The “Mummy” franchise has always been the B-movie version of the “Indiana Jones” films, which themselves are B movies elevated by Steven Spielberg into an action-adventure colossus. So what does that make the “Mummy” films in the grand scheme of things? C movies?The third installment, “Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” directed by Rob Cohen (“XXX,” “The Fast and the Furious”), is by far the weakest. In it the excitement-starved husband-and-wife exploring team, Rick and Evelyn O’Connell (Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello, who replaces Rachel Weisz), come out of retirement in 1946 to travel to Shanghai, where they are tricked into helping resurrect an evil 2,000-year-old emperor (Jet Li). The emperor’s schemes to become immortal all those years ago were foiled when a benign sorceress (Michelle Yeoh) laid a curse on him. While in Shanghai, Rick and Evelyn run into their mischievous college dropout son, Alex (the charmless Luke Ford).
When the curse is accidentally lifted, the emperor, joined by a rebel Chinese army, rushes to the Himalayas, where a dip in a pool in Shangri-La promises immortality. He already has supernatural powers and likes to turn himself into a three-headed dragon. Accompanying the O’Connells is Evelyn’s eccentric, wisecracking brother Jonathan (John Hannah), who during the flight to the mountains is vomited on by a yak.
The kindest thing to be said for this frantic, cluttered mess of cheesy computer-generated action-adventure clichés is that at least you can see how the estimated $175 million budget (according to the Internet Movie Database) was spent. We get an avalanche, an army of bow-and-arrow-wielding skeletons, a car chase that turns into a fireworks explosion, and a cadre of snowy yetis. In the movie’s futile drive to conjure visceral excitement, the action sequences are edited into an incoherent jumble that makes you feel trapped on a rickety airplane sitting in a pool of yak vomit.
“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). It has some strong language and mild violence.
THE MUMMY
Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Opens on Friday nationwide.
Directed by Rob Cohen; written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar; director of photography, Simon Duggan; edited by Joel Negron and Kelly Matsumoto; music by Randy Edelman; production designer, Nigel Phelps; produced by Sean Daniel, James Jacks, Stephen Sommers and Bob Ducsay; released by Universal Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 53 minutes.
WITH: Brendan Fraser (Rick O’Connell), Jet Li (Emperor), Maria Bello (Evelyn O’Connell), John Hannah (Jonathan Carnahan), Russell Wong (Ming Guo), Liam Cunningham (Maguire), Luke Ford (Alex O’Connell), Isabella Leong (Lin) and Michelle Yeoh (Zi Yuan).
Courtesy: movies.nytimes.com
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