The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

Touches You

Let's be realistic.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

If you've:a) Never seen the other Mummy films, but are aware of what they are. b) Like Michael Bay-esque dumb special effects pictures with quick-cutty action (cause God knows people seem to enjoy that crap) c) Have no high expectations for entertainment, then you'll probably like this film. If you're smarter and have seen the other two Mummy films, going to this one is a major shift. If you thought 2 was different from 1, get a hold of this one. Especially when watching all the films in a row it is much more jarring than I remember it to be. I saw this on TV thinking it would be okay like the previous ones, but when it ended, I said "It's AWFUL"!The main change in plot is that the mummies are no longer in Egypt, but in China and in the Great Wall and made of melted chocolate, I mean, terracotta. Alas, the execution was poor, everything is tonally different. The way its shot and the editing is hardly consistent with the last two pictures, favoring a lot of cuts and congested camera framing, making action set pieces that seem potentially fun and silly turn incomprehensible and joyless. This film falls into CG syndrome and favors a lot of CGI effects that looks like a video game. Clearly, handing the film off to a director who's had a mediocre-bad track record was bad: this is Rob Cohen ("Fast and Furious"); and a bad script written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar ("Smalville"). Even the characters aren't as fun here. Brendan Fraser seems tired and has lost his comic touch (maybe cause he's ironically older in this film). For Evy's role, Rachel Weisz (British) did a phenomenal job portraying a cute, smart and feisty librarian in the previous ones; but this time, she is replaced by the Maria Bello (American), who turns her character into a soft and fluffy bunny of woman, speaking with an unconvincing English accent. She looks like Rick's mother than his wife and the chemistry between her and Rick was poor. Even the brother Jonathan is reduced to bad comic relief, and a grown-up Alex, is played by a big-bottomed guy (Luke Ford) who looks like older than his dad (in 2008 Freddie Boath wasn't available, despite he was 17-years-old?). The saddest thing about both characters, was is that they speak with a fluid American accent when they are supposed to be Brits. The villain of this sequel is lame, while the previous mummy portrayed by Arnold Vosloo was terrifying, this new "Mummy", portrayed by Jet Li isn't intimidating and he had an only ONE fight scene.Something good...a pack of yetis who looks like white Teletubbies kicking the baddies' butts and celebrates like football players; and comes the Dragon Emperor, who is really King Ghidorah's brother. Godzilla didn't come because he is Japanese, although of course, that to America doesn't matter, because China and Japan it is the same. What is it trying to be? Fantasy? History? Myth? It ends up being a cloudy haze of a mess. In the end, after defeating the Emperor, everything is happiness and fortune cookies, and Jonathan says "I wanna go to a place without mummies...Peru, for example". The movie ends with a postscript for a fourth movie that says that years after, mummies were discovered in Peru before the screen fades to black. Maybe would be Inca mummies.If we could've just waited for Stephen Sommers, a better script, and have convinced Weisz to actually join the film with the better script (she declined this film because she disagreed with the script used), we could've had a nice return for the characters. Unfortunately, this big, dull, joyless bland return for the franchise may be the last we ever see, and its a bad way to go. Surely isn't terrible? Maybe average, right? I'm surprised to say it really is terrible. Unwatchable? Yes, it is painful to watch as you certainly feel heartbroken and insulted to see that a chance for a return for these likable characters was wasted off on a poorly executed effort like this, and to know there's likely no chance in hell we'll get another attempt to do so ever again.P.S.: For all the reviewers who said that Maria Bello is a better replacement for Evy's role; yeah sure, maybe you say it because Bello is blonde; and don't come with nonsense like changing the main actress was an improvement, comparing it with James Bond, or any other character like that. Hey guys, when "The Mummy 4" (in my country, Peru) appears, don't expect for the British R.W. (Rachel Weisz) declines once more to play Evy, and the all-American R.W. (Reese Witherspoon) taking her place (learning Inca culture, martial arts and guns expert, speaking with an unconvincing English accent and voila!) to see if you like her or you're happy that they have changed the main girl once more. Bon appetit.Also I warn you that if you continue to sin of being open-minded to these pointless changes that I write above, go watch Power Rangers, so you can see how they constantly change the protagonists in this series.

This is probably my favorite movie and it has so much adventure beautiful locations and good humor,and Brendan Fraser still makes a good job in thismovie and the new characters are interesting and this reminds of Indiana Jones temple of doom between army of darkness and I was not disappointed about this movie plot it has good actresses and yeah this movie for me never gets old

Centuries ago, a witch Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh) puts a curse on an evil emperor (Jet Li) for killing the man that she loved. Several hundred years later Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford) discovers the mummified body of the Emperor and unwittingly leads to the Emperor being resurrected after he is stabbed in the back by his close friend Professor Wilson. Alex's parents arrive in China with the Shangri-La (a precious stone) which they intend to hand back to the Chinese. However, General Yang manages to get the stone from the O'Connells and begins the process of resurrecting the Emperor and his army; the consequences of which will have a catastrophic effect on humanity...The first question that ran through my mind when this film started was where was Rachel Weisz? There are conflicting stories according to IMDb trivia explaining her absence from this film; one being that she didn't want to be away from her son for several months during filming in China or two that she didn't like the script... Hmmm I wonder which was the real reason? As one other reviewer rightly stated it's hard to believe that Rachel Weisz would be missed from this franchise(until you watch this film). Maria Bello does try her hardest, but she isn't as good an actress as Weisz and her chemistry with Fraser is rather poor. This has a knock-on-effect with Fraser who sadly seems rather ill-at-ease in this film. Whenever I watched him here he looked uncomfortable and rather embarrassed and you're left wondering if he thought to himself "Hell maybe I should have bailed with Rachel". The performances are a big problem here and another issue lies with Luke Ford's portrayal of the O'Connell's son. Rather than just being his own character it felt like he was trying to emulate Brendan Fraser in the first two films, but he has neither the screen presence or the acting ability to carry this off. The Asian members of the cast fare much better with the likes of Yeoh and Leong putting in strong performances and Jet Li was good in the non-CGI aspects of the film.The only person who seemed to keep in spirit with the original films was John Hannah who managed to make a lot of this film more enjoyable than it has any right to be - although even he has become less funny with each passing film.I would only recommend this film if you absolutely loved the first two films because in this film the weaker aspects from the first two films are magnified much more. It's not as fun to watch as the first two films, not as charming, and not as entertaining. In fact, the kindest thing I can say about it is that it was, at least, slightly better than The Scorpion King.

Now let's just begin by saying this movie is bad... Yetis kicking field goals at the gate to Shangri-la, Ricochet Rick playing golf with mummy soldier heads, a shape-shifting Chinese Emperor, throwing chunks of your clay face as a weapon... I could go on. The point is, this movie was incredibly off the wall. While I understand that this goofy craziness was probably the plan all along, the reason why I did not enjoy this film as it was meant to be was because it was supposed to be a continuation of the Mummy movie franchise. For that reason, I think there was a certain line of craziness that was made by the previous two movies that needed to be stood behind to keep that element of continuity. Instead, this film takes it to a level that never should have been reached! Yes I laughed out loud at some of the silliness, and at times found myself enjoying certain action scenes / movie moments, but overall I am giving this a 4/10. It deserves some credit, but did I enjoy it? No. Was it a good way to end the O'Connell Mummy trilogy? Definitely not. Sorry guys, this one can rule in hell with the cursed Emperor Qin...