The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) dir. Rob Cohen, Relativity Media/the Sommers Company/Alphaville Films
And so we have another Mummy yarn with Brendan Fraser. Moving the action to China, would it be the same as before?
Han (Jet Li) is a warlord who dreams of uniting China, plus ruling the entire world. Dubbing himself the Dragon Emperor, he then builds the Great Wall with the bodies of his enemies as the foundation. He's done great work and his rule is secure...but even great men die eventually.
Naturally this doesn't sit well with Han, so he sends his most trusted friend and second in command General Ming (Russell Wong) along with a sorceress Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh) to seek the Oracle's Bones which will grant him immorality. He's also lusting after Zi Yuan too.
So when he spies Ming and Yuan together, he takes it rather badly. He has Yuan make him immortal first, then he has Ming killed. This is a rather poor plan on his part, as the sorceress takes her lover's death rather badly and turns Han and his men into stone.
1946 and Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford) is now an archeologist on a dig in China. Despite being attacked, he manages to find the Eye of Shangri-La and take it back to Shanghai. Issues arise as Alex's partner Professor Wilson (David Calder) is in league with the rouge General Wang (Chau Sang Anthony Wong). Wang wants to revive the Emperor, thinking he can bring order to the chaos of post-war China.
They steal the eye and end up bringing the Emperor back to life. While the Dragon Emperor can see the value in a modern military man as a subordinate, he has no use for Wilson.
Rick (Fraser) and Evelyn (Maria Bello) get dragged into this during the transporting of the gem. Bringing brother Jonathan (John Hannah) into the fold, because why not, they also run into the same person who attacked the dig earlier. She's Lin (Isabella Leong). She's also Zi Yuan's daughter. Together the immortal women have been guarding the eye since the days of Han being alive.
Can our heroes stop the Dragon Emperor before he resurrects his army? Is no one going to ask how Alex is now thirteen years older yet Rick has barely aged?
Not terrible. The action is good and the CGI isn't as obvious as the previous two. Setting it in China and focusing on Chinese myth/history was different and the film is better for it yet there is a certain pointlessness about the whole affair. Why bring in Rick and Evelyn? Why Jonathan?
Surely this would be the only misstep in the Mummy series, right?
No comments:
Post a Comment