Movie Review: The Mummy: Tomb of the dragon Emperor
Rating: * *
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, Jet Li

Nine Years and the Mummy has returned twice and now I wish, it almost never does. The latest in the series, The Mummy: Tomb of the dragon Emperor is reflective of a confused director who couldn’t live up to the mastery of Stephen Sommers, who began with a certain concept that ended up in utter bewilderment at the hands of Rob Cohen.
 
An evil Chinese emperor trying to gain immortality is thwarted in his attempts by a sorceress to accidently rise again 2000 years later by a discovery made by Alex O’Connell, the son of Rick and Evelyn (Rachel Weisz has relinquished her character as Evelyn to Maria Bello), at an excavation site in China.

Adventure and excitement starved O’Connell’s, in the meanwhile are sent to China to make a delivery to an archeologist who heads the excavation operation in China where they bump into their son Alex.

Amidst confusion and mayhem, they end up resurrecting the emperor, who supported by a segment of the Chinese army, that believes that only the tyrannical ways of the emperor can restore order in an anarchical China, tries to find his way to Shangri-La, where a dip will grant him eternal life.

Suddenly the 2000 year old sorceress re-appears in the movie enlightening the O’Connells about the past and pledging her otherwise immortal existence inorder to kill the emperor.

What ensues is a half baked, unfathomable battle in the snow covered peaks of the Himalayas where the emperor actually comes alive. All this in the middle of an avalanche preceded by a plane journey, with the O’Connells and Jonathan packed in with yaks, one of whom even pukes on Jonathan.

Once alive, the emperor readies his army for a battle, in order to conquer the world, to be foiled yet again by the sorceress who awakens the skeletons of all those the emperor had killed in the past.

A battle between the so-called Mummies army and the emperor’s army follows where the emperor is finally killed and his army destroyed. The sorceress dies and the O’Connells return with their son after another so-called adventure.

There is a major disconnect from the earlier movies in the Tomb of the Dragon emperor. The dragon emperor fails to become a character to reckon with, much unlike his predecessors, Imhotep and the Scorpion King. There is absolutely no mention of Egypt which forms an integral part of the backdrop earlier films.

Most of the actors are wasted playing poorly etched characters.