The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Rob Cohen

BY Katarina GligorijevicPublished Jul 31, 2008

  This third Mummy film follows the pattern of the first couple by taking a real thing (the Terracotta Army of "First Emperor Qin,” the ancient ruler of China who began construction on the Great Wall, among other things) and creating a hilarious and fantastical mummy appropriate story around it.

  Apparently, the power-hungry Emperor wanted to become immortal but when he double-crossed the sexy witch (Michelle Yeoh) who was helping him, she cursed him and his army for eternity, turning them to terracotta and leaving them underground to rot. That is, until a hotshot young archaeologist/maverick named Alex O’Connell (newcomer Luke Ford) digs ’em up and threatens to bring the Emperor’s terrifying reign upon the world once more.

  Rick O’Connell (the lovable Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evelyn (played by Maria Bello, whose English accent doesn’t really compare to predecessor Rachel Weisz’s) are retired but when their adventurer son gets into a royal mess in old Shanghai, the daring duo are off to the races once again to save him, the world and everything else.

  When the now unearthed Emperor is roused by a ne’er-do-well General, our heroes have to stop him from awakening his army and plunging the world into darkness. With the help of Evelyn’s brother Jonathan (John Hannah) and a mysterious (but pretty) ninja named Lin (Isabella Leong), who turns out to be the witch’s daughter, the ragtag group of misfits have to travel to Shangri La (you heard me, Shangri friggin La!) to make things right.

  Oh yeah, Jet Li plays the Emperor and he and Michelle Yeoh have a dramatic swordfight or two.

  There’s romance! There’s danger! There are three yetis and a dragon. There’s a terracotta horse chase sequence featuring a carriage full of fireworks. I mean, sure, it’s not a "great” film but there’s nothing you could possibly want from the third instalment in the Mummy franchise that this film doesn’t deliver.

  My only quibble is that a terracotta Emperor is not, technically speaking, a "mummy,” regardless of how many times everyone refers to him as one.
(Universal)

Latest Coverage