The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Review
Brendan Fraser Can't Save the New Mummy Film nor can Jet Li
Aug 2, 2008
A Supernatural Love Story
There are three love stories that run through this film and none of them worth watching.
- Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn (Maria Bello) have absolutely no chemistry. The few kisses were painful to watch. If you loved the Evelyn that Rachel Weisz created, you will struggle to like this totally different version. She is not forgetful or quirky. Bello's acting is great, but the character is two-dimensional who should have been left out of the script altogether.
- Alex (Luke Ford) and Lin (Isabella Leong) deliver flat performances, though who can really blame them? The dialogue is contrived and the romance between them is an insult to the viewer’s intelligence. The sudden absolution of any obstacles to their relationship is anti-climatic and their on-screen chemistry is profoundly forced.
- Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) and Ming Guo (Russell Wong)'s love has endured two thousand years. Yet when they are finally able to reunite, they seem to forget about each other just as easily as the writers and director forgot about this storyline. If you are waiting for a happily ever after for these two you will still be waiting long after the credits have finished rolling.
Rachel Weisz Declined Role in New Mummy Film
Rachel Weisz’s apparently declined the role after reading the script and deciding that this film did not meet the standard of the previous two movies. Having seen the film, this seems to be a brilliant career move on her part.
Jet Li is Under-Used in Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Li is woefully underutilized in this film to the point of absurdity. His dialogue is limited. His character is flat. His only real act of evil is that he breaks his word to a woman and kills her lover, hardly megalomaniacal genius material. He is not intelligent, he is not creative, he is not particularly dangerous except for his supernatural power which is easily taken away by a knife of unknown origin that is easily broken and just as easily mended. Not like in the good old days when a supernatural weapon had some grit.
Also, if he is The Dragon Emperor, then why does he keep changing shape? Shouldn’t he only change to a dragon? There is no explanation given as to why he changes to various shapes and forms, and why he is called The Dragon Emperor when he is clearly a Shape-shifter Emperor.
The New Mummy is a Flop of a Film
The action is cliché. The dialogue is forced and boring. The acting often falls flat. Brendan Fraser and John Hannah are great in their roles but all the others are either poorly used or just badly cast.
The film leaves the audience wishing the O’Connell family had stuck to their retirement promise and found some other way to bond. The Emperor was the least creative and most poorly motivated enemy they have faced and thus should have been the easiest to kill. Instead though, they failed many times and had to be saved by every person and creature around them time and time again. Save your money and skip this film.
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