The Mummy Returns is a sequel to ‘The Mummy’ which was out last year, or was it the year before that? Now, I’m not quite sure because I didn’t watch the first movie, so this may have effected the way I viewed The Mummy Returns.
Right. I’m not going to go into detail about the plot as firstly it will spoil the movie for you and secondly loads of people who have already reviewed this have gone into the plot.
So, a quick rundown….
The film starts with a splendour of special effects. You are placed in the middle of a battle 5000 years ago, the scorpion king (played by WWF’s The Rock) is commanding his army through 7 years of battle. He loses and his army is sent into the hot deserts. All of his men are dyeing around him under the blistering heat until he is the only one left standing. He makes a pact with God Anubis to serve him forever which is granted. All the desert goes green around him with plenty of palm tree’s and plants. The Scorpion King is then sucked into the underworld leaving myths and legends behind.
Now you are introduced to Rick (Brendon Fraiser) and his son (Freddie Boath) while Rick is exploring some sort of ancient tomb. Then you are introduced to his wife (Racheal Weisz) who has a true British accent which to me, didn’t quite sound right in the film.
Hang on, I said a quick rundown! So, cutting it short, Rick and Eve find a chest containing the ancient scorpion bracelet which is the key to the underworld basically and the Scorpion King. (That’s what I managed to gather anyway). They take this back to their home in London where you are introduced to more characters in the film including a very short appearance from Donna Air. (At this point, I decided I wasn’t in for the horror film that I had been expecting!). Rick’s Son gets hold of the bracelet and all hell breaks loose from here.
Now, that’s a quick rundown, theres a hell of a lot more to this movie, I’ve covered the first 20 minutes, but from here, it just got weirder and weirder! There are so many subplots to this movie you find yourself often wondering where your at in the story! You’ll soon start noticing that at one point your in London, the next Egypt and then the next, on a train somewhere in the desert! This is a movie that you can never quite know what’s going to happen next!
It’s been said by a lot of people that the movie is quite like the likes of Indiana Jones and this is true. What Indiana Jones didn’t have was all the cheesyness that this film boasts! There’s nothing wrong with the film itself, I just found myself sat there in disbelief at how cheesy it was! To try and explain this further, this is a mixture of Romance, Comedy, Horror/Suspense, Thriller and Action all rolled into one. One minute your watching someone on the verge of death and the next minute your watching the same person kissing his wife with the cheesy romantic music behind it, Put on top of that a bit of comedy with the small kid saying its disgusting and you have romance, action and comedy in the space of 30 seconds and it didn’t quite work for me.
The special effects in the film are amazing and they have really gone to town on them. Sometimes it makes you think that the special effects are the only thing that holds the movie together. In my case, the only time I wasn’t thinking about everything else apart from the film is when they were showing some superb special effects.
The comedy in the film is not rib tickling. In fact, it only makes you chuckle. There is one classic moment that you just have to look out for (unless you have seen the film then you will know what I’m on about!) and that’s when the cast are being chased by 2 foot tall pigmies, Rick lights a flare and throws it to them, they fight over it and then run over a bridge with it, the leader thinking he’s great because he’s got the flare, then it explodes while they are running over the bridge. You have to see it to appreciate it, but it’s a classic bit of comedy.
Overall?
Well, its listed under Horror, but its no horror movie. I won’t be rushing to see it again, yet there are a lot of people who enjoyed it. Maybe you had to see the prequel to fully appriciate this movie. How can I put it……I wouldn’t recommend it, but it’s not all that bad a movie. It runs for 144 minutes and is slow in places but the film makes up for it in other places. I’ll give it 3 stars for its god attempt, it just wasn’t for me!