The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

I was very excited about the movie. I thought the first two mummy films were great and entertaining. Before watching The Mummy 3, I thought it looked bigger and better than the previous two. After walking out of the theater, I completely change my opinion. I was disappointed with the story, acting, and action. Yes, the action.

Rick O'Connell (Bredan Fraser) is back to fight off a resurrected mummy named Emperor Han (Jet Li). Rick is joined by his son Alex (Luke Ford), wife Evelyn (Maria Bello) and Jonathan (John Hannah). They travel all the way to China and the frigid Himalayas in order to stop the mummy from conquering the world. But in order to complete his mission, Emperor Han awakes a massive 10,000 warriors (Terracota army) to finished the job once and for all. The O'Connells are up against an unstoppable army and an evil Emperor that will do anything to get the job done.

The story was very interesting, but the script was not. I thought they should had focus more on the mummy than Alex's life. I felt like Jet Li didn't have enough screen time or even just the mummy. Another thing that I felt a bit disappointed was the beginning of the movie. I liked how they were introducing Emperor Han and how everything started, but it felt like a documentary after a while.

I had mix reactions about the performance in the movie. I didn't have any problem with Fraser's performance. He fits his character and he was great in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. Maria Bello was not as good as I thought she would be. She did okay, but the accent was kind of weird at times though.

The action and special effects was probably the best thing in the movie. The action sequences were very good, but I thought they could have been better though. I wanted to see longer battles. Like a longer version of Jet Li fighting Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser at the end of the movie. I thought Jet Li should off had a big fight with Fraser. It was suppose to be an epic one-on-one fight, but it fell short. The special effects were good and believable. I didn't have no major problem with the effects what so ever.

The Mummy 3 was a fun movie to watch, but the film has it's flaws. If the the script was better, then I would have given the movie higher rating. While I'm not that interested for the next movie, I am curious to see how it turns out.

I saw a screening of the movie this week and was not expecting much. I liked the first Mummy a lot, did not like the second Mummy as much. I would say the third Mummy is about as good as the second Mummy. It was an interesting idea to have the movie take place in Asia. The scenery was beautiful and so were the special effects. I wish I could say the same about the acting.

Story has not changed much from the previous movies. Mummy rises, Mummy wants to rule world, must stop Mummy.

The new wife of Brendan Fraser is not as good of an actress or as hot as the previous actress. Brendan Fraser's son was not that great of an actor either. And i was confused with how old Fraser's son was supposed to be. It looked like his son aged 22 years but Fraser only aged 2 years from the last movie, strange.

Overall the movie was okay. If you are looking for a deep story, with great acting,then you chose the wrong movie.If you are looking for something to pass the time and some cool special effects then this is the movie for you.

I really like the Mummy series for its epic action, sense of humor and great special effects. I was very excited when I started seeing teasers for this sequel to be shown in July, mostly because it was quite unexpected.

This movie has all the required elements of epic action, sense of humor and great special effects. Of course there is still the swashbuckling hero Rick O'Connell played in grand style by Brendan Fraser. He undoubtedly has this action-comedy genre sewn up right in his alley. John Hannah is still around playing his brother-in-law, Jonathan, in his old annoying manner.

For the new stuff, the setting shift to China as the titular "Mummy" now refers to an ancient Chinese emperor who desired immortality, played by Jet Li (who really personified his anti-hero role with relish here). The emperor sought the help of a "witch" (played with much bravado by Michelle Yeoh), with whom he gets attracted to. However, the witch fell in love with his main general (played by Russell Wong, whom you'd wonder why he isn't getting more breaks in Hollywood). From hence starts the conflict and the resultant curse on which the movie stands.

The requisite martial arts you would expect in a movie set in China are of course in full play. Very well choreographed, especially that thrilling sword fight between Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. The exciting action sequences inside the booby-trapped lost tomb, the truck and chariot (!) chase in the streets of Shanghai and the final fight sequence with the "Mummy" are all executed very well as in the two previous installments.

But then there are the drawbacks that for me pulls this one down to a five star rating. The quality of the spoken Mandarin is at times unintelligible. However, the major beef involves what for me are severely miscast actors.

The actor who plays the now college-aged son of the O'Connells, Alex, looks too mature to be the son of Brendan Fraser. I just checked to see that the actor Luke Ford was born in 1981, but he looked older than that, so it was a bit of a stretch to believe that he is Brendan's son. Furthermore, he also does not act like a son, but more like Brendan's younger brother.

But the worst and damaging mistake was the decision to cast Maria Bello in the beloved role of Evelyn O'Connell, which is wholly owned by the more beautiful and credible Rachel Weisz. I felt absolutely NO chemistry between Maria and Brendan. Her acting was also quite wretched when compared to Ms. Weisz, who was able to maintain her intellectuality, demureness and gentility on top of her topnotch fighting skills. Ms. Bello fails miserably in this regard to recapture the unique character of Evie we have loved before, in my opinion.

I was able to catch this movie at a test screening in California while i was on vacation and its not much of a film. Its the same story as the previous ones and most of the stuff in the movie were taken from them as well. I love Brendan Fraser but he didn't look happy to be there and with how the story was set up, you can't blame him for looking miserable. He has no chemistry with Maria Bello, who was just awful (She's no Rachel Weisz, that's for damn sure.) and he has even less chemistry with his own son played by Luke Ford, who has the charisma and the charm of a brick, not to mention the fact that he looks just as old as both Fraser and Bello. Fraser has more chemistry with John Hannah, who is a welcome distraction from the lousiness of the film. The movie itself is just a flat headed mess of bad visual effects with no soul. Jet Li lacks the menacing presence of Arnold Vosloo from the previous films but that problem is more than less on the shoulders of the director, who was in my opinion more concern with the style of the film than any substance it could have had and because of that, Jet Li and most of the cast got the short end of the stick and it shows.

They should have ended it with the second film but instead, we have a movie that manages to make even "The Scorpion King" look as good as Iron Man.

Like so many great movies that became dragged-out trilogies, the newest Mummy falls right in. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved the first movie. But like so many sequels, this story line becomes repetitive. The first rule of sequels is to keep the cast. Rachel and Brendan and an amazing chemistry, but Maria Bello was abysmal as the new Evelyn. Her fake British accent and melodramatic acting was inexcusable. The sets looked like they were built by 3rd graders, the effects were overwhelming, the scenes were disjointed and the cheesy one-liners got old fast. Sure, Brendan Fraser still looks hot in a tux, but he still looks 35 even though his son is in his young 20s. Overall, I was terribly disappointed. I wouldn't even bother seeing it in theaters...and please tell me this series is finally over.