Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Nothing quite like perspective to make you realize just how terrible something is. I'm a bit of a fan of Superman and strangely teen melodrama and so really the show Smallville is just win win as a guilty pleasure for me. Which isn't to say that I can't recognize its a pretty awful show but I still enjoy it. If this seems like a bit of a digression well it does have a point. Alfred Gough and Miles Millar were the creative show producers behind the tv show and are the writers of this film.

I honestly thought the Mummy had a chance way back in 1999 to be the heir to Indiana Jones. There were enough nice moments in the first half of that film to make one recall fondly those journeys of Dr. Jones. Then just a bit after half way point the film degenerated into a full blown Bruckenheimer inspired summer spectacle and lost any charm value it had built up. The Mummy 2 just sort of upped the ante on absurdness including if I recall correctly a character out running the sun. Now with such a stellar recommendation one might wonder why on Earth I would see a third mummy film. Well at my weakest I'm a completionist. I can't tell you how sad my life will be when I have no doubt I will travel to the cinema to see Saw V simply for the fact that I saw the first four films.

The film picks up with our key characters Rick (Brendan Frasier) and Evelyn (formerly Rachel Weisz, now Maria Bello doing the most appalling English accent) just after world war 2. Their son Alex (Luke Ford) is all grown up and a tomb hunter (at least he isn't calling himself an archaeologist). Alex uncovers the tomb of a cursed Chinese emperor. A particularly preposterous line of events leads to the awakening of said emperor. This leads to another series of fairly ridiculous events all concluding with a big elaborate action set piece, including two cgi undead armies and everyman Frasier beating up Jet Li.

Now, granted a film about supernatural mummies doesn't need to be grounded in reality but then again it doesn't need to have yeti who seem far to familiar with American football. There are so many tongue in cheek, wink at the camera moments in the film that one actually just sighs in defeat after a while. They never acknowledge Rick's age which I may be great full for after the repetition of said joke in the newest Indiana Jones film. There were just enough things in the movie making me hate it with a barely constrained rage that I couldn't even enjoy some of the better done action sequences.