Another missed chance for a better ending.

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2001)

The plot was OK, the effects were OK, the acting was OK, the girl was...more than OK. I enjoyed the movie despite the weak plot and incredulous situations. I even found the two leads engaging.
Never mind the movie itself. What really roils me is when writers (or other decision makers) miss opportunities for better endings, and boy, they missed one this time. In the process they also missed a chance for a much better sequel. (I've noticed that third-time-arounds tend to learn from the mistakes of their immediate predecessors.) In this case, a pivotal point comes when the mummy, rendered mortal and vulnerable, finds that his eternal love will not risk life and limb to save him. The look on his face as she runs away was precious. He decides to let go and fall into Hell--so taking a great opportunity with him.
Imagine now if the O'Connells had somehow rescued him--it was well within their characterization to do so. Then we would have had a new dynamic to this ending, where the two protagonists would have had to come to some sort of terms. Imhotep now faces a life without his eternal (and faithless) lover. He has a debt, begrudgingly, to Rick. He is thrust into a different time. Moreover he has a load of guilt he may not even recognize. I imagine them parting company with a guarded truce--not friends at all, but not now mortal enemies. This would be a scene where some depth could have been added to all characters as they commented about right and wrong, time and eternity, loyalty and betrayal.
More importantly for the box office, it would have set up a scenario for one heck of a sequel. Does he regain his supernatural powers? CAN he regain them? If so, how does he use them now that his love interest is gone? I see a chance for the O'Connells to come to grips with some other evil with Imhotep the mortal on... whose side? Do we know which side; can we trust him at all? Then perhaps a grand finale where he manages to win redemption by some act of supreme sacrifice.
Ah, it could have been the best of the series. But the opportunity's gone. (I would love to have seen them doing a dig with what is obviously the dig from "Raiders of the Lost Ark", Nazis and all, going on in the background.)
Now, about that balloon... I calculate its envelope would have to have been roughly 50 times the volume of the one portrayed to have lifted that boat at all, let alone fly.