THE MUMMY RETURNS (2001)

THE MUMMY RETURNS (2001)

Tagline: The most powerful force on earth is about to be unleashed by the two people who should know better.

(Adventure, Action, Fantasy) [PG-13]

I am sorry if I alarmed your son, but you must understand, now that the bracelet is on his wrist, we have only seven days before the Scorpion King awakens.

In this one Rick and Evelyn are still hanging out around mummy stuff when their 6-year-old son Alex ends up putting on the Bracelet of Anubis that they recently discovered. Alex can’t get it off and the discovery has the attention of a woman named Meela who is all about bringing Imhotep (the homicidal mummy from the first movie) back to life. If Imhotep can obtain the bracelet, he will gain control of an ancient army lead by the Scorpion King. Yeah that Scorpion King, the one who led an army that sought control of the world, but ended up selling his soul to Anubis who imprisoned him after his welcome wore out. Can Rick and Evelyn save their son with the help of a holy order led by Ardeth Bay? 

First off, this is probably one of the most fun performances ever in a non-kids flick for Brendan Fraser. He really kills it in this film and he is one of the main things I loved about the series overall. I wasn’t crazy about Freddie Boath in the role of Alex, but I will give him a pass since it was literally his first big acting role. John Hannah is solid in this one and perhaps did a better job in this than in the first installment. Oded Fehr is great again as Ardeth Bay. This dude is one of my favorite actors, so I am almost always going to have great things to say about him. We also get a better effort out of Rachel Weisz as Rick’s wife Evelyn. She isn’t written nearly as dumb in this movie as she was in the first one. Patricia Velasquez has a dual role in this movie and is given far more lines which benefitted the film overall. 

This movie has all kinds of crazy things in it from a jackal army to nutty little biter dudes that will eat you alive. It’s just fantastically nuts and overall it moves quickly over its 130 minute run time. The sets are epic and even more grand than in the first movie and we also get to see some new powers from Imhotep. 

Where this thing gets really rough is in the CGI they did for the Scorpion King. I guess the computer crew only had 8 days to try and get it to look like Dwayne Johnson was a big scorpion dude and it just fails all over the place. I loved the idea, but man the execution was just horrible. Keep in mind that we had some amazing CGI potential introduced all the way back in 1993’s JURASSIC PARK by the same freakin studio so it’s not like they hired a bunch of clowns to do this job. It should also be noted that this was “The Rock” Dwayne Johnson’s first big movie role. Prior to that, he had just appeared in a few TV shows. 

I liked the storyline with the Scorpion King and that being the central focus even where Imhotep was concerned, but They also introduce another idea regarding Evelyn that just feels so wonky and out of place that it defies even the other stuff going on in this movie. If you haven’t seen it in the past 2 decades, don’t worry. I am pretty patient, I won’t spoil it, but it’s really bizarre. 

Having said all that, this thing is a really fun ride and I watch it more than I do the original. I am going to give it a 6 out of 7 just like the last movie, but it’s still better than the first one. 

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