An unwieldy title for an unwieldy movie
You can’t fool the audience by excavating the same mummy thrice (or can you?), so the filmmakers behind the third Mummy moved the supernatural shenanigans to China and made the murderous villain a Chinese Emperor. What perfect timing to release this movie during the Beijing Olympics. Anyway, like the idiots who mummified Imhotep, a fairly powerful witch named Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) was dumb enough to curse said Emperor with limitless undead powers instead of just using regular curses that keep people permanently dead. Two thousand years later, the O’Connells managed to get themselves mixed up with yet another world-killing walking corpse, even if the tomb’s halfway around the world from them. Cue lots of fighting, undead things and magical lightshows, just like old times.
Well, not exactly like old times. Apparently, third time isn’t a charm for Rachel Weisz, thus American actress Maria Bello now plays Evie. Bello’s a revered actress, but it’s hard to reconnect the audience with a role you never established. She would have been better off with a brand new character, maybe a romantic distraction for Rick. It wouldn’t be too hard to keep Evie preoccupied in London and make this one a father-son adventure. Also sorely missing is Oded Fehr’s Ardeth Bay, who added some much needed class in the earlier movies. Heck, I even missed Arnold Vosloo!
Also gone is o.g. Mummy director Stephen Sommers. I’m not a big fan of Rob Cohen. He uses a lot of shaky cam for his action sequences and doesn’t know how to stage the gags properly. Under his direction, the movie also plods along a-matter-of-factly, with little punctuations or pauses for important moments such as the Emperor’s resurrection or the death of a main character. It’s something very common with modern directors nowadays; who seemed like they’re always in a hurry to rush their movies through their audiences. This is evident even in better movies like The Dark Knight. What’s up with that? Afraid we might spot the seams breaking? I’m going to lose a lot of credibility by saying this, but Sommers would have done a much better job. True, he has worked with pretty weak materials so far (weakest being Van Helsing), but the guy sure knows how to pace his movies, and he’s easily one of the finer Spielberg imitators.
The weakest link in the movie is the “kid” character, played by unknown Aussie actor Luke Ford. There’s just no chemistry between him and every other character in the movie. I also didn’t like the whole Abercrombie and Fitch vibe he was giving out – this is a movie set in the late Forties, you know, not One Tree Hill.
Well, what about the Chinese cast, you asked? People familiar with Hong Kong cinema might get a kick out of Anthony Wong Chau-Sang’s superficial cameo. It's always great to see fellow Malaysian Michelle Yeoh in yet another big Hollywood movie, though she still can't speak Mandarin properly since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Upcoming actress Isabella Leong is wasted playing the boring, requisite love interest. Cute, though.
Overall, the movie wasn’t strictly terrible. But it still felt like a waste of time. - BMF
Directed by Rob Cohen (Stealth, xXx) and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (Herbie Fully Loaded, Spider-Man 2). Starring Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Michelle Yeoh, Luke Ford, Isabella Leong and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang. Based on the story created by Nina Wilcox Putnam and Richard Schayer, and the screenplay by John L. Balderston for the 1932 version of The Mummy.
Also, check out my minute review on the Golden Village site! |
