Gravy time is back! Or should I dare say kick-ass? Smokin guns, ghoulish bottoms to boot, ancient mysteries to be unraveled & saving mankind- all in a day’s work.
Aha! Okay. Just to set things right, this movie has nothing to do with the previous storyline of Egyptian priest Im Hotep’s mummy. In fact there ain’t no mummy business at all. Though I’m not quite sure what’s the difference between a resurrected mummy or corpse (as it is the case here).
But not to worry. You have the O’Connell family- fully loaded, that is. Throw in the effects, spice up the plot, juggle mind boggling action & cinematics and we’re back in business a la O’Connell style. Happy now? So let’s see what the fracas is all about this time in this mummy less installment.
Well, it’s the far East for starters. Backdrop is ancient China. Han Dynasty’s evil ruler known as the “Dragon Emperor’ ( Jet Li) is punished by a terrible curse cast on him by sorceress Michelle Yeoh: as a result he and his army are entombed into clay statues for eternity; that is, unless he is re-awakened which, we all know, is bound to happen at one point! And guess who does it this time? Yeah
the O’Connell brat!
The
story moves to post world war –II England. Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn
(Maria Bello) having worked for the British Secret Service (Nice touch eh?)
during the war have taken up social life—a far cry from their old swashbuckling
Indy Jones ways. No wondered they get bored soon and jump at the offer of
"one last mission" by order of her majesty’s Foreign Office. Their
assignment: To safely courier a precious artifact back to the museum in Shanghai from which it
was stolen. Okay that’s one part of it.
Evelyn’s
brother Jonathan (John Hannah) runs a bar in Shanghai. While Alex O’Connell (Luke Ford)
all grown up and gung ho about ancient history is following in the family
footprints as a young archaeologist on an excavation in some Chinese ruins.
Inevitably He discovers: the tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which has been buried
for millennia. Alex mistakenly undoes the binding spell. As part of a bigger
conspiracy the Emperor’s tomb is transported back to Shanghai
where a military guy Anthony Wong intends to utilize the Emperor and his army
of dead (sounds familiar?) to take over, hang on, China? By golly! Why not?
This dragon emperor can control the elements, has magical power & of course
is an ace kung fu warrior—all of which makes him more potent than the previous
Egyptian mummy.Realizing
he’s bitten off more than he can chew, Connell Junior now turns to the actual
big guns- his mom and dad—Rick and Evelyn. Soon united family resources
join the fray and high adventure ensues: crash landings, wild treks thru the
Himalayas, encounters with rampaging Yetis, three-headed dragons, , grand
battles, fist flaying ghoulish Jet Li who keeps shape shifting from strange
monster to another ... Well you name it, they have it! The onslaught
continues to a nail biting finish until the dragon emperor’s ghost or mummy or
wotever is sent back to- you know……It’s an entertaining affair alright. Not
much of a story though. Perhaps the reason behind that is the continuous
pullouts from previous installments—action sequences, ideas, theme & so
forth. You’ll be reminded of Indy Jones & previous Mummy ventures. But the
fast action and roller coaster ride makes up for the similarities. And yes,
this time it packs in more than the older episodes in terms of cinematics &
a more versatile villain. The action stunts are fascinating & always laced
with that wacky humor thing. Picturisation and backdrops are purely breath
taking, got to admit that. The Shanghai
street chase will sure give you some genuinely
ticklish moments. The only turn off was those same old whirly-bird martial art
manoeuvers-- Too many movies have just flogged the life out of that
sport. Director Rob Cohen of XXX fame was never much of a great plot guy. He’s
all for stunts and action. No wonder the cinematics are pretty good. They had
to term this the “Original Mummy-3” on hordes. Maybe it has something to with
that French movie made by Sophie Marceau, and yes it was made after Mummy-2 if
I’m correct. So the producers wanted to make sure of their identity perhaps.
Funny.About
the acting pack lead? Well A few things seem to have further got better.
Brandon Fraser is absolutely dashing & somehow looks more formidable in
this installment. Mario Bello gives Evelyn’s image a more chiseled appearance
than Rachel Weiss’s cutie look, & packs in a hotter kickass kind of
character in the lines of say Lara Croft? Bello
sure looks more convincing in the action sequences. Good acting by both of
them. Same can be said about Jet Li. He fits the bill perfectly. John Hannah
slips perfectly into his role of the goofy yet self conscious & handy
Englishman.Verdict?
A good wholesome movie loaded with all the frills.. No need to go back to the
previous installments.