Blows the first one away...

Rating: 8/10 (2 May 2001)

Before getting into my "comments", I'd just like to say that I loathed "The Mummy" for one reason--the mummy looked absolutely ridiculous. The (in my opinion) terrible CGI look of Imhotep took me out of the movie. "The Mummy Returns" is plagued with a similar problem, but because the good far outweighs the bad, I can forgive them (I'll discuss this at the end--beware it contains SPOILERS).
"The Mummy Returns" picks up 8 years after the previous film. Although the characters haven't physically aged, their on-screen chemistry (mainly between Fraser and Weisz) has improved. Thrown into the mix is an 8-year old named Alex (Freddie Boath) who shows the world that children *can* act, a warrior/guide (reprised by Oded Fehr), the bumbling brother (John Hannah), and an airship pilot (actor unknown). All together this group makes a likeable team off to save the world (again)from two threats--the resurrected Imhotep and also resurrected Scorpion King (lots of resurrection in this flick). The movie is paced very well with plenty of action, battle scenes, and one on one fighting as well as some slower travelling scenes and romantic moments. It seems like the writer/director (Stephen Sommers) followed a number of conventions popularized by recent hits ("Gladiator"/"Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" weapon fights, "The Matrix" like one on one fights, "Braveheart" like battles, and "The Phantom Menace" like CGI characters). The result pays off. The action is peppered with one-liners and hilarious sight gags (The pygmies are fantastic and reminiscent of "Gremlins"). It's nice that the film doesn't take itself too seriously. The DTS sound in the film is some of the best ever--it will be nominated for best sound. The film would have been the perfect "popcorn" flick (although I despise people that eat in theaters) except for one huge flaw: BIG SPOILER At the end of the film, Fraser faces off with the resurrected Scorpion King. Rather than using the Rock for the finale, the Scorpion King takes the form of a giant scorpion with a CG model of the Rock's head. Unfortunately, the result is less than spectacular--it blows. All of the other CGI creatures are fantastic (Imhotep's eyes are some of the best ever seen on a CGI creature). The scorpion monster looks unfinished--It's as if they made some sort of CG mockup for test audiences and said "We'll finish that guy up later", but then they forgot to. It just goes to show that we're years away from being able to CG model a human actor. I would have preferred either a giant scorpion (minus the Rock's head) or just the Rock himself. But overall, the film was good--it was a case of my low expectations being exceeded, and that's always a good feeling.