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The Scorpion King

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The Scorpion King (2002)

April. 19,2002
|
5.5
|
PG-13
| Adventure Fantasy Drama Action
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In ancient Egypt, peasant Mathayus is hired to exact revenge on the powerful Memnon and the sorceress Cassandra, who are ready to overtake Balthazar's village. Amid betrayals, thieves, abductions and more, Mathayus strives to bring justice to his complicated world.

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Reviews

Pluskylang
2002/04/19

Great Film overall

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Pacionsbo
2002/04/20

Absolutely Fantastic

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Salubfoto
2002/04/21

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

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Jenna Walter
2002/04/22

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

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Filipe Neto
2002/04/23

This film depicts essentially a civil war in which a group of warriors led by Mathayus will try to confront Memnon, an evil and ruthless king. The story seems to go up in Egypt before the time of the pharaohs, and seems to be slightly based on so-called "Scorpion Pharaoh", an obscure historical figure about which we know almost nothing. Directed by Chuck Russell, it has script by Stephen Sommers, the director who made "The Mummy" films, and which introduced in these films a hook for this one. The cast is led by Dwayne Johnson, the protagonist, and also has Steven Brand and Kelly Hu.This film resembles visually films like "Mad Max" or "Conan the Barbarian" and television series like "Xena: Warrior Princess". They are films that seem based on Antiquity, to some extent, and who seek to be war epics or, at least, adventure movies. Thus, this film brings very little new things. The hook made in "The Mummy Returns" for these movie resulted in a major continuity paradox because the hero of this movie, the Scorpion King, is depicted there as a powerful villain. The cast is regular and doesn't bring anything interesting. Kely Hu was apparently chosen only based on their appearance under clothing as Dwayne Johnson was selected for his ability to action roles. In fact, Johnson is far from the sensitivity and depth required for a more versatile actor. The scenarios are abundant in imagination just as the costumes, which seems to freely mix elements of ancient civilizations with other right out of comics or of any indie fashion studio.This movie could have been much better if it had been located properly in space and time. The problem with this film is the exaggerated imagination of the director and screenwriter. Everything has limits. The cast could also have been chosen better and the characters could have been built in a much more interesting way. Positive are the action scenes, using martial arts from Philippines about we never heard before, but that look good on the screen.

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Rainey Dawn
2002/04/24

Dwayne Johnson (AKA The Rock) played a wonderful role as Mathayus in this film. I really enjoyed his character.To me, this film is outstanding! I can enjoy this movie as a stand alone film (away from "The Mummy" movie series). The story/script is good and well acted out by all of the actors. The sets and costumes are awesome - really took me back to the time of the Akkadian Empire. Action, action and lots of fun action in this adventurous film."The Scorpion King" would make a great double feature with a movie like "Conan the Barbarian " or "The Beastmaster".8/10

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jbonner71
2002/04/25

The way I see it, there are two ways to look at The Scorpion King: as a guy's guy, in which case TSK is the best movie ever made in the history of cinema, or as a critically thinking, intellectual male, in which case TSK is a somewhat amusing, 90-minute exercise in historical inaccuracy. Either way, I think the world would be an infinitely better place with Kelly Hu running about in skimpy outfits whilst pretending to be important. But…that could just be the (highly uninformed) opinion of my penis. Mr. Penis tends to cloud my judgment sometimes and here, he almost succeeded in convincing me that The Scorpion King is a good movie. But, all he really convinced me of was that I like Kelly Hu. A lot.There really isn't much story in The Scorpion King — a spin-off of The Mummy movies — but what little story there is focuses on Mathayus (The Rock, in his first starring role), the last of the Akkadians, and his quest to capture the precognitive sorceress (the aforementioned Hu) of the despotic king, Memnon (Steven Brand). There is also some nonsense about a band of "free" rebels, led by Balthazar (Michael Clarke Duncan) but, at the end of the day, all this flick needs is The Rock kicking much ass. And he does that. Quite well, actually.The Scorpion King was originally in theaters in 2002, but was just released on Blu-ray this recently. Both visually and aurally, this disc shines. It both looks and sounds great in the high-def format. It's in the extras department where this disc is lacking. There are interactive, documentary featurettes that you can access at various points in the film, but I always find these distracting and they don't really offer any great insights into the filmmaking process. I mean, who really wants to hear The Rock waxing rhapsodically about the desert locations where the film was shot? I know I don't. All I want to see is the goddamn People's Eyebrow, which is noticeably absent from this entire production.There is also a commentary track from director Chuck Russell, which is informative on a certain level but you won't be missing much if you decide to it skip entirely. And that's it for special features on this disc.All in all, if you're a fan of The Rock, the WWE, and big, dumb action movies then, by all means, this is the disc for you. Crank it up and let the Godsmack tunage blow you through the back wall of your goddamn living room. Otherwise, save your money and wait for the Blu-ray release of the infinitely more satisfying (on many, many levels…) Dark City.

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SanteeFats
2002/04/26

This movie is a follow up from the Mummy movies. The Scorpion King never really shows up in the film. There is Dwayne Johnson who fights the evil dictator after his brothers are killed. Kelly Hu is soo hot as the sorceress who flees from Memnon the dictator when she is grabbed by the Rock. She loses her powers when she loses her virginity to the Rock but she still plays the game. They hook up with some rebels that are hiding at an oasis, including the late Michael Clarke Duncan. Such an early loss!!! The rebels organize around the Rock and Duncan. They attack the city where the bad guys are and end up winning when the Rock finally kills Memnon. All is then well with the ancient world.

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