Even though they are like goofy versions of the Indiana Jones movies, I have enjoyed the two previous Mummy movies, as well as the spin-off prequel called The Scorpion King. There’s just something about these movies that makes them fun to watch, though some people are turned off by the occasional bits of slapstick humor and dumb one-liners. In a nutshell, if you liked any of the other movies before it, you will probably like The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

This movie is set about ten years after the last one, and the son from the second movie is now a college student (Luke Ford) trying to make a name for himself as an archaeologist. When he discovers the long lost tomb of an ancient Asian emperor, he ends up unleashing a new mummy. Pretty soon, his parents (Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello, who replaces Rachel Weisz) are enlisted to help. It’s more of the same action, great special effects, humor, and big stunts that made the other movies so successful.

International superstar Jet Li plays the resurrected emperor. In the opening scenes, he is in human form, but once he comes back as a mummy, he spends most of the movie as a CGI mummy/statue. Casting Li in this movie was a brilliant business choice, because this movie has so far made twice as much money overseas as it has in the United States. Jet Li has made plenty of movies about that time period, so he fit right into the role.

Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello do well as the O’Connells, though I have to admit I do miss Rachel Weisz. I had heard that she was hurt several times doing stunts in the first two movies, and this may be part of the reason why she opted not to get back into the role. In this movie, they play an older couple who are semi-retired and rather bored, so they jump at the chance to get back into the action. Australian actor Luke Ford does a great job as their son. Michelle Yeoh has a nice supporting role as a mystic who helps put down the emperor.

Stephen Sommers, who directed the first two Mummy movies, turned over the director’s chair to action veteran Rob Cohen. Cohen has previously directed The Fast and the Furious as well as xXx, so he knows how to portray action and make his actors look good. I thought he did a great job of keeping the same tone as the previous movies. Writing credits are given to Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who are the creators of the TV show Smallville and also wrote Shanghai Noon and the story for Spider-Man 2.

The only real downer part of this movie was that there wasn’t a whole lot to the story. A bad guy gets turned into a mummy, then many hundreds of years later he is brought back by some evil people that want him to return to power. A small handful of people are there to stop him, and an army of undead end up fighting it out. There was very little character development that happened on screen, though it seems like mostly nothing has happened with the main characters between this movie and the last one.

In the end, I had fun watching The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It had some really nice set pieces, great action scenes and stunts, and the effects were very good. It’s not quite as good as the first two movies, but in trilogies the third film rarely measures up to the originals, anyway.


Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Action Movie