Title: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Running time: 1hr 52 minutes
Director: Rob Cohen
Genre: Fantasy, Action, Drama, Thriller
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Mummy 3) focuses on China. Alex O’Connell (Luke Ford), son of Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) found the tomb of the Dragon Emperor and moved it back to the Museum. Unfortunately, there is a group of fanatic soldiers who are determined to reawaken the Dragon Emperor to lead them to greater heights of greatness. Rick and Evelyn (Maria Bello) were unfortunately caught in the middle of this plot and found that they were forced out of their retirement and go mummy hunting again.
There have been a lot of reviews that says that Brendan Fraser looks tired in the movie and was seen to be just taking it as a quick access to extra cash only. I beg to differ. Yes, he did not look as enthusiastic as he did in the first Mummy movie, but he IS supposed to do that. He kept on repeating how tired he was to go mummy hunting again, so, he portrays someone who is just fed-up with the “mummy world conquering” thing. I have followed his every movie since the Mummy and he is great in each and every one of them.
Of course, I might be biased because I am unable to let go the fact the The Mummy is the first horror related movie that I like and love. The first installment of The Mummy is still fresh in my mind. Unfortunately, from the first movie where there is a little bit of horror element, there is almost none at all in the third installment of the movie… unless you call that quick snapshot of a rotting face a horror.
Luke Ford, being a newcomer (to Hollywood movies) is actually quite good... except for the love scenes. But then again, there are only a few rare love scenes in movies throughout the history of mankind that actually please me. I guess I have higher expectations of the power of love than others, huh? Anyway, back to the movie, there just isn’t any chemistry at all in between Lin (Isabella Leong) and Alex. They seemed to be uncomfortable with each other and their lines are void in emotion when it came to puppy love… and no, it wasn’t that they are not good actors. They both displayed great raw emotions throughout the movie… just not with each other. Luke also shows great flair in action-packed scenes… I hope there’ll be more of him in the future… but he must avoid any Mandarin conversations in movies or at least take some extra classes… his grasp of Mandarin is just ghastly :P.
Maria Bello did receive some pretty disparaging comments from other reviewers. I, for one does not think that she receive such criticism. Of course her acting and character portrayal is different than that of Rachel Weisz (the actress who acted in Mummy and Mummy 2 as Rick’s gf / wife). She would not want people to just comment on if she acted like the previous Evelyn or not. Such comparisons are just mean. She did portray a good wife, who is longing for adventure and she did not look out of place with a gun in her hands… although Rachel was definitely very good with her knives.
Of course, the movie itself is not without its fair share of kinks. I am one of the few rare people who could watch a movie without thinking too deep into the details. I mean, come one, it’s a fantasy. How logical do you expect it to be? However, inconsistencies are another thing. The script that Michelle Yeoh read to Jet Li was in Sanskrit, but when she used it to raise undead, it became English… duh. Also, I still haven’t figured out how Michelle actually managed to reach the Nepals with a mortal wound all the way from the palace… it was just impossible.
However, at the end of the day, Rob Cohen did a fair job of the movie. The jokes were still of acceptable level, the graphics were nice and the storyline though not refreshing, managed to captivate me. Also, the way to kill the Dragon Emperor is way much better than just reading some mantra off the golden Tome of Life (in the first installment of the Mummy).
Observation: Anthony Wong (as General Yang) could be considered an undead too since he managed to survived an avalanche and a bomb drop right on his head without any extra help.
Bottomline: A good movie… not great, but good.
Bamboo Ranking: 3.5 / 5.0
4 comments:
I just watched it last night. Sold out so quickly, we were lucky to be able to get tickets (without prior booking)! Well, I have to say I expected some horror scenes like worms and insects scurrying around but there were none of those. There were some comedic scenes though. Overall, it's still an 'ok' movie if we evaluate it on its own, without comparison to its prequels.
So, in other words, my review is exactly what you think... :P
Sounds like Tomb of the Dragon Emperor met everyone's expectations... Brendan Frasier tries too hard to act, so you can tell he's acting
yay movies: well, I supposed that's one way to look at it...
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