the Mind’s Chew Toy

After spending all of last weekend moving to a bigger and better apartment, we couldn’t wait for things to get back to normal and see the new sequel, The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor.

But, with bad reviews already coming out in it’s first week of release, would this new sequel be a disappointment, or would we be celebrating our return to the theaters after our week hiatus?

Brendan Fraser isn’t usually someone worth watching on the big screen, but his role as Rick O’Connell in the previous Mummy installments was the exception. He really leapt into the character, and his madcap glee performing the role seemed to catch on with viewers.

Unfortunately, he seems to have lost a bit of that glee in this third installment - and that may be in large part due to the more fatherly, caring role he has to take on with the much older than expected Alex (played this time by Luke Ford). It’s hard to see Fraser in the father-of-an-adult-son role, and Fraser falters under the extra acting this entails.

As a carefree adventurer - or the father of a younger child, Fraser excels - but burdened with more complicated issues involving feelings of the heart and responsibility towards a slightly estranged son, he isn’t quite up to par.

Maria Bello, despite being a decent actress in her own right, just isn’t a good fit as a replacement for the much-missed Rachel Weisz. Viewers never really see her in the role, as she is never quite able to banish the image of Weisz from the role (think Julianne Moore replacing Jodie Foster in Hannibal (2001)). It’s unfortunate, since her talents are then largely lost on the audience.

Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, both well-known for their martial arts skills as much as their acting, are both given rather pedantic and dull roles. Even though Jet Li portrays the Mummy this time around, he is barely able to utter a sentence the entire film, as the director has him spending most of his time rging incoherently. It’s such a waste of two solid actors who can bring a lot more to the table.

Hopefully they got paid the big bucks for this exploitation of their names, since it seems the director wanted them around more for the credence their names would bring to the action sequences of the film, rather than for any acting skills they possess.

Even John Hannah, a large part of the comic relief of the first 2 films, is delegated to providing comedy with a regurgitating yak - a definite low point in the series. But what else can be expected from director Rob Cohen, whose previous efforts include the horrendous xXx (2002) and The Fast And The Furious?

The special effects are yet another sour point in this travesty of a sequel. While some of the sequences do come off without a hitch, most seem to be as tossed together as the rest of the film. A big example of this is the much-hyped appearance by the Yeti.

While the Yeti themselves are quite impressive, their supposed interactions with the human characters leave a lot to be desired. Never is the viewer in any doubt that the Yeti are computer generated and all the supposed “human-tossing” is being done via wires and the like. It’s very unfortunate, since these angry, bleached versions of Monsters, Inc. (2001)’s Sully would be a great addition otherwise.

While Stephen Sommers was able to bring plot and action together with just the right amount of comedy tossed in for good measure, Rob Cohen seems to not have the first clue what to do to keep that mix. Instead, he tosses in over-the-top special effects, dashes of humor, a bit of martial arts, and a big climactic battle in a seemingly haphazard fashion, apparently hoping everything will fall into place in the end. Unfortunately for viewers, it doesn’t.

Instead, it’s just a mass of disjointed parts, and comes off more as a tossed together cash cow than something that had any real thought behind it.

Sadly, The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor is a mess of a third film, and unless Stephen Sommers manages to resurrect the series once again, is probably the death toll for a series that was going strong up until now.

Then again, both the awful Spider-Man (2002) and The Fast And The Furious spawned 2 sequels apiece (so far), so maybe I’m just over-estimating the public’s good taste.