Mar 8, 2012
Directed By: Stephen Sommers
Written By: Stephen Sommers
Primary Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velazquez, Freddie Boath, Alun Armstrong, Dwayne Johnson (The Rock)
Brendan Fraser (Monkeybone, Bedazzled, The Mummy) returns with his goofy cohorts to once again save the world from the curses of ancient Egypt.
The Mummy Returns certainly does not add a check mark to the “pro” column for Hollywood’s fascination with sequels. While the first Mummy movie was campy and filled with bad acting, it had a respectable adventure story with a tough bad guy, the fair maiden, and the wacky sidekick. This one…yuck! Yes it did have a maiden, and it did have the wacky sidekick, but no cool tough guy, no sensible story line, and a couple of extra really-wacky sidekicks added for good (!?!) measure.
I had a hard time trying to figure out where the makers of this junk were trying to go. The first time around The Mummy (while very silly) had a well-defined evil opponent with some awe-inspiring powers. Everything gained by the heroes was earned or at least made sense with in the boundaries of the story. In The Mummy Returns all rules where left behind. For example, Brendan Fraser’s character suddenly has a tattoo of the Magi (guardian prince) that was given to him while he was in the orphanage. This tattoo proves he is the chosen one. Funny…he didn’t have this in the first movie, and how come the other Magi’s tattoos don’t make them “the chosen one”? How about a rocket powered hot-air balloon…um…in the 30’s? What happened to Imhotep’s (Arnold Vosloo: The Mummy, Hard Target 1492: Conquest of Paradise) almighty powers he had in the first film? Suddenly he’s a wimp—some bad dude. There are many other conveniences that I won’t give away; the list could go on for pages.
Unless you are a major Brendan Fraser fan, do yourself a favor and skip this one.