spared to defeat his enemies, and as legend has it,
can be reborn every 5000 years. It is also fated that
whomever shall defeat the Scorpion King shall have
control over his armies and shall rule the world.
Before you know it, Rick, Evelyn, Alex, and Evelyn's
greedy brother Jonathan (John Hannah) are caught up in
the mix, as young Alex has the key to unlocking the
Scorpion King and his Minions, and it must be removed at
a certain place, and time, less Alex have his life sucked
from him by ancient evil forces.
Almost as an afterthought, the bad guys, who were so
obvious that they could have been wearing signs to show
their allegiance, resurrect Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) and
his long dead lover Anck-Su-Namun (Patricia Velasquez).
In an attempt to defeat The Scorpion King and rule the
world.
Despite a great opening scene and a great early battle
set in a London Museum and a double Decker bus, the film
quickly loses momentum and becomes very slow and
deliberate. The pacing of the film was annoyingly slow,
as we watch the various groups travel to the Golden
Pyramid of the Scorpion King, in what is mostly very
uneventful travel. There is little witty dialogue or
character development during this time, and the majority
of the scenes are filled with Rick and Evelyn mentioning
how worried they are about Alex, and how they will find
him no matter what.
Imhotep on the other hand is such a bland and dull
character compared to his last incarnation, I guess being
dead for thousands of years, reborn, killed and reborn
again years later will do that for a guy. Imhotep
actually spends time watching over, Alex and goes so far
as to tussle the young boys hair, hardly the menacing
figure that is supposed to be the embodiment of evil.
The film also had huge gaps in logic, such as Alex being
able to leave elaborate Sand Sculptures in three
locations to tip his parents off to his next destination,
before being discovered. There is also the great mystery
of how in the middle of the desert; a blimp pilot was
able to repair his craft without any of the precious gas
that he mentions is necessary to fix the craft. It seems
that despite the blimp being a wreck all over the desert,
the pilot is able to fix the craft and miracle of all
miracles, arrive to save the day, just in the nick of
time. The film also has a real lack of inspiration as the
classic sand wall that was in the first film was
recreated by the Mummy again, only this time, it is a
wall of water. Time and again we see ideas repeated from
the previous film, such as pillars falling like dominos
just as the bookcases did in the original film. We also
get to see Rick wear a very Indiana Jones style Fedora
hat as he returns home from one his adventures, and fight
Imhotep who is wielding a long bladed weapon, much the
same way that Darth Maul and Obi Wan Kenobi spared in
"The Phantom Menace".
Perhaps the worst part of the film was the big climatic
scene where the Scorpion King is reborn. Seeing the
Rock's visage on top of a giant scorpion body resulted in
laughter from the audience rather than the desired
concern for the good guys.
Perhaps one might say that I am being to harsh on the
film as after all it is a Summer Popcorn movie and plot
holes and lack of character development are to be
expected in this type of film.
While this may be true, there is no excuse for insulting
the viewers by having sequences that are designed only to
showcase the fantastic effects of ILM without taking the
time to explain the sequences that led to them, and
following a logical progression. It baffles the mind,
that young Alex executes a spur of the moment escape from
a moving train, that just so happens to be in front of a
site that his parents are heading towards, while not
being able to see where he is when he escapes underneath
the train, and has no idea if his parents are even alive,
much less in hot pursuit of him.
There was also the badly executed scene where Rick,
learns how he must face the Scorpion King, by looking at
hieroglyphics that were so obvious one of the flesh
eating beetles would have figured it out long before. The
final insult for me was watching a character grasp and
hold a large gold encrusted diamond while hanging from an
airship. Let's forget the fact that the object had to
weigh at least 300 lbs. and that all hell was breaking
lose around them,
In short, the film that had so much potential in the
first thirty minutes, quickly became bogged down by slow
pacing, lack of story, and a reliance on special effects
rather than character development and original ideas.
2.5 stars out of 5
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