Posted: Tuesday 5th August 2008

Reviewed by Jason Palmer

Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser - Journey to the Center of the Earth) is struggling to cope with a new serene and stress free life in England now that his archaeological days are behind him. His wife Evelyn (Maria Bello - Coyote Ugly) has become a successful novelist writing about the adventures she and Rick encountered when they faced Imhotep (The Mummy from the previous two movies). Their son Alex (newcomer Luke Ford) has grown up and is following closely in his fathers footsteps as an explorer and adventurer. His latest project sees him in China uncovering the ancient remains of the famous Dragon Emperor Han (Jet Li - Kiss of the Dragon) and his terra cotta army. It's not long before Alex is tricked into awakening the Emperor which inadvertently involves his parents. The family O'Connell then team up with the mystical sorceress Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh) and her daughter Lin (Isabella Leong) in a chase to capture and destroy Han and his army before he becomes immortal and raises his army of the undead to conquer the world once again.

If you enjoyed the two previous Mummy movies (not counting the spin-off flick The Scorpion King starring The Rock back in 2002) then it's a pretty sure bet that you will like this effort. It's a family-friendly matinee movie which delivers for light thrills and is probably better suited to a younger audience. It's no Indiana Jones but to be fair to the producers, they haven't tried to rip that off opting instead for a fascinating story involving a brutal emperor of ancient China. In fact the back-story is so good it's what this movie should have been entirely about. We are given the back-story in the opening few minutes of the film (as if they wanted to get it out of the way as quickly as possible so the Mummy-bashing could begin) but this was its gravest mistake. The story of Han and his all conquering army is interesting. The fact that his best friend General Ming betrays him and falls for the sorceress Zi Yuan despite being warned off her is a classic story that could have been done really well onscreen if it was given the chance. Yuan's betrayal of Han (knowing full well of his intentions to kill her lover Ming) makes for classic story-telling but instead the best part of the Mummy 3 is glossed over far too quickly. It may no longer have become the family-oriented matinee it is now but it would have been a far more rewarding watch on the whole and maybe even given the franchise a new lease of life instead of treading on familiar ground once again.

Brendan Fraser seems to only show up these days in straight to DVD fare so it's nice to see him back on the big screen. He is good in this and he plays the adventurous hero of the piece very well in Rick O'Connell. Maria Bello does a good job stepping into the shoes of Rachel Weisz this time around. Her accent may be dodgy but she gets into the spirit of things. John Hannah is once again on hand for light comedic relief as Rick's bumbling brother-in-law Jonathan. The worst piece of casting would have to be Luke Ford as the O'Connell's son Alex. He is just far too old looking to make any of this plausible. He looks more like Rick's younger brother than his son and funnily enough is one of the reasons why Rachel Weisz didn't reprise her role as Evelyn this time around (citing that she is far too young to have a son that old). It's a shame because Ford does his role well, his physicality is just wrong for the movie. Jet Li doesn't really feature much in this, most of his onscreen time is motion-capture and it's a shame. Someone needs to give this man a decent script, he hasn't done anything good in western movies since Kiss of the Dragon in 2001 and his is a talent that needs to be used to good effect. This role falls in the same pile as Lethal Weapon 4, Cradle 2 the Grave and The One as a waste of his talents.

The special effects are a mixed bag. Some of the battle sequences do look impressive but we've seen it all before. The bad ranges from absurd Yetis made to look like Disney characters and some pretty shoddy animal-morphs when the Dragon Emperor takes on his various forms. And this is a problem Universal has had recently. The creatures they create look just like they did in the terrible Van Helsing movie from a few years back and with the back-catalogue of horror they possess, they should be looking to do something a lot more daring and interesting that the cartoon monsters they churn out at the moment. Even if this is a family-oriented film, there is no need to be complacent and maybe a bit of vision and creativity could have made this a little more interesting.

Adequate without being great, it's the by the numbers action that will ensure Tomb of the Dragon Emperor will make money and which could even mean a fourth in the franchise. I wouldn't mind that although they need to go more into the stories and less into glossy yet hollow special effects for it to succeed. If this movie has taught us anything, it's that there is a decent story to be told provided it's given the right treatment by the right script. This is a missed opportunity to have made an interesting and sufficiently different Mummy film. It relies too heavily on flashy showmanship rather than the more taxing route of telling a compelling story that we haven't seen before and because of that, it's sadly nothing special. A forgettable light adventure that won't leave a mark.