The Scorpion King

Plot synopsis:
"Before the time of the pyramids," a horde from the East invades the ancient world, led by the ruthless Memnon, who by their law, is king for being their greatest warrior. His many victories come from the help of a sorcerer who predicts the outcomes of battles, leaving only a few free tribes to oppose him.
Mathayus, his half-brother Jesup, and friend Rama, the only three true remaining Akkadians, are hired by King Pheron of the last free tribes to kill Memnon's sorcerer for twenty blood rubies, upsetting Pheron's son Takmet, as it is the last of their treasury, and Nubian King Balthazar, who dislikes the Akkadians. The Akkadians manage to sneak into Memnon's camp, but are ambushed by Memnon's guards, having been tipped off by Takmet who killed his own father and defected to Memnon's side. Jesup and Rama are hit by arrows, but Mathayus manages to sneak into the sorcerer's tent, where he sees that the sorcerer is actually a sorceress, Cassandra. Mathayus is ambushed and meets Memnon himself, who brutally executes Jesup in front of him, and is about to kill Mathayus too. Cassandra, however, tells Memnon that the gods wish Mathayus to survive the night, and to defy them will incur their wrath and cost him his victories. Memnon has Mathayus buried to his neck in the desert to be devoured by fire ants at dawn, but he manages to escape with help from a horse thief, Arpid.
Deciding to finish his mission and avenge his brother, Mathayus sneaks into Memnon's stronghold, Gomorrah, and manages to enter Memnon's palace with help from a street urchin. He briefly meets Memnon's court magician, Philos, who hides him and then directs him to the courtyard where Memnon is training. Mathayus tries to shoot Memnon from the watchtower, but is forced to save the street urchin from having his hand amputated for theft by shooting the axe out of Takmet's hand, alerting the guards to his presence. Mathayus only barely manages to escape Gomorrah, abducting Cassandra along the way, knowing that Memnon will come for her.
Cassandra tries to escape from Mathayus and even tells him that she has been Memnon's prisoner since she was a child. Sympathetic, Mathayus allows her the choice of leaving, but warns her of worse dangers and that she is likely safer with him. Meanwhile, Memnon sends his right-hand man Thorak and a group of guards to kill Mathayus and retrieve Cassandra, but Mathayus manages to slay them all under the cover of a sandstorm and in a cave, while dueling and fatally stabbing Thorak in the abdomen. With his dying breaths, Thorak manages to stab Mathayus in the leg with a scorpion blood-laced arrow. Cassandra, however, uses her magic to save Mathayus' life. As an insult and a warning, Mathayus sends Thorak's blood-stained pendant to Memnon.
Mathayus, Arpid and Cassandra then run into Philos, who had earlier managed to flee from Memnon's palace and has perfected an explosive powder he was working on. However, they are ambushed by the rebels, now under the rule of Balthazar. Though Mathayus defeats Balthazar in a fight and earns his grudging respect and sanctuary, Cassandra has a vision of Memnon and his army slaughtering the entire rebel camp. She informs Mathayus and then prophesies that when the moonlight reaches Memnon's palace, the King on High will become the invincible Scorpion King, and Memnon believes himself to be the one destined to become the Scorpion King. Furthermore, she informs Mathayus that if he faces Memnon, he will most likely die from being shot, but Mathayus assures her that he will make his own destiny and they sleep together.
The next morning, however, Cassandra returns to Memnon in order to stall him and possibly kill him. Mathayus, with help from Balthazar, Arpid, Philos and the army of rebels, launches an all-out assault on Memnon's stronghold, facing Memnon personally before he can kill Cassandra, while Balthazar confronts and kills Takmet, avenging Pheron, and takes on the full force of Memnon's forces alone. The battle rages on until Mathayus is shot by a guard as in Cassandra's vision. As Memnon takes his place in the House of Scorpio to become the Scorpion King, Cassandra kills the guard while Mathayus retrieves his bow, pulls the arrow out of his shoulder and uses it to shoot the exhausted Memnon, sending him off the edge of the roof just as Philos and Arpid use the explosive powder to destroy the palace's foundation stone, bringing down the bulk of Memnon's forces. Memnon is consumed by the flames as he falls to his death. With the battle over, the remnants of Memnon's army bow before Mathayus, who by their law is their new king, the Scorpion King.
In the aftermath, Mathayus and Balthazar share a good-natured farewell as the latter returns to his own kingdom. Cassandra tells Mathayus that she sees a period of peace and prosperity coming, but warns him that it will not last forever. Undeterred, Mathayus decides that they will make their own destiny.

Tags: violence, action

Review:
Dwayne Johnson plays a natural-born hero called Mathayus He starts off as an Akkadian mercenary crossing the ancient lands looking for his brother who is slain before his blazing eyes by a Nordic barbarian horde whose name is Memnon What has kept the vicious tyrant as the absolute conqueror of the land is the fact that he has a visionary sorceress by his side who knows when he should attack his enemies Mathayus finds out that she's a sexy gorgeous woman who looks amazingly beautiful (Surely the audience is teased ceaselessly by her cleavage-revealing).
So Mathayus forgets his commission to kill her, and a kind of romance begins to flourish between the two as he tries to carry out his assignment Kelly Hu plays Cassandra, the female sorcerer who had beauty, charisma, cleverness, and enigma In the beginning of the film, we're not quite sure where she stands But when she first sees Mathayus, she's interested in the well-mannered warrior who's strong, brave, loyal and sincere She realizes that he might me the future king who can save her from her power-mad jailer As the ruthless conqueror, Memnon (Steven Brand) has got all of the skills needed to attain global domination He has also got the force and the will to accomplish it The combination was pretty scary Michael Clarke Duncan plays the fearsome Balthazar, the Nubian King, the strong ally of Mathayus Chuck Russell's "The Scorpion King" is a visual feast, and an entertaining action film It has sexy harem girls, poison arrows, quicksand, an army of red ants, black scorpions, cobras, explosions, and a lot of fun So don't miss it!.
Grant Heslov and Michael Clarke Duncan fill out their usual roles as ethnic comic-relief and big, muscley guy.The film has slightly less integrity to it than the Mummy movies.
Just don't expect it to be realistic or have some deep plot.If you have ever seen "Conan" movies, you probably know the setting: early ages, a bunch of "lost" civilizations, some "emperors" whose armies march the world and a lonely hero who tries to stop him.
Granted, the imagery may be impressive, and the action is exciting, but apart from a very few details, "Scorpion King" may as well be a completely different movie.
The Mummy energy, practically a trademark of Sommers, is definitely encompassed in this entertaining action/legend movie of "The Scorpion King." Led by Dwayne Johnson "The Rock" as Mathayus the Warrior with a heart, lovely Kelly Hu as Cassandra the Sorceress and object of beauty, sought by Steven Brand as Memnon the convincing evil menace of it all, and Michael Clarke Duncan as the equally brave ally Balthazar to Mathayus, this is your basic good vs.
An action packed myth/legend of a story, with humor/laughter sprinkled here and there at good pacing, along with special/digital effects, I almost felt at times it feels like the epic animation "Princess Mononoke," where they have the villagers (tribes here) rounding up and backing the heroine (Mathayus here) and fighting to get rid of the evil source (Memnon here.) Other films have similar themes before: an earlier endeavor of Stephen Sommers, who wrote and directed "Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book" 1994, with Jason Scott Lee, Sam Neill, Cary Elwes, Lena Headey and John Cleese; director Xavier Koller's (received Oscar's Best Foreign Film "Journey of Hope" 1990) "Squanto: A Warrior's Tale" 1994; not forgetting director Richard Donner's "LadyHawke" 1985 with Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Alfred Molina.If you want to escape and have an enjoyable action movie, to forget your stress and strains beyond the world of cinema, go for it!.
More charismatic and certainly a better actor (but then again, who isn't?) Than "AHNULD" was 20 years ago, The Rock, here appearing in his first title role, has had the good fortune that the film, and his participation in it, seems to have been relatively successful in every sense of the word!"Scorpion" from beginning to end, is a roller coaster of action, adventure, intrigue, romance, magic and beautiful women.
Deep in the Valley of the Dead, he intents to use Cassandra to draw Memnon out of the safety of his loyal city and into the desert where he will be more vulnerable and easier to kill.Despite not being impressed at all by Mummy Returns, I thought I would veg out in front of this prequel/sequel/spin off thing which was just as well since vegging out mindlessly in front of it is pretty much all it is good for.
It would have been much more fun if the material had had its tongue in its cheek and allowed the performances to match this, but by taking itself a bit too seriously at times it only ends up looking silly.The Rock is a solid star for this sort of thing but he isn't very versatile  he needs the material to match him rather than the other way round.
Support from Hill, Heslov and others don't do much other than fill out the cast.Overall then a fairly bland, uninspiring action movie that lacks excitement, tension, characters, story and indeed fun (which is where the biggest problem lies).
After briefly appearing as The Scorpion King in Stephen Sommers' anticipated sequel The Mummy Returns (2001), Universal Studios believed that it was time to create their spin-off starring none other than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.
If the story to this movie was taken a little more seriously, this probably would've entertained more.Its script is not clear on everything and its unequal tone makes the actors look occasionally cheesy on film.
"The Scorpion King," The Rock's film debut, after "The Mummy Returns," is an excellent movie.
It's so good to see Chuck Russell (director of "A Nightmare On Elm Street 3," "The Mask," and "Eraser") back in the director's chair after his disappointing 2000 film "Bless The Child."  The Rock (The People's Champion) is going to be the next action hero in the future, but, right now, he's concentrating on his wrestling.
People say this is "The Rocks" first acting piece, the fact the he's been acting for years in the wwf seems to have nothing to do with this.The rocks abilities to do a promo comes in great for this film, his mixture with comic and physical abiltiy makes the Scorpion King as must see film.Micheal Clarke Duncan and Kelly Hu both bring in strong performances to help the film.The only down is the length, after the Mummy and Mummy Returns you expect a slightly longer film, but it's not so bad.Film10/10.
As the title says it's far beyond me expectations.I thought to see just another movie in the story like the mummy and thought it would be boring and everything would be the same(locations,fights,actors,etc...)but it's not.
Nice twist of comedy in it and very very nice special effects.It also has a good story line,so it's not another movie in the row of mummy's or beat 'em up or simple actions.
Its not trying to be an Oscar-calibre movie like Gladiator (which is fine coming from someone who found Gladiator boring), rather its just a chance to watch The Rock crush people on the big screen.
The Scorpion King's fight scenes are so awesome that I can watch this movie on repeat and never get sick of it.
I just wish there were more than two films in the series!Dwayne Johnson naturally plays Mathayus very well, he's just the right guy for one of the greatest assassins on the planet.Both Steven Brand and Michael Clarke Duncan plays their roles as Memnon and Balthazar, respectively very well.
Also here the Rock clearly doesn't take himselfseriously, which is probably how he should play it if he wants to succeed Arnold as the big action hero of Hollywood.The film itself is a breeze to watch.
The Rock is excellent as Mathayus the all action 'superhero' of the story, with his good looks for the girls and the beautiful looks of Kelly Hu. It is a definite for all people.
In the eyes of the fans, he IS Matheyus, just like Mark Hammill is Luke Skywalker, Max Von Sydow is Antonius Block and Sylvester Stallone is Rocky in the eyes of the fans.This film is the kind of film that really give the sparkle back to the action/adventure genre, due to a lot's of crazy humor, special effects, cool stunts and great actors.
You don't see that too often nowadays amongst films like The Rock (not the actor; the film, stupid!!) and other typical American patriotic bullshit action movies.
Don't worry about challenging your brain on `The Scorpion King.' First introduced in `The Mummy Returns,' the King is again played by wrestling hero `The Rock.' The plot is so thin, I'm afraid to walk over it for fear of disappearing through its icy logic.Taken from stories about a famous Egyptian warrior, `The Scorpion King' unfolds 5000 years ago in the infamous Gomorrah, ruled by a ruthless barbarian with an uncanny success in slaughtering or enslaving other tribes.
His contribution to the film was hardly iconic, but it appeared to be career-defining enough to give him his own spin-off movie, 'The Scorpion King.' Ignoring the fact that he was a baddie in the Mummy Returns, he's now our hero.
I can see gangs of young lads crowding round the telly on a Saturday afternoon to watch the Rock beat countless faceless baddies to a pulp.You certainly don't need to have seen any of the Mummy movies to enjoy this.
You have Kelly Hu as 'the Sorceress' who absolutely smoulders in her role and Grant Heslov as 'Arpid' who basically plays the part that John Hannah's played in the Mummy trilogy as the 'comic relief' of the film.Like I said, this isn't an amazing movie, but if you're looking for a 'family friendly' Conan-type action film that will keep the boys entertained on a west afternoon, then this is it (or you're just a big kid at heart!)..
Action, action and lots of fun action in this adventurous film."The Scorpion King" would make a great double feature with a movie like "Conan the Barbarian " or "The Beastmaster".8/10.
Before watching this movie I was thinking that it was going to be a boring movie.The movie was fun.You don't have to wait the best movie of the story of the cinema,but if you watch it with low expectations,you will be fun with it.I liked the sense of humor this movie has.The movie is predictable and mediocre,but like I said before I was totally fun watching this.I think that The rock can be the next Schwarzenegger and the great Michael Clarke Duncan,who surprised me in The green mile,has a good appearance in the movie.Like I said before,the movie is predictable and mediocre but I was totally fun watching this.So if you want to see a fun movie,watch The Scorpion king..
"The Scorpion King" is a movie with originality and good action.
He has to face an evil ruler and conquerer who uses a gifted fortuneteller to win his battles.The Rock shows that he can be a good action hero like Arnold and Sly was in the 80's and 90's.
He has a good sense of humor and at the same time he is a though killing machine.The story is great so there is no chance you will get bored by this film unless you hate action movies.
assuming your expectations are right.Led by the always charismatic Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, 'The Scorpion King' is an inoffensive sword and sorcery flick in the grand B-movie tradition of 'Conan The Barbarian', but shackled by political correctness, it hedges its bets on the sex and violence that made the latter special.
so, watch the rock "lay the smackdown" on all those people and prepare for the action packed movie of that year!
There was a time when this type of movie would have been just one of many fantasy action epics, among the likes of the Conan movies, Red Sonja, Beastmaster et al, and I for one found it refreshing to see a big screen outing for this type of flick - though one is probably enough.The action is well put together, the fighting scenes enjoyably over the top and the acting kept to a bare minimum - which, frankly, is just what is needed here.
No need for "De Niroesque" character acting here - that would detract from what the movie is trying to achieve with the audience - an entertaining yarn which does not take itself seriously at all and where leaving your brain firmly at the door is a prerequisite.Dwayne Johnson's lines are also kept to a bare minimum which was a little worrying at times, considering he doesn't have the obvious vocal or speech limitations of a Schwarzenegger, Stallone or Ferigno and who on a weekly basis makes speeches to thousands of avid wrestling fans.
In these days when muscles are not as popular and action heroes are expected to be more human and thoughtful this is a refreshing turn from the Rock.Scantily clad women (the sorceress in particular) are also aplenty here, almost as much as the fighting - which was appreciated, though in general what I thought this movie lacked was that dark edge which the earlier mentioned movies possessed - and at times there was a disappointingly Xenaish look to some of the scenes.Yes, you can complain that the script here is predictable, and as cliched as they come and that the story could have been a helluva lot more imaginative but hey, you're not going to see a good will hunting type movie here, you're here to see the Rock kick some warrior ass - lighten up.Obviously this movie did not have anywhere near the budget as the last Mummy movie but it does succeed largely in what it sets out to do and I got just what I wanted out of it - plenty of action, fighting and beautiful ladies..
The tone of this film is set right from the pre-credits scene with a nice action scene showing The Rock beating the snot out of many big blokes.
The fans of the Rock will more than likely enjoy this film, while the casual movie watcher may not find it chessy and over acted.
I think it goes without saying this is for Rock fans, if you think that The Rock's facial gestures are entertaining and you just like watching him for the fun of it then you'll probably enjoy this movie.
You can believe it's old by not seeing "The Rock" famous smile at all and with the presence of his weird eyebrows.The directing is good in most of the movie, but there are some details that make you feel thay they mixed it with "The Mummy" although the time gap between them.
This movie lacks the mysteries and tricks of "The Mummy", because simply it's not treasure hunting movie, so don't expect that here.Finally it's a good adventure movie that was about to be a low class cheap movie but unexpectedly it's quite enjoyable, watch it if you like "The Rock" but you may get a little bit disappointed if you are expecting something resembles "The Mummy", and it's not boring if you are looking for a light action movie..
This time around its like he saw the script and said you know what lets have fun with this and tried to take care of the actors so they can put out a good performance.
The action sequences are pretty good as are the fights, much better than any of the Mummy movies and this is on a different level.
The Rock plays the hero very well and has all the makings of an action star if he ever wanted to do this full time.
Scorpion King is not exactly the best movie in the world but have a good scenes of action is reasonable fun and good to watch.
A good movie filled with great visual effects, action, and entertaining characters.
No need to think about a plot or anything like that - just pure entertainment.It reminded me of a great big wrestling match with the beautiful Rock in one corner and in the other his challenger,  that went on for two hours.Just pure fun!!!!!!!!!
The Rock has a genuine screen presence and I hope he gets the chance to play action-hero in some more movies.
Good action, reasonable CGI, Steven Brand is impressive as the evil king Memnon and The Rock at least does better than Schwarzenegger did in Conan !
It won't be a remembered movie but still it is enjoyable to watch, thanks to The Rock, who is cool as always, also thanks to the good action and the hot females in this one especially Kelly Hu. She is crazy hot.
The effects are good, the action is fast-paced, but the real star of the show is Miss Hu, as the sorceress Cassandra (with a name borrowed from Greek mythology of an era 2000 years later)- she is absolutely gorgeous.The setting of pre-pyramid Egypt was apparently selected simply to fit into the chronology of the Mummy movies, in which the Rock's Scorpion King character was introduced (as an evil force, however, which is never quite reconciled in this film, in which he is the valiant hero).
I enjoyed this movie, because the action was fun and entertaining.
The Scorpion King, a prequel to the hit Mummy movies, is a really bad film with cheesy special effects, cringe-worthy dialog, and some lame acting.
However, I thought Steven Brand who played the evil king was ridiculously bad, way worse than The Rock.Overall, this is a fun movie that doesn't take itself too seriously.
But for this movie the plot device that propels our unsung hero The Scorpion King (The Rock in his first major role) actually works.
so i am making this tribute and a nomination that the rock is actor of the year and the scorpion king is movie of the year...
"The Scorpion King" has the characteristics of an action movie but the story is too far behind.