The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

User Rating:

5.2/10   

Director:

Rob Cohen

Writers (WGA):

Alfred Gough (written by) &
Miles Millar (written by)

Release Date:

1 August 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Horror | Thriller

Tagline:

A New Evil Awakens.

Plot:

In the Far East, Alex O'Connell, the son of famed mummy fighters Rick and Evy O'Connell, unearths the mummy of the first Emperor of Qin -- a shape-shifting entity cursed by a witch centuries ago.

Plot Keywords:

Emperor | Shangri La | Mummy | China | Army

Awards:

1 win & 6 nominations

Cast

Brendan Fraser	...	Richard 'Rick' O'Connell
Jet Li	...	Emperor Han
Maria Bello	...	Evelyn O'Connell
John Hannah	...	Jonathan Carnahan
Michelle Yeoh	...	Zi Juan
Luke Ford	...	Alex O'Connell
Isabella Leong	...	Lin
Anthony Wong Chau-Sang	...	General Yang (as Chau Sang Anthony Wong)
Russell Wong	...	General Ming Guo
Liam Cunningham	...	Mad Dog Maguire
David Calder	...	Prof. Roger Wilson
Jessey Meng	...	Choi
Tian Liang	...	Li Zhou
Albert Kwan	...	Chu Wah
Jacky Wu	...	Assassin #1 (as Wu Jing)

Also Known As:

Die Mumie - Das Grabmal des Drachenkaisers (Germany)
The Mummy 3 (USA) (informal title)
Untitled Rick O'Connell Adventure (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for adventure action and violence.

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

Germany | USA

Language:

English | Mandarin

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS | DTS

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #44602) | Malaysia:U | UK:12A | South Korea:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Ireland:12A | Canada:14A (British Columbia) | Finland:K-13 | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:PG | Argentina:13 | Portugal:M/12 | Philippines:PG-13 (MTRCB) | Brazil:12 | Germany:12 | Norway:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Sweden:11 | Australia:M | New Zealand:M | Peru:14 | Denmark:11 | Austria:12 | Taiwan:PG-12

Filming Locations:

Beijing, China

Company:

Universal Pictures

Trivia:

The small device that triggers a trap by dropping a bronze marble from a dragon's mouth to a frog's mouth is inspired by an ancient instrument that could predict the direction of a coming earthquake. It is considered the first seismograph.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The O'Connells keep calling Jet Li's character and his Terracotta Army "mummys". Yet not one character in this movie goes through the mummification process. The only mummy we see is the fake emperor that Lin stabs.

Quotes:

Jonathan Carnahan: Die you mummy bastards. Die.
Mad Dog Maguire: There is no call for bad language.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Jet Li: Crafting the Emperor Mummy (2008) (V)

Soundtrack:

Take Me Out To The Ball Game

Terrible...

A true honest review? Some true honest advice? Don't waste your time on this, its terrible.

I am a true fan of the original. I like the way it was weaved together with interesting characters, hammy dialogue and breath taking action sequences not to mention a beautiful location and some great plot devices. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiz lit up the screen with his charisma and her likability factor. They made a good screen presence and carried the story along until its fantastic action packed finale. I also like the way the producers mixed up the scenes, to spoon out not only violent and eerie scenes involving the main villain himself but to water it down to family standards with John Hannah's comical brother. It was a film of epic proportions. A fun story, likable characters and good use of live action and cgi, for the most part. Then about 2 years later Universal ran out of idea's and so decided to return to the bandwagon to churn out another cash cow sequel. 'The Mummy Returns' was released and whilst not as good as the original at least had the decency to be spectacular enough for the risibility. Fraser and Weiz returned (having made an offspring) and warbled, walloped and crashed through the bustling busy streets in a less than original screenplay but at least maintained their charm and kept the spark glowing from the first film. It was a likable sequel, and whilst no where near as good as its ancestor still managed to be entertaining.

So here we are folks. 2008 and yet again we are re-visiting a tired series. The next gruesome threesome to bring home to Hollywood is not only the worst of the Mummy films, but quite possibly the worst sequel of the year to date. Its so bad in fact that even Rachel Weiz turned it down, but its not surprising having listened to some of the laughably dire dialogue churned out here. I bet she took one look at the script and threw it in the trash can. The story goes something like this... Brendan Fraser (back as Rick O'Connell) his wife Maria Bello (yes they replaced her with someone with half as much talent) her brother John Hannah (what is he doing in this?)and their son Luke Ford (who has now aged by about 20 years) are somehow prancing around in their ordinary lives (in the Far East?) but suddenly the son awakens an evil Mummy Emperor (because hey thats what your bound to do in a movie like this) who wants to use his army of the undead to take over the world and get revenge on the sorceress who put him to sleep so many years ago. The only people who can stop him are the O'Connels who crash and bang through armies of stone beasts, supernatural winds and all sorts of other unoriginal menaces. Of course the showdown at the end will result in global domination or ultimate Savior. But by that time, you just wont care.

So.. why do I hate this one? when when one of the main stars from the original backs down and bails out and when the other looks bored throughout the whole darn thing you know you have a problem on your hands. And its sad because Brendan Fraser makes it blatantly obvious how unhappy he is reprising the role without Weiz by his side. He is never able to connect with Bello who tries to be chirpy but comes off looking rather ridiculous as the smart girl. And there we have another problem. Bello just cannot squeeze into Weiz's cleverly filled shoes. Its embarrassing to watch her warble on and you can really tell she felt uncomfortable trying to live up to the characters standards. The same can be said for Luke Ford, who makes a very unconvincing action hero-sidekick next to Fraser. Again they have no spark or connection what so ever. It feels like a cheap decision casting Ford because he never really brings any emotion, good or bad to the screen. The exception here is Jet Li, who whilst is not as menacing as Arnold Vosloo (the original mummy) still pulls off a good dark role. Its fresh seeing him portraying an evil character and it pays off when he is actually on screen. However his presence is short lived and at times feels like a guest appearance. And of course John Hannah who never disappoints and steals the show altogether with his one liners and witty charm. He almost makes this passable. Almost.

The movie deserves another good kick in, this time for its overly used CGI action sequences which feel cheap, tacky and unoriginal. Imagine a Roger Corman flick added into a Uwe Boll video game adaptation and your halfway there. The sets are nice to look at, but the CGI is really distracting and you can tell they did things all by computers. The character development is replaced with an endless array of pointless battle sequences. Pointless !

Its also really degrading seeing our much loved characters from the first movies spout lines of almost ridicule. Brendan Fraser cringes as he reads his lines (is he auditioning for the high school play?)and like I said Bello looks uncomfortable. Even Hannah looks bored and whilst trying to rescue this epic failure always looks like he wants to be doing better things. Like the ironing for example.

There is just so much to bash this movie about. Its an obvious cash in, but even fails at being entertaining. It doesn't live up to the first or even the second. It is boring, confusing and the characters are bland. The action is over the top and don't get me started on the screenplay. Its just an all round failure and should be buried in the Tomb of the title, never to be re-awakened.