The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor – Review

For those of you who don’t really pay attention to movies, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the third in the series of the modern Mummy movies, the first of which was a very loose remake of a 1932 horror movie of the same name. The difference between the original pre-war movie and the modern trilogy is that the horror movie feel has been dumped in theme of a much more swashbuckling adventure romp. Herein lies the bones of the trilogy…the movies are more like Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean and are fleshed out by witty one-liners (mainly courtesy of Brendan Fraser), clever visual gags and spectacular action scenes, many of which are filled with gorgeous CGI effects. So now that we’ve set the movie in context, lets review the latest offering…

+++ Positives +++

• Its the same old adventuring romp
• Brendan Fraser still funny
• Delightful in-joke to the casting change of Rachel Weisz to Maria Bello for the part of Evie.
• Impressive CGI.
• Yeti’s. Seriously.
• The backstory is inventive, with clever and creative use of chinese history eg The terracotta army is a key plot point

— Negatives —

• Some really under par acting by some of the cast. Luke Ford I’m looking at you in particular.
• Gaping plot holes all over the place. You honestly have to force yourself to ignore them.
• Totally unnecessary and pretty unused relationship between one of the supporting Villains, a Chinese general and one of his officers. What in the world was that about?
• No Rachel Weisz (she left due to “scripting problems – I can see why). Maria Bello just not good enough.
• Michelle Yeoh badly underused. Also appears to have aged not so well, but hopefully that was just make up.
• Some plot points make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Case in point – When Han bathes in the pool of life at Shangri-La he re-emerges as a THREE HEADED DRAGON.
• Too creative with Chinese history at some points.

Conclusion: The movie is pretty much what it says on the tin. Its a Mummy movie, set in China. If you really enjoyed the first 2, by all probability you will probably enjoy this one for the same reasons. Be warned however, it is definitely the weakest of the trilogy, perhaps on a par with the Scorpion King spin-offs.

Overall rating – 4 Terracotta soldiers out of 10.
Stay Classy,

Ian