| 
| 
“The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” is a silly but nicely crafted action picture that will not leave you wishing you’d seen “The Dark Knight” for a third time instead. If that sounds like a backhanded compliment, it is; whereas “The Dark Knight” transcended its comic book origins to be a legitimately great movie, “Dragon Emperor” is exclusively popcorn entertainment. While there’s no shame in that, it’s hard not to think how good these movies could be with better casting and direction.
In “Dragon Emperor,” famed mummy fighter Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evelyn (Maria Bello, taking over for Rachel Weisz) have put battling the undead behind them. That is, until they’re asked by the British government to transport a jewel to Shanghai, where their son Alex (Luke Ford) happens to be spending time with his Uncle Jonathan (John Hannah).
Ever the chip off the old block, Alex has just discovered the sarcophagus of the cursed Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) from the Chinese Han Dynasty, whose tomb reads: “If he’s awakened, all mortals should despair.” Naturally he’s awakened, and the mortal O’Connells fortunately have the help of the immortal Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh) and Lin (Isabella Leong), who hold the secret to killing the recently undead emperor.
Although the exposition is a bit long (as is the movie at 113 minutes), director Rob Cohen (“The Fast and the Furious”) keeps things moving. Fanciful places such as the Great Wall of China and Shangri-La are nicely worked into the story by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, who smartly use the “pool of eternal youth” in a way we wouldn’t expect. But be warned: There are more subtitles than in any action flick in recent memory, so you can’t completely shut off your brain for the sake of visual dazzle, regardless of how much the action scenes may encourage you to do so.
A chase from the Shanghai Museum is superbly rendered, with four horses encased in stone leading the emperor through the busy streets as the O’Connells and Lin pursue. In scenes such as this we tend to take the action and visual effects for granted and instead are amused by the trinkets of unexpected originality, which in this case is an inspired use of fireworks. There’s also a great sequence atop the Himalayas as three snow creatures help our heroes against the emperor, and the finale pits two armies of undead soldiers against one another with some nice CGI work.
If nothing else, “Dragon Emperor” is amusing, escapist entertainment in its purest form. It’s certainly an improvement on the franchise’s last installment, “The Mummy Returns” (2001), which was so absurdly bad it made its predecessor (“The Mummy,” 1999) feel like an Oscar contender. So if you’re not popcorn-ed out and can brave another trip to the multiplex this summer, “Dragon Emperor” is not a bad night out. Or you could just see “The Dark Knight” again – either way works.
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
