The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

The new Mummy movie stars Brendon Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, Michelle Yeoh, John Hannah, and Luke Ford. In the movie Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford), Rick and Evelyn's son, is in China looking for the Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (Jet Li). First problem I have with this movie is that Alex is in his early 20's but his parents Rick and Evelyn (Brendon Fraser and Maria Bello) look like they are in their 30's. they tried to explain this by setting the movie in 1946, but his parents still look like they must of gave birth to him when they were 10 years old. I understand that the director (Rob Cohen) didn't want to have a 16 year old running around with a gun, but if your going to make that decision then age his parents to match the son's age. Put some grey in Rick and Evelyn's hair, use less makeup to age them some.

After Alex discovers the Emperor we go back to his parents. They are asked to deliver the eye of shangri-la to the Chinese government and it is immediately stolen by a militant group that wants to awaken the Dragon Emperor. Although this gets them to China where the story takes place, I found it to be to convenient. But it isn't that bad.

Then the militant group awakens the Dragon Emperor with the eye of shangri-la and our adventure starts. Normal Mummy stuff from this point on.

My next 2 problems with this movie:
1) You have Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in a movie and you build up to a fight scene with them, but after you see it you will be disappointed. I hate American style of filming fight scene's, they cut a lot (close up of face, close up of fist, close up of foot). This makes it hard to tell what is going on. Pull the camera back and use the Hong Kong style of filming. Allow the audience to see the fight, keep the cuts as few as possible. They have Jet Li and Micelle Yeoh in a movie fighting, they have been fighting on screen for decades and can do it well, let them do their job.

2) What I call Chaos Shoots. When they want to make a scene exciting they will slap the side of the camera or not stabilize it so that it shakes around. This is very annoying. I understand if the director wants to do some Chaos Shoots to allow the audience to feel that they are in an action sequence, but I would prefer if they minimize it. If they do it to often I just get motion sickness and then I am not enjoying the movie.

To wrap up...
The Good - I liked the fact they went to China and got a new mummy to fight, the look of the film was great and the story was good.

The Bad - Maria Bello was awful, horrible accent, bad acting, and no chemistry with Fraser. The camera moved around to much, KEEP THE CAMERA STABLE! Rick and Evelyn look to young to have a son in their 20's, age the actors some to compensate. And last but most important to me, if you going to get Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in a movie together then film the fight scene's correctly and get a good choreographer.

I give the movie 2 out of 5 stars