Sunday, 21 June 2009

Film Review: THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR (2008)


Director: Rob Cohen
Running time: 112 mins (approx)

Watched on DVD Friday 19th June 2009.

While watching this, I had that feeling of déjà vu. No surprise really when it’s just a re-hash of the previous two ‘Mummy’ movies with just a change of setting. I have to say I did enjoy the previous two, but I can’t help but feel they’ve gone too far this time.

As in the other two movies we start with the back-story of how, in this case, Emperor Han was entombed and why his evil must be kept dormant for all eternity. We then switch to the O’Connell’s, Rick and Evelyn in happy retirement at home. They are bored, lacking the excitement in their lives that Imhotep had given them. Their son, Alex, happens to have dropped out of college and is currently digging up Emperor Han in China. I think from here you can probably guess what happens next… assuming you’ve already seen either of the first two ‘Mummy’ films.

Performance wise, I guess everyone was OK, Brendan Fraser returning as Richard 'Rick' O'Connell seemed to be playing it for laughs. Maria Bello was OK as Evelyn O'Connell, had a good English accent, although I did miss Rachel Weisz in this role. Honourable mentions to Jet Li as Emperor Han, John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan, Michelle Yeoh as Zi Juan and Luke Ford as Alex O'Connell.

I had a feeling that this film weighed far too much on CGI to ‘wow’ the audience, rather than having a better script and letting the actors build the tension. As I said at the beginning, this was all a bit of déjà vu, so it’s not a particularly good score from me although the CGI Yetis were pretty cool.

My score: 5/10

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