It seems like a decade since Brandon Fraser and Rachel Weisz battled mummies in the highly anticipated sequel, The Mummy Returns. Sadly, the decade isn't a far cry from reality as it has in fact, been seven years since the film exceeded all expectations and became a true box-office success. Unfortunately, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is unable to capture the excitement that its predecessor created, failing to captivate the audience and ultimately proving to be the Evan Almighty or 2008.
As the film starts out, we are reintroduced to both Richard and Evelyn O'Connell. However, this time around, Weisz is out and indie queen Maria Bello has stepped in to take her place; which brings me to my first major complaint with this picture, the casting.
Anytime a franchise loses a lead cast member, the act of recasting that particular character must be done carefully. Take for instance The Dark Knight, which had Maggie Gyllenhaal replace Katie Holmes as Bruce Wayne's love interest, Rachel Dawes. In that situation, they chose an actress who looked a lot like the original star from the original film, allowing the transformation to be more subtle and unaffecting. But here, the complete opposite happened. Maria Bello looks nothing like Rachel Weisz, and what bothered me more than anything was Bello's attempt to reproduce Weisz's accent – something that went unaccomplished throughout the entire film.
Additionally, the story, which was set in China, was lacking all the characteristics that made the first two Mummy films work. No longer were there lands filled with dessert train or a race against an actual human being; instead, the story dealt with a battle between a common archeologist and a man in high pursuit for immortality. The Great Wall reference was quite clever, and was a point in the film where I felt things were beginning to swoon upwards, but there was simply no saving the already second-rate story. Throw in the fact that having a Chinese Emperor limits the styles of fighting that can be preformed, and the film was handicapped from the very beginning.
However, all that could have been overlooked if the rest of the film had delivered, which it ultimately did not.
There was simply no constant flow of action or adventure. Rather, the film went from chase sequence to chase sequence, revealing very little in-between and never really gaining the momentum that it needed in order to pull off an entire film. In fact, the story was extremely anticlimactic as there seemed to be no pressure or dilemma to work with. When something bad happened, it was corrected almost instantly. Unlike the first two films, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor lacked the family scope that many fans had come to know and love. Sure Jake O'Connell had an active role in the film, but he is twenty-one now, and therefore, the story attempts to dive into Richard's bad fathering – a subplot that has been done far too many times before.
With all that said, I will admit that the film was slightly entertaining from a childlike standpoint. Brandon Fraser did his best to recreate the world of the O'Connell's, providing sparse moments of life amidst all the drowned out scenes that surrounded them. Additionally, Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh did a stellar job with the respective roles as the Chinese Emperor and the knowing witch. Sadly though, they couldn't save the film. And though it originally showed signs of potential, it lost its spark early on, becoming another disappointment that will quickly be lost in the muffle of summer left-overs. |
