'The Mummy' is getting old
Three Mummy movies worth of cheese and not one of them is set in Wisconsin. Do America's dairy farmers know about this?
And in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, that cheese has curdled into the dumbest, most violent Mummy yet.
The big screen test this summer was always going to be "Will the film series evermore known as 'Indy-lite' hold up when compared, directly, to a revived Indiana Jones?" The answer is "Not bloody likely," with an emphasis on "bloody."
Director Rob Cohen follows his last fiasco, Stealth, with this tale, which picks up those tomb-violating O'Connells, Rick and Evelyn, and their now-adult son, Alex, a dozen years after the last adventure. "Retired" in style in Jolly Olde, they're summoned to post-war China on a pretext. They get mixed up with their tomb-pilfering son's prize find, a cursed evil ancient emperor and his terra cotta army.
Brendan "Forelocks" Fraser is back as Rick, pistol-packing pilferer and mummy hunter. He's here to yell "Here we go again!" and "I HATE mummies!" a few times.
In a stunt that works but doesn't quite pay off, the terrific Maria Bello replaces Oscar winner Rachel Weisz as "Evie," an impersonation that is spot on but rather misses the point.
Luke Ford, a young actor who is, like Fraser, sans charisma, was cast as their son. John Hannah returns as comic relief. From the comedy.
Martial arts star Jet Li, as the emperor, spends much of the movie acting (an effect) through terra cotta — an improvement in his case.
The action beats are the same as the earlier Mummys — with planes, guns, digital creatures and vast armies of the risen-dead having at it. The missing ingredient here seems to be the fun.
