'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor' Film Review
Cast
Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah and Michelle Yeoh
Director
Rob Cohen
Plot
Former Egyptian adventurer Rick O'Connell is doing his best to pretend he enjoys retirement from the adventure trade with wife Evie, but is saved from tedious afternoons shooting fish by a last secret mission to China, which results in an unexpected meeting with his estranged son and the resurrection of the cursed terracotta Dragon Emperor with an axe to grind against... well, Chinese corruption. The world. Certainly the O'Connells, anyway.
Verdict
Rick O'Connell. Brendan Fraser. Jet Li. Michelle Yeoh. Jet Li vs Michelle Yeoh. The potential for an epic comeback was certainly there, but 'The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor' somehow manages to miss the potential top mark, resulting in a capable but average adventure romp. On the upside, at least there weren't any vine swinging monkeys.
Review
Despite its quality ingredients, the cake didn't quite rise for the third Mummy outing. The problem doesn’t even lie with the change of setting to China, as the concept itself – rugged and self deprecating adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) has a good old time saving the world from a powerful undead monster – still ought to have worked. It's more that ideas which you can imagine would have looked quite clever and funny on paper didn't really translate to the screen, so that much of the comedy, especially between bored semi-retired Rick and Evie O’Connell (Maria Bello) falls flat. Evie’s poor hapless brother Jonathon (John Hannah) fares worst, saddled with most of the lame mummy (and even yak) jokes. Can you see the scripting meeting? ‘Let’s put a yak in the plane, just so it can yak all over Jonathon’. The first Mummy film made self-reflexive cheese into art; this time around, it's showing its age.
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