"You know, a couple of years ago, this would have seemed really strange to me." Highly enjoyable big budget action.

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2006)

The Mummy Returns begins in 'Egypt 1933' where the now married Rick (Brendan Fraser) & Evelyn O'Connell (Rachel Weisz) are on the trail of an ancient artifact called The Bracelet of Anubis, a bracelet that belonged to the evil Mathayus the Scorpion King (The Rock) centuries ago. Meanwhile at Hamunaptra the city of the dead the evil Baltus Hafez (Alun Armstrong) & Meela Nais (Patricia Velasquez) the reincarnation of Egyptian princess Anck Su Namun have discovered the remains of the high priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) who they intend to bring back to life to fight & defeat the reincarnated Scorpion King & take control of his army that will enable them to conquer the earth. However Baltus needs the Bracelt of Anubis to reveal the location of the Scorpion King's pyramid & they will go to any lengths to gain possession of the bracelet which currently Rick & Evelyn have although unknown to them their young son Alex (Freddie Boath) has it on his wrist. Baltus & his gang kidnap Alex & use him to show them the way to the Scorpion King, although Rick, Evelyn, Jonathan (John Hannah) & Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) are hot on their tails to save Alex & the world...
Written & directed by Stephen Sommers The Mummy Returns was the sequel to the smash hit remake of The Mummy (1999) & in my opinion is a slightly better film. The script is all about being bigger, louder & better than the original with one extravagant overblown set-piece after another. The film moves along like a rocket, in fact The Mummy Retrurns has to be one of the fastest paced films I've ever seen, there's barely a scene that goes by where there isn't a special effect, shoot-out, chase, explosion or some sort of action. As a result the character's are pretty shallow & I honestly don't know why Jonathan is back as he does nothing, I think in some ways they're as much of a passenger as we, the viewer, are. The story introduces all sorts of mythical Egyptian cities, legends & monsters & feels very much like an Indiana Jones globe-trotting action packed adventure with a hint of archaeology & horror thrown in there! Although The Mummy Returns is about as far removed from reality as any film can be so don't expect to learn anything, if you know what I mean. The Mummy Returns is big budget over-the-top entertainment that I thought was great fun & had had many enjoyable sequences although it's a little silly & a bit overlong at over two hours.
Director Sommers does a good job, there's plenty of flashy CGI effects & some great action sequences. Everything looks great, the production design is top-notch as are the costumes, locations & period sets. The fights are well choreographed & I rather liked the the Scorpion King monster at the end even if the close-up special effects aren't the best. Not that it matters but if you look at Rachel Weisz's boots she wears throughout the film you'll notice how the heel changes between shots, sometimes she has high heels, then medium & then totally flat soles depending on what she has to do, however I'll cut her some slack as I don't think you could do back-flips in high heels without breaking your ankles...
With a supposed budget of about $98,000,000 The Mummy Returns is well made & has that big budget Hollywood polish to it. The acting is almost incidental, it's not particularly good from anyone but it'll do. Is it just me or does anyone else think Rachel Weisz looks really hot in this?
The Mummy Returns in my opinion is a great film, it moves along like a rocket & it has some terrific action scenes & special effects. There's plenty of bang for your money here, definitely worth a watch & I reckon it's a highly entertaining film. After proving popular here The Rock got his own spin-off film The Scorpion King (2002) while on the back of The Mummy Returns the animated TV series The Mummy: The Animated Series (2001) was made.