After a long wait, I finally got my chance to watch “The Mummy Returns”, the sequel to the 1999 remake of a classic. Back in ’99, writer/director Stephen Sommers amazed movie-goers with a movie that combined action/adventure and romance with light humor to create an instant classic. This year, Stephen Sommers tried to do it again, with little success.

There are two mistakes that people often make when trying to sequel a movie. 1) They add something to the story that makes you have to forget (or ignore) the story from the pervious film. Or, 2) they try too hard to re-create the more memorable scenes from the first film, leaving you bored saying, “Haven’t I seen this before?”

Though “The Mummy Returns” is not guilty of the first mistake (which I’ll explain later), the second mistake was definitely run into the ground. Now, because I don’t like revealing too much of a movies’ plot, I will have to be a little vague. But let’s just say: remember that scene in the first movie, when Evelyn knocked over the bookcases in the library, causing them to fall in a domino effect? Or how about when Jonathan couldn’t quite make out that last symbol in the inscription to control the guard mummies? Do you remember that really amazing wall of sand that Imhotep created? Well don’t worry, all those scenes are back, as well as a few others (slightly altered of course).

Another disappointment of this film was the humor. In the ’99 “The Mummy”, the humor was natural, and flowed very smoothly. In “The Mummy Returns”, the humor was not as natural, and often times seemed kind of forced. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few funny moments, unfortunately they were too few and far between.

There was one last thing that really got to me I feel I must mention. This was suppose to be a mummy movie, but the actual “mummy” time was really short. Imhotep himself was only a mummy for a few short scenes, and there was only one other mummy scene.

There were other things that really bothered me, but I cannot get into them, as I am really trying not to reveal too much of the movies actual plot. I hate spoiling movies for people.

Now that I’ve told you what I didn’t like, let me tell you what I did like.

First, remember when I said that people often make two mistakes when trying to sequel a movie? Well, like I said before, they really did a great job in not making the first mistake in this movie. I’m not going to reveal exactly what it was, but they added something to the story that directly involved the first film, but did not do it in a way that made you have to forget anything from the first film. In fact, after watching the first film again, it almost seems as if the changes were intended to have happened from the beginning. This really impresses me, because I hate watching a sequel and thinking, “Did they even see the first film?”

Kudos for that I must say!

Second, they visual effects were absolutely stunning. If you liked the effects from the first film, you’ll love the effects in this film. They are much better then in the first (which says a lot).

It’s also nice that they got all of the original cast. Often times, you’ll see a sequel, and the main (or secondary) character is being played by a different actor/actress. This can radically change the outcome of a movie. After all, each individual actor/actress brings their own personalities to the character. Changing the actor/actress can very well change the character. In “The Mummy Returns”, all of the characters are played by the same people. This was another aspect of this movie that really impressed me.

Over all, this was a good movie, just a bit disappointing. There was great potential, it just didn’t work out like it could have. However, if you liked the first film, “The Mummy Returns” is still worth seeing.


Recommended:
Yes

Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older