After a long hiatus away from Brendan Fraser and his incredibly popular Mummy franchise, the series seemed like it would never return. The franchise had been dead since 2001 after The Mummy Returns was released to mostly average scores and an average box office collection. Yet, after 7 years of hush-hush, and long anticipation from hardcore fans of the franchise, Universal Pictures decided it was time to bring the franchise back from the dead. This is how The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor was born, a film that polarized audiences with one of the worst takes on the franchise.
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The Movie Review
Unlike the mostly Egyptian setting, Tomb of the Emperor roses into the colorful and vastly dense land of China. Alex O’Connell’s visit to China leads to a suspicious tomb that features a relic that can somehow bring people back from the dead. However, as he dives deeper into this tomb, he manages to awaken a deadly force, a terrifying mummy.
This prompts series mainstay and protagonist Rick O’Connell to make a full-on come back to not only rescue Alex from this situation but also keep the threat of this ancient being from taking over the world.
In all honesty, this is a film that did not really need to be made. Perhaps, it was better off than the franchise that died back in 2001 Because this particular outing is not great at all. Director Rob Cohen tried his hardest to replicate the style of Stephen Sommers, but he failed miserably and made a film much more polarizing for audiences. It was polarizing in the sense that there were too many plot holes, awful pacing that did not engage audiences whatsoever, and some of the worst CGI work that we have seen in ages.
These phones were known to be fun and interactive for the whole family, there was a ton of dialogue that was snappy and corny, but it worked in the scope of this story. However, none of the dialogue lands here, and the entirety of the story falls flat on its face. Not only are the characters boring here, but they do also don’t much serve a purpose for the overall story. It’s simply a cash grab and relies on the nostalgia factor that people have with Rick O’Connell as a character and Brendan Fraser as an actor.
Speaking of which, Brendan Fraser does a good job as the character he embodies, but none of the cast seems to follow that same passion. Perhaps because they weren’t interested in this script, as it was one of the weakest and most dumbed-down versions of the story at hand.
Not only are the performances bad here, but the character writing, in general, is horrible. None of the characters do much. Alex is just a plot device to get the story started, Evelyn is just there to support Rick for some reason instead of having actual thoughts and motivations of her own self, and the Dragon Emperor played by Jet Li is one of the worst villains in the entire franchise.
Not to mention, the action is not fun to watch here. It overly relies on computer graphics rather than practical effects and actual stunt design.
There was also little development in terms of CGI here because the visual effects and the computer graphics are both genuinely horrible to look at. 2008 was the year in which Iron Man came out, and that is one of the best-looking films even to this date in terms of CGI. Not to mention, the cinematography was just horrendous with a bunch of tilted angles and random cuts that broke scenes entirely. The soundtrack on the other hand did a decent job, but it wasn’t good enough to keep you hooked to the film on the screen.
The Verdict
All in all, there was no way that this film could have been handled much better, but neither the writers nor the director had any passion for this franchise. If only this was handled by somebody with a bit more experience in this particular type of fun, action-adventure film, this could have been a much more interesting endeavor.
