The Mummy Returns
The summer movie season gets off to an inauspicious start with the release of “The Mummy Returns,” a loud and annoying sequel to the 1999 remake. Believing that bigger is better, director- writer Stephen Sommers throws money hand over fist at the screen, hoping that audiences won’t notice that the script sucks.
Indeed, “The Mummy Returns” is spectacle at its best and worst. More money buys bigger special effects, but it doesn’t buy common sense. Every time someone opens their mouth in “The Mummy Returns,” you cringe. The dialogue is old and dusty. It seems ancient, especially when director Sommers feels he’s sending up the genre rather than reducing it to embarrassing lows.
The first “Mummy” was a much better film, possibly because it was a horror film more than an adventure. “The Mummy Returns” wanders into “Indiana Jones” territory, and the comparisons are obvious. Maybe Sommers thought he had exhausted all of the horror elements of the story, but turning the franchise into an all-out adventure film is a big mistake. It looks and sounds generic.
Even the actors, who seemed genuinely engaging in the first film, seem tired and lost. It’s not their fault. Sommers gives them very little to do except run and fight. Oh yeah, and recite dumb dialogue There’s no depth or real motivation. “The Mummy Returns” seems solely manufactured to exploit rather than enhance the original experience.
Brendan Fraser returns as heroic adventurer Rick O’Connell, who first encounter with the mummy Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) ended in victory. Now O’Connell and his damsel in distress, librarian Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) are married and have an eight year old son named Alex (Freddie Boath). “The Mummy Returns” opens with another flashback, this time focusing on The Scorpion King, played by professional wrestler The Rock.
It seems the Scorpion King has forged an alliance with the dark forces, and will rise in five thousand years with his army to begin the Apocalypse. Interest in the Scorpion King is high. When we first find the O’Connell’s, they are exploring his tomb trying to find a bracelet with the power to resurrect him. Hot on their trail are Imhotep’s followers, who need the bracelet so he can defeat the Scorpion King and lead his army.
Sounds rather exciting, yet Sommers piles on the action so fast and furious the film and characters never have the chance to slow down and make a difference. The characters are just along for the ride, which is a real shame when you consider how much they contributed to success of the first film. The plot is nothing more than one chase scene after another, each one bigger and longer than the last. By the time the film ends, you feel wiped out. A good action film should leave you feeling pumped up.
Sommers throws so much into the mix that the film become top heavy and sinks. His script is far from original. He shamelessly borrows from much better movies, including his original “Mummy.” Paying homage is one thing, but this is sad. Sommers makes no attempt to hide the fact.
There’s nothing worse than a director with too much money and very little imagination. Sommers lets his imagination run free, and the results are weak. More money means more mummies, and the film is filled to the frame with them. Jackal mummies, pygmy mummies, guard mummies. There are bus, train and balloon chases, plus too many battle scenes to count. Sommers even stages a dagger fight between two women that seems extremely dated after “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.”
Then there’s the resurrection of “The Scorpion King,” which looks like a jerky Ray Harryhausen stop-motion creation from the early 1960s. The climatic battle between Rick and the Scorpion King looks so fake you wonder if the real special effects footage got lost and this is what they threw together at the last minute.
Fraser looks tired, and probably was. I heard he took quite a beating making “The Mummy Returns,” and every ache and pain shows in his performance. It’s as if he knows this is only a paycheck and not a career decision. His delivery lacks the charisma and spark that made Rick O’Connell so much fun to begin with.
He just goes through the motions, and he’s not alone. Most of the cast feels as cold and distant as an Egyptian tomb. Every one of them is playing caricatures of their characters. They are forced to crank everything up a notch in order to compete with the special effects. Characters that were once fun to hang out with are now annoying. You want bad things to happen to them.
Especially young Alex, one of those clever, smart-mouthed kids that only exist in films. Alex is the catalyst for the film’s climatic adventure, yet is so thinly written and played you wonder why anyone really cares. Including his parents, who seem more interested in making out. No one really commands the screen, especially Vosloo as Imhotep, whose very presence in the first film was chilling.
The only thing chilling about “The Mummy Returns” is that it will make enough money to continue the franchise.
IT’S A WRAP!Mummy sequel exploits rather than enhances original
THE MUMMY RETURNS
Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velasquez, The Rock, Freddie Boath. Directed by Stephen Sommers. Rated PG-13. 128 Minutes.
LARSEN RATING: $3.50
