Sommers had too much money

Rating: 5/10 (8 May 2004)

Being a big fan of Sommers two Mummy movies, I was really looking forward to this one. The Mummy movies were poorly reviewed, as Van Helsing was, so I wasn't discouraged. While I can't say the movie was bad, it wasn't great, I'm afraid.
I think the great weakness of the film was that Sommers just had too much money to work with and didn't have to make any decisions. If you listen to the director commentary for the Mummy and Mummy Returns, you hear him talk about the choices they had to make and the tricks they had to pull because of limited budgets. I think Sommers did very well with those constraints. After seeing how he behaves on an essentially unlimited budget, I think he needs the constraints of a tight budget to be effective.
As a general case in point, CGI was limited in the Mummy movies and Sommers comments on how much it cost to get effects shots done. This time around, the effects shots are so numerous and overwhelming that they detract from the overall experience. Instead of being there to advance the story, they are there to simply impress. It's unfortunate, because the price paid is in plot and character development, of which there is sadly very little. There's just not enough substance to make a connection with Van Helsing and Anna, the way you do with O'Connel and Eve in the Mummy movies.
I'd recommend this one as a rental. I own the Mummy movies on DVD. I don't expect this will be joining my DVD library when it comes out.