The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
As usual, when recasting a major character in the continuation of a major franchise, there is no way the new actor or actress, talented they may be, can recapture the quality that the original performer brought to it. Thus is the case here with Maria Bello playing the role that Rachel Weisz had created in Evelyn O’Connell. Gone is the spirited, spunky wife and mother who had battled the previous Mummy, but instead a quieter, more reserved version that has none of the old chemistry with returning leading man Brendan Fraser (among the most Neanderthal of action movie stars). Fraser for his part, looks rather annoyed to be along for another ride, after passably carrying the first two films: The plot is basically the same as the earlier entries, only now the locale has been changed to mainland China (reportedly to capitalize on the 08 Olympic Games held there which featured massive amounts of corruption and hometown judge favoritism). As the new villain, Jet Li certainly brings the presence and charisma that he is known for, but despite another extended prologue explaining his origins, comes across as lacking the emotional complexity that Arnold Vosloo’s Imhotep had embodied, basically just being a warm body to fill the slot. As the O’Connell’s college age son, Luke Ford (looking no more than ten years younger than Fraser) has all the appeal of a brick wall, and the series’ lame attempts to make us think he’ll “carry the torch” for future sequels is wishful thinking in the vein of Shia LeBeouf. Indeed, the entire ensemble comes off as a second-rate copy of the Indy Jones mythology, only the viewer is hard-pressed to even care about these particular characters. This applies the most to John Hannah (returning as the idiot brother-in-law) who continues to get the lion’s share of embarrassingly unfunny lines and moments (“The yak yakked.”). On the plus side, director Rob Cohen moves the film along at a pretty brisk pace, eschewing the drawn-out approach of the previous entries, while Isabella Leong and the legendary Michelle Yeoh register strongly as the mother and daughter guardians of the fabled land of Shangri-La, which plays a prominent role in the storyline. Leong’s cuteness in particular, keeps the viewer on her side, even as the script forces her into a romance with the charmless O’Connell progeny. In the end, an okay sequel to watch if you’re an indiscriminating viewer looking for “more of the same”, but a chore to watch for any aficionado of film…
5/10