With nostalgia sequels all the rage (Die Hard, Rambo, etc.) it comes as no surprise
that Universal Studios would want to revisit one of its more profitable
franchises. Bearing little resemblance to the 1932 original, Stephen
Sommers’ The Mummy, released in 1999, was an unexpected hit for the studio and
unfortunately prompted a sequel two years later. Much to the dismay of this
critic, yet another chapter is being added to the tired franchise. This
time director Rob Cohen (The Fast and the
Furious) is at the helm, and only Brendan
Fraser and John Hannah are reprising their roles. Rachel Weisz wisely
abandoned ship — the third installment is just as unimaginative,
simplistic, and overly long as the first two.
The time is 1946, and Rick and Evelyn O’Connell
(Fraser and Maria Bello) find themselves retired and hating it. She’s
made a name for herself writing novels based on their adventures, but
he’s restless and bored living an idle life of comfort. In danger of
becoming relics themselves, they’re given a final mission by the
British government: Return the mythical Eye of Shangri-La to Shanghai.
Seems this magical egg contains an elixir of eternal life that can raise
the dead. Wouldn’t you know it, a rogue faction of soldiers led by
Gen. Yang (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang) is looking for this artifact to help
resurrect the ancient Emperor Han (Jet Li), a despot who built the Great
Wall of China and whose army has been petrified. These rebels long to have
the leader of yesteryear lead them to new glory. It’s bad enough that
the O’Connells get mixed up in this mess, but adding insult to injury
is the fact that their son, Alex (Luke Ford), is the one who uncovered
Han’s tomb and had his body and army transferred to a museum in
Shanghai.
The Mummy movies have always been nothing more than B-grade knockoffs
of the Indiana Jones films made on A-list budgets. In a summer that finds new chapters
to both of these franchises being released, the differences between them
are telling and obvious. The Jones films are imaginative in execution and the stories they
contain and have action sequences that are choreographed and cut together
in a thrilling, easy-to-follow manner. It would be a stretch to call them
sophisticated, but there’s a smart postmodernfeel to them that elevates them above
the typical action fodder. The Mummy films, on the other hand, are simplistic in execution
and story, the action they contain is confused and hard to follow, and the
tone has always been a muddle. The first entry didn’t know whether it
wanted to be a horror film, action flick, or physical comedy and as a
result achieved none of these goals. The second movie and this current
entry have dropped the attempts at horror but still fail to deliver any
exceptional thrills or solid laughs.
Although Bello won’t make anyone forget Weisz,
she’s plucky and sports a sexy English accent, which goes a long way
in making us forget that she’s inherited this role. Meanwhile Fraser
continues to look as if he’s telling a joke that only he is in on.
Without a doubt Dragon
Emperor will have a good weekend or two at
the box office, but as nothing more than a rote exercise in modern, blurry
action it will, with any luck, fail to garner good word of mouth and die a
quiet death.
This article appears in Jul 24-30, 2008.
