Product: The Mummy Returns [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 1.0
A travesty
The Mummy Returns is pretty much a disaster on every front.Unlike the first picture, which made generous but sensible use of computer-generated animations, this one seems dominated and finally over-powered by its effects. As a result, while the first movie was always anchored in the real world, this one feels strangely adrift.It also has too many expendable characters--none of them with the goofy appeal of cowardly bad guy Benny from the first movie--and, critically, it lacks any clear exposition to explain the whys and wherefores. I often had trouble keeping track of who was doing what and why. We have no sense of why the O'Connells are exploring the ruins at the outset. (They should have started the story at home with one of the wife's dreams). The movie backs into its story.The principals have acquired a roughly 10-year-old son, but O'Connell looks exactly as he did in the first movie and Evie actually looks more movie-star-ish and glamorous. There's also NO sense of attachment to the little boy, except when the script forces it down our throats. I never got the sense that they were part of the same family.And, very often, there is no sense of moment in this movie. As often happens in movies these days, the fillmmakers seem to know what they want to do in individual scenes but not how to fit it all together. For instance, Evie has a huge past-life fight in her head while aboard the balloon in the movie's later stages, and then matter of factly lets the rest of the party in on it. Their blithe acceptance works to negate the entire prior scene. The Mummy's lover's spirit enters its reincarnated body--an otherwordly scene in the first movie--and the Mummy here reacts as though she'd just turned up late for a date.