Film Review: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I’m a huge fan of the first two Mummy films and to the original Universal classic that starred Boris Karloff, so, I was all for another film in the mummy franchise. I was even intrigued by the fact that Universal decided to go into a new direction with the franchise by focusing on Asian mummy’s and bringing in fresh blood from director Rob Cohen to actors Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh.

When THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR came out I was one of the first people in line. Returning from the previous film was Brendan Fraser and John Hannah and even though Mario Bello was taking over the Evelyn role I wasn’t to worried since director Rob Cohen was at the helm and I liked what he did with DRAGONHEART, XXX, and STEALTH. I am sad to say that the new film is a disappointment simply because of the simplicity of the film. Written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar THE MUMMY 3 is a simply action and adventure film with none of the epic qualities of the previous two Stephen Sommers films, which felt like big summer popcorn films which high adventure, grand action, and great comedy. This new film falters at the beginning as Fraser and Bello don’t have the same chemistry as Fraser and Rachel Weisz, therefore many of their scenes at the beginning which should be understated funny (i.e. BRINGING UP BABY) come off more as clumsy humor that sometimes doesn’t work. Also, Fraser has little chemistry with actor Luke Ford who plays his grown up son Alex O’Connell. Ford is good in the role when he’s not trying to strengthen the father-son bond that seems to drive the core of the film; he has great chemistry with Isabella Long (who plays Lin).

The film plays much better in it’s action sequences where once the film finally gets onto the real adventure of the film it hits its stride and never quits. This is the strength of the film and what will ultimately keep most audience members happy. Cohen has a knack for staging some elaborate action sequences, which help over shadow all the other misgivings in the film. Unlike Sommers’ two films this film doesn’t strive to be as grand of a film (kind of like my reaction to the abysmal JURASSIC PARK III in relation to its two previous films) and simply appears to be a “paint by numbers” sequel that will ultimately be forgotten soon after it has been watched.

I do have to commend Jet Li and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang (who play Emperor Han and General Yang, respectfully) as they make for just as formidable enemies as Arnold Vosloo as the original Mummy and keep the film on point. The CGI yeti are questionable in their execution but I enjoyed watching them when they were on screen but the three-headed dragon I could have done without. In fact, allowing Emperor Han to change into any mythological creature was a misstep in my opinion as the CGI was never any good.

The good thing about this film is that it has opened the gates to other adventures of the O’Connell clan in the same vein as the Indiana Jones films and I hope that Universal takes that advantage to explore other stories that could be told. After this film, I think the mummy should finally be left to rest…for good.