Praise the heavens, FUN movies are back

Rating: 10/10 (11 May 2001)

Warning, these comments will contain spoilers.
I must start by mentioning that when first seeing THE MUMMY I was underwhelmed, however after purchasing the film as one of my first DVD's something inexplicable happened, I had fun, for some reason everything just clicked in my brain and the cheezy plot and sometimes ropey CGI became one of the most enjoyable experiences that I had ever seen. Since that moment although I have enjoyed a number of films including CROUCHING TIGER & TRAFFIC, I can only claim a few being as fun as THE MUMMY such as GALAXY QUEST & now THE MUMMY RETURNS. I couldn't comment on this film without first responding to critisisms to the break-neck pace which the film travels. I have always believed that action films should only rest when introducing characters who should then be developed within the action sequences, this sequel takes the logical step of assuming prior knowlege of the first film so doesn't waste time making us get to know them all over again. Not only does this give a good reason to start the film with a bang, but also provides some truly inspired ways of developing characters such as the flashback sequences with particular mention to the alternate version of the opening sequence from the first film.
But the one thing that a film like this needs is action and effects and the film more than succeeds in both catergories, I know a lot of mention has been made about the final battle with the Anubis warriors and this was nothing short of stunning, on par with the final battle would have to be the bus sequence which returns the extremely cool soldier mummies from the first film and creates one of the most exhilerating vehicle sequences ever, the highlight for me was the 1/2 mummy fighting Ardeth Bay. I also enjoyed the reworking of the face on the wall of sand sequence and found that for some reason it worked even better this time (probably because it wasn't over-hyped on the preview). Special mention also goes to the pygmie mummies which was an idea I never thought would work but was handled brilliantly with just the right level of surprise and action while also managing to never take itself seriously.
The special effects all manage to impress from the subtle work done creating the small scorpian at the start of the film to the incredible creation of the oasis immediatly afterwards. The mummies all looked fantastic with a noticeable improvement made with Imhotep.
However the effects I was most waiting for were the Anubis army and the Scorpian King, and while the Anubis army was amazing I felt that the Scorpian King's initial shots were less than impressive, however after about 6 seconds something happened, it starting running around taking chunks out of pillars and knocking over scenery, this is where the CGI suceeded in my opinion as the the amount of interaction with the surroundings was incredible for all the CGI creations and helped me suspend disbelief for the entire film.
I had no problem with the Rock's limited screentime because it was all the film needed, it's worth noting that Anuck-sa-na-mun had very little overall screentime in the first film but has still developed into an extremely interesting character.
Other elements that worked extremely well included the use of Jokes with direct reference to the first film and the great new score by Alan Sivestri which would rate as one of his best.
I would give the film a 10 for delivering the fun film I wanted to see without disappointment (a rare event indeed).
The short story is, go and see this film. Forget about things like realism and spotting elements from other films and just try to do something that is becoming increasingly hard to do with films... ...Enjoy yourself