The Scorpion King 2 - Rise of a Warrior
I honestly think, that the current rating of 3.8 is not doing this movie justice, and I will try to find words why I think so. The action (which I would say is most important here) was actually pretty well done (at least as far as a PG-13-movie can do it), that is the fights were well choreographed and slow-motion was used quite effectively. I would exclude the scenes of Randy Couture wrestling down his opponents, because I wasn't aware that the Egyptians invented the WWF as well. As for the characters, they were likable although cliché (then again, so were the characters in the first movie). At least they were not the type of unlikeable idiots, one has to deal with in many horror-movies or comedies. They were all well cast, with the exception of our hero's mother, who looked totally out of place for the setting. Also I have to say, I never quite felt the charm that some reviewers attest Dwayne Johnson in the first part. I thought he did not do well as a main character, at least in this kind of movie. I would even go as far as saying that Michael Copon looks the part better than The Rock does. The set design and costume design were good. The weapons and armor looked real enough to appear to be more than toys, real enough to suspend one's disbelieve. As for the setting, I'd say, you can't go wrong with desert-and-Egyptian-style-temples.
On the other hand, the story was predictable and there were some plot holes, but overall it could have been worse (especially towards the ending I was even quite surprised). And it has been done worse in countless other movies of this kind. It's just an average young-boy-rises-to-hero-story and for 90 minutes of entertaining what can be wrong with that? Unfortunately, and that is a big let-down, to call the special effects average would be already exaggerating. They are only slightly above Playstation-1-Level, especially in some crucial scenes. But also here you will find worse.
So all in all I rate this movie 6 out of 10. It's not as good as the first part, but if you liked the Mummy-movies, if you liked the first Scorpion King-film and/or if you simply like sword-and-sorcerer-flicks (and I do), give it a watch.
