DVD Review: The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, 2-Disc Deluxe Edition

One of Hollywood's highest grossing movie franchises that began with a bang ends with a whimper with the third entry in The Mummy franchise having a noticeable lack of smarts and entertainment.

The fact that the series became less memorable and uninspired as it went along doesn't help, but a seeming lack of current interest in the franchise plays a part here as well. After a solidly entertaining flick like The Mummy is followed up by a forgettable sequel and a direct to DVD prequel to the sequel, a third entry in the franchise soon becomes improvident.

Called back into action is Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser), his lovely wife Evelyn (Maria Bello), the wise-cracking Jonathan, and newly introduced son Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford) to put yet another mummy to rest. After a 2,000-year-old curse is broken, the Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) is revived and on a mission to gain control of the China Empire using his army of undead. It's is up to the new and improved O'Connell family to save China from the ruthless Dragon Emperor and crack a few lame jokes along the way.

A promising start with some decent CGI work becomes ruined by an overload of middling special effects afterwards, prolonged battle sequences, and the usual bad line reading by Brendan Fraser (the goofball of cinema). These are just some of the numerous shortcomings that the third entry in The Mummy franchise has to offer. Topping off these blemishes are bland hand-to-hand combat sequences and a layout in the script that called for poorly imaged abominable snowmen to the rescue.

With a director like Rob Cohen at the helm, a man who seems very addicted to deploying frantic action and rapid gunfire that quickly becomes stale (xXx, The Fast and The Furious, Stealth), The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a perfect example of how a change in director can completely change the tone and momentum of a stable series. This is loaded with repetitive action, occasionally sloppy camerawork, ill-favored subplots involving love and daddy issues, and an excessively lackluster script. The fun is bogged down by these multiple faults, predictable humor, misleads in the direction, and an underused Jet Li in poor form.

Article Author: Derek Fleek

Derek Fleek is an online movie critic and promoter of the site Popcorn Monsters. His favorite genres are horror (modern and classic), comedy horror, and occasionally a good drama. His favorite movie is Pulp Fiction and his favorite director is Quentin Tarantino. …

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