LuckyWillTOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR - The Mummy returned, why couldn’t Evee?
September 22nd 2008 02:33
Throughout the film, the action and effects were typically impressive; however, the dialogue was merely adequate; the plot seemed predictable; and some of the performances felt inhibited. I wouldn’t say there was one overriding problem with the film, just a comedy of errors that inexcusably killed it. For those cast members who were brave enough to return for this, the 3rd of the mummy films, it was business as usual and their performances were at least up to the standard set by the first films; Brendan Fraser as the indestructible “Ricochet” Rick O’Connell and his brother in law, the perpetual nervous wreck, Jonathan Carnahan (John Hannah). New to the team is Luke Ford playing Rick’s dashing young offspring, Alex O’Connell; Michelle Yeoh and Isabella Leong played the immortal mother daughter guardian team and, of course, the Dragon Emperor himself, Jet Li. Also brought in to fill the shoes of the departing Rachel Weisz, Rick’s know-it-all wife Evelyn O’Connell, is Maria Bello but I’ll deal with her later.
The film begins with the tale of the merciless Emperor Han, a dictator who rose to power through war to conquer China. The character is based on the historical figure, Emperor Qin, who conquered China to become its first emperor in 221BC. Over time he realised that to further his dominion and maintain the order of it would require more than a mortal lifetime to achieve and that he would need to overcome death itself and live forever to do so. Historical texts suggest that Qin attempted this by ingesting daily concoctions of poisons, metals and herbs, each believed to harden his body and perhaps give him immunity to death. As you would expect, this eventually killed him and he passed away peacefully. But that’s not really Hollywood is it? So to make things more exciting, the team of the Mummy 3 decided that Han’s death would be far more spectacular, spewing volcanic globules of clay all over himself until a heavenly fire bolt leaves him looking something like Han Solo frozen in a block of Carbonite. Hmm I wonder if that’s where he got his name.
So Han (the emperor, not Solo) is betrayed by a powerful sorceress who grants him his immortality but in the form of a curse, turning he and his army into a frozen collection of terracotta warriors. Again this is based on the real life of Emperor Qin who had a terracotta army built to serve him in the afterlife and each face was required to be different to match the actual faces of his men. Once more Hollywood took some creative licence interpreting the ‘afterlife’ as ‘whenever the Emperor happens to be re-animated by dark magic’. The curse is lifted when young Alex O’Connell, embracing the family business, discovers the tomb of the forgotten emperor and inadvertently places it into the hands of some very sinister people. Of course mum and dad are brought in to clean up his mess and they all embark on a journey through sandy deserts and icy mountain ranges chasing down the increasingly powerful emperor before he and his army can become truly invincible.
Towards the end of the film there is an enjoyable battle between a resurrected undead army and the glorified pottery collection at the base of the Great Wall of China which gives the talented Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) a chance to demonstrate her martial arts prowess in a showdown with Li. Being as good as they are, it would have been good to see some really fast paced combat between the two and a wider camera shot to really get a look at what’s going on. Instead director Rob Cohen, who takes over from Stephen Summers (Mummy 1 & 2), went with the cheaper alternative using close, quick camera shots that don’t really show anything. The best scene in the movie actually involves a gang of Yeti’s kicking some military ass and a hilarious field goal not to be missed…trust me.
Once again Jonathan falls for a disgusting beast only this time he has traded the spitting, single humped ship of the desert from the first film, for a vomiting, airsick yak of the Himalayas. His character is still just as fun but is hugely under used and the film could use more of his antics. Australian actor, Luke Ford, is well cast as the son of Brendan Fraser and the two not only look and act very similar but they are actually believable as father and son.
Maria Bello, a great actress in her own right, unfortunately ruined the film for me, though, in her defence, her performance was doomed from the start. Had she been cast as Rick’s new love interest or Evee’s sister or something, she would have been great; however, she has been brought in to replace an already well established actress, Rachel Weisz, as Evee herself. In The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, Weisz’s personality had been infused with her character and audiences have become familiar with it. Rachel Weisz, as Evelyn, was smart but bubbly and curious and looked like she had some hidden wild side. Maria Bello, as Evelyn, was a proper, uptight, well spoken woman who looked far more professional in what she did than Weisz. You can’t simply switch actresses and hope nobody notices.
They did it in Batman successfully, replacing Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal as the character of Rachel Dawes but each actress only made one film before being replaced and even then it only worked because the other characters (i.e. the Joker) were so good that the imperfection wasn’t noticed as much. Every time I saw Maria in a scene it was almost distracting to watch her try and be the type of character that everyone had been expecting. She even says at the start of the film “I can assure you she is a completely different person.” It just doesn’t work.
The film was ok but I wouldn’t say it was anywhere near as good as the first mummy films. You can’t put Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in a film together and not have some explosive battles though the creators did their best to accomplish that. If they relied less on recycling dialogue from the first films and added a bit more mystery to the plot line it would have been far more enjoyable and, of course, bring back Rachel,(give her whatever she wants). All that being said, some of the action is refreshingly inventive and when Li does fight he always looks good. Brendan Fraser and Jonathan are funny to watch and like I said, you have to see the Yeti’s in action. So it is still a movie I would recommend watching, just don’t expect too much from it.
The ending suggests a 4th rising of this franchise and I have to say, I will probably go watch that too just because I love the idea behind these films; the history lesson; rising mummies; the wars; you just know there will be a lot of fighting and magic involved which is an automatic pass in my book. I can only hope they’ve learned from this mistake and the Mummy 4 will be more powerful than all of them.
Rating: 3 Blazing fire balls/5
By Will
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