The youth of today may not understand, but any self-respecting cinephile of a certain age will end up gazing wistfully into the middle distance and being basked in the warm glow of nostalgia whenever anybody mentions Stephen Sommers’ 1999 classic The Mummy.
Quite simply, the rollicking old-fashioned adventure is a landmark for an entire generation, but the same cannot be said about its sequels. The Mummy Returns does at least deserve its place in modern movie history for marking the feature film debut of a certain Dwayne Johnson, but Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is just awful.
Drafting in Rob Cohen to steer the ship, a $402 million tally at the box office ensured it was the lowest earner of the three, while a miserable Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 12 percent made it the worst-reviewed by a country mile and then some, which is entirely fair because that’s exactly what it is.
Without Rachel Weisz there to spar against Brendan Fraser, a huge part of the saga’s spirit had been ripped right out, with Maria Bello doing her best to try and fill in, and failing miserably. The CGI is sketchy, the banter is forced, the heart is entirely missing, and the unabashed sense of pulpy fun that defined the first two is completely absent.
Recent Academy Award winner Fraser is open to a return, and it should happen for the sole purpose of ensuring The Mummy didn’t end on such as sour note. Either way, the fact FlixPatrol has named the dismal dud as one of the most-watched titles on Rakuten this week, so there are bizarrely enough people still willing to check it out. Still better than Tom Cruise’s take, though.