The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

"You guys are like mummy magnets!", 3 August 2008

I caught The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with the family this past Friday night and couldn't be more underwhelmed by the experience. I'm not much of a fan of the first two Brendan Fraser mummy movies, but with Jet Li in the cast I was actually looking forward to this one. I honestly didn't expect much more than a mindless action movie. But what I wasn't expecting was something quite this vapid. Bigger and louder with more explosions isn't always a good thing. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor went beyond being mindless to the point it began to insult my intelligence. The tissue paper thin plot (which I'm not going to bother to even go into) seems as if it were made up on the spot and merely serves to string together a series of action set pieces. And there is little to no attempt made at character development. If you aren't familiar with the other movies in the series, I bet you'd be hard pressed to know anything about Brendan Fraser's character. And whose bright idea was it to have Luke Ford play Fraser's son? Was he born when Fraser's character was about 12 or something? Just one of the many examples I could cite of things that really bothered me about The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Despite what I've written so far, the movie isn't a total waste. Some of the action set pieces really do work despite the idiocy surrounding them. For example, my single favorite scene in the film is when Jet Li faces off with Michelle Yeoh. It's magical! Unfortunately, that scene only lasts for a minute or so and we're back to the action by-the-numbers nonsense.

Finally, I feel the need to mention the opening 10 or so minutes that provide a back-story for the Dragon Emperor and many of the events to come. That looks like it might have been an interesting and intelligent movie. I'd pay to see that story fleshed out. What I won't pay for, however, is anymore of these Gawd awful mummy movies.

3/10