Movie Review - The Mummy :tomb of the Dragon emperor

The Mummy tomb of the Dragon emperor

The Mummy tomb of the Dragon emperor is the third movie in the Mummy series. After the success of the earlier movies "the Mummy" and the sequel the "The Mummy returns". The third movie in the installment stars Brenden Fraser as Rick O'Connell the adventurous explorer who along with his wife Evelyn(played by Maria Bello ), his brother-in-law jonathan (played by John Hannah) and his son who has grown up to fall in trouble, Alex (played by Luke Ford). His adversary this time is the Emperor Han played by Jet li.

The movie opens on a brisk note with the story of the Dragon King in China done away with in 15 minutes. The Dragon king is a ruthless emperor with an ambition to rule the world. He has control over the five elements but wants to conquer death. He finds out about a witch who knows the secret to conquer death. Immediately, he sends his trusted general Ming to fetch the witch. Upon arriving the Emperor falls for the witch and commands all that no one is to touch her and that the witch was his. But the General and the witch fall in love while searching for the spell of immortality. when they return the witch casts the spell on the Emperor. But soon after the emperor kills the General as he comes to know the affair between the witch and him. Things turn wrong for him when he finds out the witch has cast a wrong spell on him and he is trapped by the spell along with his army until someone resurrects him from his entrapment.

Circa now, excavators lead by O'connels son Alex find the very tomb of the Emperor. Not without its share of traps and attacks from an unknown ninja (Turns out to be the witches daughter protecting the tomb - couldnt control keeping the secret :P). Turns out alex is in china with his uncle jonathan - who doesnt need anyone to scare him off.

Alex' parents are happily enjoying their retirement from all the Mummy stuff (Just to mention they do an awful job of acting to show that that they dont like the retirement - it seems they are tired of acting int the movie :)) ). Anyways, call it a coincidence that they get an offer to take the "Eye of Shangrila" to a museum in China. (The reason for this benovelence is apparently a newly found sense of respect towards the chinese people who deserve the "Eye of Shangrila". GO Figure out ). So they graciously accept the all expenses paid trip. They land up in China and visit the Museum and hand over the "Eye of Shangrila" to the curator. But since its too simple a job considering they have traveled around the world for it; a gang of military dudes land up with a scar-face chick in tow. These retards aim to revive the cursed Dragon Emperor (Jet li) so that he restores the lost glory of China.

After a brief standoff the o'Connells are forced to open "The Eye of the shangrila" and the Emperor is revived. Theres a catch though . his curse is still is very much in place. To become immortal he must find the Shangrila itself so that the fountain of immortality shall repeal his curse. In doing so he can then revive his entire army too. The army shall help him in carrying out his ambition to conquer the world (No, he doesnt know theres competition for the post from a certain Mr George Bush ). The only thing between him and immortality is the O'Connell family along with the witches daughter Lin.

The revived emperor heads to the Himalayas to find the gateway to shangrila. The o'Connells guided by Lin reach the temple which is the beacon to Shangrila. Meanwhile, the emperor also reaches the place with his minions. Theres some more boom boom with a dash of father son camaraderie. The O'Connels almost pull off the impossible feat of defeating the Emperor Just after the intermission but the script has its way and the emperor succeeds in finding the way to sangrila. not to mention , in spite of few friendly neighbourhood Yetis who irritate more than they help.

At the cave of shangrila the o'Connels meet the witch, who in turn is more than happy to meet her daughter. With the family reunion in progress the Emperor shows up and messes up their party. he becomes immortal* (conditions apply). He becomes a three headed (hmmmm .. as if he had a choice) dragon and heads towards his tomb in china to lead his army beyond the "Wall of china" which shall make them invincible. The O'Connels and Lin also reach China before the emperor.. er ..Dragon .. Jet Li .. u got the idea right?

While the emperor is busy reviving his army, the O'Connels are busy collecting guns to fight the guy who controls the five elements. (Aha! a class case of fools rushing in Dr. Watson. I kept wondering why did the Emperor keep these retards alive so long; or were they too pathetic to even take notice ). By now, the emperor has revived his entire army and giving them a propaganda speech straight out of WW II. But they have other problems too.The O'Connells only chance to kill the emperor to drive an enchanted knife through the emperors heart. They are tremendously short of manpower facing the revived army of the emperor. SO the witch pitches in and revives all the people that have been killed and buried in the Wall of China. Now after an almost tiringly comic showdown (believe me it could easily grab an academy award for best comic performance or better comic direction. Imagine thousands of terra cota mummies fighting the skeletons and in between them a bunch of chinese army lunatics ) the emperor is killed and the OConnels win.

Now with the story out of the way with my feelings for the movie.
If u really are a Mummy franchise fan then u may give this movie a go. With no real story to boot it up the movie relies entirely on the bang bang and special effects. With the script just making excuses for loading the gun people hoping for a semblance of a story would be snoring soon. Unlike the earlier two movies the movie happens to be a melee of action sequences at exotic locations with average special effects compared to the earlier movies. Brendan Fraser looks his part in the movie. Hes probably used to slaying mummies by now. His better half doesnt match the earlier girls though. Alex looks good as the young OConnell. Lin also plays the witches' daughters' part impressively. Jet Li is grossly wasted since hes mostly an angry terra kota man. the opening few minutes move at a fast pace though which deal with the rise and cruelty of the Dragon King.

All in all an action movie with action and nothing else.

Hope you found the review worthwile. Watch the trailer of the movie here.