Good start... Bad finish

Rating: 2/10 (6 February 2002)

I have to say that I really like the first installment of The Mummy. It was so good that it, along with future sequals, could have easily taken up ranks of a new classic with the Indiana Jones series. So knowing this, I was very excited to see this movie. All the way into the theater I was excited by what would happen, and even through a good part of the film I was really liking it. It wasn't as good as the first, but what movie ever is? And I was even willing to accept the WRESTLER (not ACTOR) The Rock in the movie. Note: I am not one for accepting wrestlers in movies, sure they are both entertainment, but one all around sucks (wrestling) and one doesn't (movies). As I have noted to friends before, A wrestler in a movie is equal to a dog and a monkey having a baby. It isn't a good thing even from the start. But then it happened: The team of adventurers went and got into a big (extra fake and cheesy) hot air balloon. Yes that's right kids, they opt out on any logical means of travel for their time period and they get a (extra fake and cheesy) hot air balloon. Ever after I watched the film and only hoped it couldn't get any more unbelieveable. And yet it did! Yes thats right kids, it got worse. The Scorpion King shares his wrath with the audience, not that he is in any way scary it is just that he is so stinking cruddy (Badly computer animated, and even worse as a major bad guy!) Is what I am getting at is that it wasn't the wrestler that made it bad in the end (not that it helped), it was the overly done special effects. The difference between this movie, and the GREAT and AWESOME original is that the original was enhanced by special effects, the face in the sand, the plagues on the cities, even the computer animated mummies were an addition, and an enhancement, to the already good story and acting. On the contrary in this movie, rather than going with the good characters that were already developed and just adding another plot like Indiana Jones, someone changed the entire theme of the movie from the original and made it special effects. And that doesn't constitute a sequal at all.
If you liked The Mummy, don't see The Mummy Returns, it will just spoil the first film, and leave a bad (I just got ripped off 8 bucks) taste in your mouth!