My Movie Review on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Aloha, my friends.

This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here once again with another review.

And today, I'll be reviewing "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor", which is also the third and final installment of Brendan Fraser's "The Mummy" trilogy.

Here's the summary of this film:

Having been cursed by a vengeful sorceress, the tyrannical Dragon Emperor and his army have been doomed to be mummified in stone.

However, after Alex O'Connell, the now grownup son of Rick and Evelyn, discovers the mummified king, a group of villainous cultists manage to bring the cursed mummy back to life.

With the mummy on the loose and intending to enslave the world, Alex and his parents will have to work together to stop the Dragon Emperor before he becomes unstoppable, with the help of Jonathan, along with the immortal witch who cursed the emperor, Zi Yuan, and her equally immortal daughter, Lin.

Will the team of heroes succeed? Or will the world be doomed to the hands of the Dragon Emperor?

I will admit, before I saw this movie via renting it on iTunes, my expectations for this movie were completely low. I thought it would be terrible because of the large amount of negative feedback this film got, along with thinking it was unnecessary as a whole. However, while this movie was like I expected it to be, it still had some standouts here and there.

To start off, the film's ensemble cast definitely gave their all in this film, and the characters, old and new, were quite compelling.

The cast members that I've found myself commending the most in terms of being awesome were Brendan Fraser, Luke Ford, Isabella Leong, and Michelle Yeoh, and their portrayals of Rick, Alex, Lin, and Zi Yuan. Fraser was still as awesome as ever with his portrayal of Rick, and Ford, Leon, and Yeoh did a terrific job at synchronizing the franchise with their own new energy. The character developments of Rick and Alex, and the developing romance between Alex and Lin, were great too.

However, I was less than impressed with the casting of Maria Bello as Evelyn. Nothing against Bello, she was certainly great with her portrayal. But, Rachel Weisz owned the role of Evelyn through and through, and the replacing of her with Bello was something that I found to be a crushing blow among others.

Also, unlike the last two films, the character of Jonathan didn't play a necessary or important part in the adventure. With the exception of the casino moments, the character had no purpose other than just...well, being there. John Hannah was definitely as funny as ever, but even he seemed like he was questioning what he was doing there.

Additionally, with the exception of a few surprises here and there, the story and plot line by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and the direction by Rob Cohen, were predictable and formulaic. They carried little originality and didn't add at all to the first two films. It has some emotion, which particularly comes from the reconnecting between Rick and Alex, and the romance between the latter and Lin, but that's it.

As for the comedy aspect of the film, most of the humor was rather...hit or miss. The only great jokes came from the gags used with Rick, Alex, and Jonathan, and the comedic-chops by Fraser, Ford, and Hannah, but they were mostly chuckle-worthy.

Regarding the music by Randy Edelman...it was okay at the most. It wasn't as emotionally impactful as the work done by Jerry Goldsmith in the first film or Alan Silvestri in the second film, but at least he tried to make an impression.

My final noting on this picture is that I didn't think the CGI was the most well-done. It had little to no advancement and showed too many signs that everything was done by computer, which gave an uncanny valley sort of effect. I'm not gonna lie, though, the CGI used with the yetis was absolutely cool, the same with the creatures the Dragon Emperor shape-shifted into.

In the end, "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" isn't a very necessary film or great installment of the series, but at least it isn't a complete waste of time.

So, I rate "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" a solid three out of five stars. It's an interesting movie, but I think the series was better as a twosome and that this movie didn't need to exist.

Comments

[Spin Harmony]

This sounds pretty good. I’ll watch it eventually!

[Vigriff]

I agree that The Mummy didn't need a third film.