Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy franchise is designed to milk the same story over and over. The first problem is that the story isn't theirs - it's Indiana Jones with more guns. I've seen both of the previous films (and part of the spin-off Scorpion King). There's nothing that wrong with them, as cheese is fine when it's what I expect.

The issue this time was the setting and characters. Brendan Frasier just doesn't look old enough to have a twenty-something kid. Given that he's not even 40, he's not. A quick review shows that the first film was set in 1921, and the second in 1933. So he was 15 in the first movie? I guess they needed to hand the franchise off while Frasier was still under contract, and maybe that contract specified that he won't wear a little gray dye in his hair.

Anyway, this movie suffers from a common affliction among sequels: Too Many Characters. For every sequel you have to add a bad guy and sidekick. Too many of the characters saw far too little screen time, and the character development (such as it should have been, which isn't asking much) didn't have enough time.

One of my coworkers gave it the rating: "Beat's work." I think that depends on the work.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
2008, 112 minutes, directed by Rob Cohen

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