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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Review

11 August 2008 3 Comments

It’s odd to know that the last Mummy film was 7 years ago which is surprising especially when The Mummy Returns made over $200 million domestically. You’d think that a 3rd film would have been made only a couple of years after the fact. Several years later the 3rd film makes its way into theaters but after its first week, it seems that people have lost interest in the franchise, at least domestically. Don’t be mistaken however, The Mummy 3 has made in 10 days over $70 million dollars and opening weekend it pulled in over $40 million. The reason for my statement is because at the end of this weekend The Mummy 3 is estimated to make $16 million. According to Boxofficemojo.com, that’s a 60% drop from the week before. That’s not a good sign domestically but overall The Mummy 3 has made over $211 million with $141 million internationally. Yes, it has made its money back but studios tend to look at domestic box office more when considering sequels.

I might be a week late in talking about The Mummy, but some things take priority in life. That said, was a 7 year wait for a Rob Cohen directed Mummy film worth it? Is the absence of the beautiful Rachel Weisz felt? Is heading to a different part of the world for another Mummy adventure fun and exciting? All of these questions can be answered in the bullets and in the opinion of those who’ve seen the film. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor shifts from the sands of Egypt to The Great Wall of China where we see a fierce Emperor cursed by a sorceress to spend all time with his army suspended as terra cotta until Alex O’Connell is tricked into awakening the Emperor. The Emperor however doesn’t know what he’s up against, the pro Mummy killers Rick, Evelyn and Jonathan; the father, mother and uncle of Alex. The Mummy 3 stars Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Luke Ford, Michelle Yeoh, Isabella Leong and Jet Li as The Dragon Emperor.

Likes:

First and foremost, I like the change in venue. I’ve always enjoyed adventure stories that have taken place in Egypt but the change to China is a welcome difference. The mythology of Chinese history is massive and there is so much that can be feed on when making a movie.
Much of the Asian actors performances gave me the feel of a typical Chinese Kung Fu film although it really isn’t a Kung Fu film. Even so, watching Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh is always fun but don’t be confused by my statement. It was their performances as actors that gave me the feel of a Chinese film, not the fighting aspect of it.
Despite what some people may say, I didn’t mind some of the CGI work. I admit that some of it is so obvious but I guess some times is just all about what looks cool or what doesn’t look cool.
The Mummy 3 is very much action packed and it delivers on that.

Dislikes:

I think number 1 on my list of dislikes has to be the dialog. Most of the dialog is really just awful and embarrassing. Part of me felt bad for the actors who delivered them. Speaking of actors…
Maria Bello just plain sucked. She is by no means as good as Rachel Weisz was in the first two films. Don’t get me wrong, Maria Bello is a fine actress and she’s done an excellent job at a lot of what she’s done but The Mummy franchise is not one of her finer performances. Her English accent is atrocious and just adds to the curse that is most American actors can’t do English accents. The reason why they didn’t cast a British actress escapes me. It would have been so much better if Kate Beckinsale was in it… but that would have been unlikely.
One of the draws to this film was the potential fight between Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. Well, it was a disappointment for a couple of reasons. It was too short of a fight, the camera direction was terrible and I couldn’t see all that much and to top it off, it was shot in slow motion. Why was it in slow motion you ask? Maybe Rob Cohen thought it was cool but it really wasn’t.
Yetties are in this movie. They look cool but the usage of them is so pointless, they didn’t need to be in the film. The way that they interacted with each other was like a football team and it really didn’t work.
There is a lot of option A and option B choices to make for the characters. Granted if they were reversed, they’d be no movie but when you have these kinds of options throughout the entire movie it gets very annoying and becomes bad story telling.
The fight that Jet Li and Brendan Fraser have at the end of the film is lame. First of all, there is no way Fraser could take Jet Li… no way at all. Second, for those who’ve seen this film, Fraser says some thing like “where’s your honor” towards Jet Li in trying to make him fight hand to hand instead of using his mummy magic….. LAME!

I think without a doubt, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the weakest of the trilogy. I’ll admit that I enjoyed the first 2 films for what they are and they are indeed fun films. That being said, The Mummy 3 is still some thing of a fun action film but overall it has more negatives than positives. In the end it’s all about what you like and if your a fan of the Mummy franchise, you might like this. If your not a big fan and more of a general movie goer, you’ll probably walk out of the theater wishing you spent money on pizza and a Blockbuster rental. On a scale of 1 to 10, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor gets a 5 out of 10 and I’m probably being a little generous.

-Phil

3 Comments »

Soran said:

Man, I feel moved to rebut some of your comments, but don’t be offended, I love your site and everybody’s got opinions

First off, I’m gonna go out on a limb and say I LIKED This movie, for reasons I wasn’t expecting to. However, I don’t think that this movie should have been a part of “The Mummy” franchise.

Why did I like the movie? It was a quasi-serious adventure film about stopping an abominable creature from gaining ultimate power and enslaving the world to his Terra Cotta armies. Do you know how wacky that is in today’s world? Sure, you do periodically have Sci-Fi movies about creatures wanting to take over the world, but they’re mostly classics and aren’t being made any more. I really feel like the whole concept and feel of this film was simultaneously a glorious throwback to the 80’s heights of SciFi/Fantasy, while also taking it in a few new directions I wasn’t expecting.

That being said … It was a *serious adventure film*. What the HELL were the writers thinking putting Rick, Evey, and the Mummy logo on this? The first Mummy film, while somewhat serious, was also HYSTERICAL, and was a quasi-horror film. The second Mummy movie was a rompish-adventure movie. Neither of those films were serious, scope-ridden adventure films, so why call it Mummy at all?

The second reason I say that is because … What the hell purpose did Rick and Evey actually serve? Yes, it was nice to see their characters develop - if somewhat unbelievably - into two retirees who gave up on spying and became novelist/fishermen, but when you strip away the chardev parts, what *precisely* the hell purpose did they serve? They did not wake the Mummy. They did not affect the Mummy. They did not interact with the Chinese Chicks *EVEN SLIGHTLY*. Infact, if you take this movie apart, the ONLY THING Rick and Evey did was Rick stabbed the fucker at the end - something Alex could easily have done.

The final reason is Johnathan. Yes, Johnathan is a bit of a dope, and a bit selfish, but the way he was written was fucking assinine. Every other character was familiar, there, a reminder of what had come before, but Johnathan was a travesty (especially at the end).

In every way possible, this movie felt to me like someone took a preexisting script about the rise of the Jade Emperor, a new Indiana Jones type character (alex), a new chinese sidekick (Alex’s girlfriend), and an ancient myth, and then *fucked* the script all to hell by adding Rick and Evey and Johnathan to it. Then they had the balls to not make Rick and Evey as funny as they are supposed to be.

Every time Alex and the Chinese chick were on screen together, I wanted to know more, I was DESPARATE to see them date, do something cool. I wanted more information on the love between the older Chinese girl and her general. I wanted to see a new guy take on a new adventure as an ancient Power was awakened.

And what I got was Rick and Evey whining. Admittedly they got better by the end, and I love Rick and Evey so much that I thought it was nice to see them again, but their very presence weakened the entire movie from what it could have once been.

To comment on your points:

1) The Dialog wasn’t that bad, except from Johnathan and the fact that it wasn’t as funny as the other movies, it was serious.
2) I thought Maria did a very good job given what she had to work with. I sortof believed she was Eve for most of the film.
3) This isn’t a martial arts film, and I knew it wasn’t - this is a Mummy film. I just can’t agree with the fanboys who said that the fight sucked ass. It was pretty good for what it was, and Michelle *HAD* to die to make the story worth while. I liked the fight - this isn’t hong kong, it’s Hollywood, and it fit the story fine.
4) No comment on the Yeti’s.
5) I’m not sure what you mean by choices.
6) Man… Phil… it’s a Movie. In the movies, Rick is just as strong and powerful as Jet Li is in real life. You have to go to the theatre and suspend your disbelief, dude. That’s not Brendan Frasier (Brendan’s kind of a dorky idiot who probably couldn’t kick the ass of a fly, more than likely), that’s Rick O’Connell. I bought it completely. With the outfit, the hair, and the fighting skills he’s shown in the other movies, I bought every second of the final fight. It was an even match without powers.

As for the honor comment - remember, we’re not asian, we don’t understand their culture like they do. While the Chinese are not as big on it as the Japanese, Honor is *everything* to these people. I can’t guarantee the Jade Emperor would care what a foreigner said to him, but if he did care, he would’ve fought with honor and not used his powers. Hrm… Though, at no point was it established that the Emperor could actually speak English, so in retrospect that was kindof silly, so you’re probably right.

This was a movie with a confused identity - this was a full movie and then a half a movie, which someone in the writing process stripped out half the original film to get the half with “The Mummy” in there - I’d almost guarantee this was originally pitched as an ancient Chinese Mythological movie like “Hero” and somewhere along the way some producer said “OOH let’s add Rick and Evey to this!!” like some sortof moron. But what can you do - it was still fun and it’s been so long since I saw a good adventure movie (Indy 4 does not count), I liked it.

Take care

# 11 August 2008 at 4:20 pm

Phil Chief Editor (author) said:

Nicely done Soran.

As to your point number 3… Granted it’s not set as a martial arts film but when you have Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh against each other, that has to be taken advantage of, especially since it’s an action film.

As to number 5; choices. What I mean by that is for example, when they were fighting the Emperor and the soliders on the bridge…. option A, we fight them. Option B, we blow up the tower. Well… why don’t you just blow up the tower and end the entire thing right there? I just can’t look past that.

As to number 6. I understand the disbelief of movies but I still disagree. Jet Li would kill Fraser as would the Dragon Emperor kill Rick… I’m just not buying it. If you did than I can’t speak to that. It’s just like Indiana Jones surviving a nuclear blast, you just can’t buy it.

I will agree that Rick and Evey didn’t need to be in the movie. I could have been Jack and Jane… it wouldn’t have made a difference. I’ll also agree that Jonathan was badly written for this.

To each his own… but I’d say it’s ok at best. I’m not even being that harsh towards this film as most people, so there is that. It just goes back to what I said. If you like the franchise, you might like this and that you did… and I can’t say I hated it. I’ll probably catch it again on DVD or TV.

# 11 August 2008 at 11:23 pm

Soran said:

GOD I hated that nuclear blast thing. It wasn’t even that good a social commentary (and you KNOW that’s why they put it in there) for cripe’s sake, why did you WASTE film time with it?

Anyway, yeah, not blowing up the tower was stupid, but you know how Archeologists get, “We have to preserve the past” blah blah. It sortof quasi-made sense for them.

I wanna see a new adventure movie now

# 12 August 2008 at 9:34 am