Action packed but...

Rating: 8/10 (7 May 2001)

I'm starting to see a trend in the new action/adventure movies and it may not be for the better. CGI (Computer Generated Images) is becoming one of the primary tools of many filmmakers but is it coming at a cost? We began to see CGI come into movies quite a few years ago but they were usually as enhancements to the story or to the set. Now CGI is becoming more prominent and taking a center stage role. The Mummy Returns is a very good example of this.
The Mummy Returns is a sequel to the very popular The Mummy that came out in 1999. The story basically takes place several years later after our hero, Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) and Evie Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) have gotten married and have a young son (Freddie Boath). The couple are still the adventurous archeologists they were in the first movie but now they have a young son to take with them on their adventures. This story revolves around the resurrection of our arch villain, Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), but with a slight twist. This time around he's to kill the Scorpion King (The Rock) that will be making a reappearance after 5000 years to take over the world. But as noble as that sounds, his motives are less than desirable.

Was I entertained? Yes, definitely BUT, this was a case of too much CGI. The blending of reality and fantasy together with CGI can be a tricky thing, especially when the two worlds meet. The audience whether consciously or not, will instinctively pick up on things when they are unable to identify with it. In this movie, we see many instances where the two worlds meet and quite a few times, my eye was attracted to something that didn't move naturally. Unlike the movie, Matrix, where we were basically told to suspend all beliefs about the law of physics and such, this movie incorporated characters that behaved human-like yet movements and detail gave them away. Mind you, I do not often see walking wolf-like creatures but their mannerism and general body shape was humanoid so the natural instinct was to identify with what you know and in too many cases, it didn't look right to the eye. The decision to generate a complete CGI of the Scorpion King at the end of the movie I thought was a big error. The looks were too cartoonish and resembled something you see on Saturday morning cartoons. It was too distracting and took away from the events at the time.
However, I really enjoyed the fight sequences between the female leads (Weisz and Velazquez). They were quick and well choreographed. It's refreshing to see that directors are not afraid to show female leads as strong characters that are just as capable to fight as their male counter-parts. Fraser and Weisz played their parts well and like the last movie, Oded Fehr is outstanding. The Rock however is something else. In his movie debut, I found his performance a little bit extreme and probably not too far from his wrestling persona. Whether this will be the beginning of a film career or not, I cannot tell but hopefully his acting improves.

Overall, this was a very entertaining movie to kick off the summer. It was full of action and fast paced but I've seen much better computer graphics in other movies.