Bring That Mummy on Again

Rating: 6/10 (18 September 2005)

All the key players are back for this more spectacular variation of the new Mummy villain - an Egyptian high priest thousands of years old with many supernatural powers. The first 5 minutes, with the new character The Scorpion King essayed by The Rock, actually outdoes the '99 film right off the bat; everything is more, as is the case with such sequels - about 10%-15% more, like a formula. The box office grosses seem to bear this out - throw in more, and the crowds will come - this out-grossed the '99 movie. But, more what, really? More money spent on the special computer FX? That's it. When commenting on a film such as this, it's more appropriate to focus on 'the ILM guys' - the ones who construct all the fake armies and sprouting foliage out of nowhere. Did they spend the computer money well, is the main question. I suppose so. I'm not a computer FX expert.
I am familiar with movies such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and its own sequels. The '99 Mummy movie was derivative of those adventures and this is a copy of the '99 movie. So all the stuff in the old crypts and hidden tunnels and funky pyramids is very old (no pun intended) by now. The scouring beetles make a brief early appearance and still manage to creep out a bit, but the rest is just a slightly enlarged/expanded take on the menace of the same old Mummy. They advanced the story a few years from the previous movie, indicated by the new son of the two main characters (Fraser & Weisz). And this is the only new element, the threat to the young son, which deviates from the first flic. "The Scorpion King" offshoot picture arrived soon after this but what really surprises me about the franchise is that no 3rd Mummy picture has surfaced, yet. Money speaks more than a Mummy, as they say.