Product: The Mummy Returns [VHS] (2001)
Rating: 2.0
Not half as good as the first
this is not a very good movie. The action is just boring, and the plot....well, i just couldn't care less about it.The characters are pretty damn poor, apart from that guy who wears black and has a bird. but his name is so obscure that i couldn't for the life of me tell you what it was.The thing about the first one was taht it had a nice bit of history mixed in with it. It made the film a lot more interesting. This one, however, lacks any real historical element at all. It is just action, and it's pretty poor action at that.The fights are just absurd, and what on earth was the thing with those awful little pygmie things about?????? This was just in the realms of fantasy, and completely ignored the fact that this is a film set in egypt, and with it's grounds in Egyptian myth and legend. But they seemed to just forget that, and throw in any old evil monsters. In the first film, because they stuck plainly to the impossible, yet somehow strangely realistic, it worked, but in this one it just seems to make a mockery of it.The entire Scorpion King thing just seemed to be thrown in to get another good fight out, and it was just so badly done i couldn't care less. He was so obviously put together by computer. they could at least have made some token effort.The introduction of Fraser and Weisz's child was a bad move. I just couldn't care about him at all. When he was taken, i couldn't give a damn about whether they rescued him or not. He just kept getting on my nerves.Possibly the only redeeming festures of this film are Imhotep (who does make the film shimmer with menace, although not so much as in the first) and John Hannah.He was simply wonderful, and really made the film. his acting was great. Admittedly, it was quite obvious and rather idiotic, but he made me laugh out loud several times.If they had kept every other character out, and just Hannah in, this film would have been greatly improved.But, in this instance, they chose to stray from the winning formula they found with the first, and have managed to create an abismal and disappointing film.