Hey, hey, hey for Ardeth Bey!

Rating: 10/10 (11 August 2005)

I agree with Snow 20. Imhotep and anck-su-namun were so in love there was no way she would have run off like a coward and left him to die. This is the same woman that stabbed herself in the stomach in the first movie! If anything, she would have hurled herself into that fiery pit with Imhotep. This scene really spoiled the movie for me and up to that point I was having a great time.
Yes, the Scorpion King looked like a plastic jerk and the CGI wasn't up to snuff, but you couldn't help being entertained by it. It was exciting, action packed and managed to squeeze in some great battle scenes, love scenes, and even an ancient fight scene between women (Nefertiri and anck-su-namun).
Oded Fehr (Ardeth Bey) has to be one of the hottest actors on the planet! The man is simply gorgeous and quite talented. He is definitely leading man material. There were so many good looking men to drool over: Ardeth, Rick and Imhotep. If I were Evy, I'd want to date both Ardeth and Rick and decide (much, much later) which one I wanted to marry. Okay, so marry Rick, live an upper-class life in England with your husband and son, but at least experience Ardeth first. Spend a few months out in the desert with this hunk and get a little ankle tattoo to remember him by!
I felt sorry for Imhotep, and in this movie, he didn't seem to be the bad guy at all. I thought he had gotten a raw deal in the first Mummy anyway. He was just in love with the wrong woman and was willing to sacrifice everything to be with her. Who wouldn't have gotten "a little riled" at having one's tongue cut out, being buried alive and slowly eaten by scarabs, and then having an eternal curse put on you! I would have returned and kicked a few asses too. In this movie, all he seemed to really want was to be with anck-su-namum again. She was the monster in this one, if you ask me.
Imhotep really didn't seem to have his heart into "ruling the world" and seemed happier once he was reunited with her, only to have her run off and leave him to die. I had tears in my eyes along with him and you could see he was heartbroken and no longer cared what happened to him. Here is little Evy dodging falling columns and leaping over breaking ground to save her man and anck-su-namun was supposed to be the bad-ass female warrior who would do anything for her man. She got what she deserved though and I cheered as the scarabs picked her bones clean. Too bad Imhotep couldn't have seen that! They never really explained how anck-su-namun was reincarnated in the first place. She just shows up in 1930s clothes, with a new name and spouting English like a native.
Evy seems to have lost her sense of humor and ditzy ways in this one all together. I guess thats what 10 years of marriage and having a bratty kid will do for you. Now, she is a no nonsense, humorless, treasure seeker (instead of the librarian she proudly proclaimed herself to be in The Mummy) and just didn't seem as much fun as she used to be. Her clothes seemed awfully revealing for 1933 too. She is still very beautiful but just boring - even with her new butt kicking skills.
The little boy's role was totally unbelievable. Not his acting - he did a decent job with what he was given - but he seemed to act more like a child of 12 or 13 years instead of 8. He was too self possessed, too articulate and too brave. Nothing scared him, he apparently had artistic talent well beyond his years (perfect sand depictions of ancient Egyptian cities and monuments were left as clues for his parents), he read and understood ancient Egyptian words that he wouldn't have really grasped even in English. He didn't seem upset when he thought that he lost both his parents in the dirigible crash and didn't shed a tear when he saw his mother knifed before his eyes. Just matter of fact and ready to go on with his life. The brother didn't even seem upset either. Now thats taking the stiff upper lip British thing too far! (Okay lads, she's dead, let's get on with our trip and try to get back to London safely in time for dinner shall we?)