The Mummy Returns (2001)

The Mummy Returns (2001)

6/10

Starring

Brendan Fraser

Rachael Weisz

John Hannah

Directed by Stephen Sommers

Unlike the first movie in Brendan Fraser and Universal’s The Mummy franchise, this movie has too much happening in the beginning. We see that our couple the now O’Connell (Evie and Rick) are married with a son named Alex.

Alex is a bit of a troublemaker, wild and adventurous, behaviors that are too unrealistic to pass for an eight-year-old child character. Add to that, we have a new set of people hunting for something tying to Imhotep, who are these people and how come they are in this mix?

The answers are given to you when you have start to get like thirty minutes into the movie and by that time you wish the writers did a better job in arranging things.

That said, seeing the trio again (Rick, Evie and Jonathan) flanked by the leader of the Medjai from the first movie was fun and the movie delivered enough of that fun to keep you glued. Imhotep is not the only bad guy around this time, we have a new guy in town, The Scorpion King (played by Dwayne The Rock Johnson).

Well this tale starts with an introduction of the new guy going to try and take over the world. In 3067 BC, the Scorpion King and his army failed a world conquest campaign and were exiled to the desert of Ahm Shere where his men died.

The Scorpion King then traded his soul to Anubis for the power to defeat his enemies. He gets the army of Anubis and gets his revenge, then his soul is claimed by Anubis. A cult wanting to take control of the Scorpion King army, resurrect Imhotep with the aid of the reincarnation of his old lover Anck-su-namun so that Imhotep can kill the Scorpion King and command his army.

To find the Scorpion king they must first find the bracelet of Anubis, which is on the arm of Alex O’Connell.

The CGI in the first movie was not that great, but it wasn’t more of a problem as the first movie had a lot happening and the blend of the CGI to the live action was manageable. Here the CGI was not so great and the blend was not manageable it was awful. A lot better CGI was in the third installment, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008).

The acting in this movie was not so ground breaking like you would see in the first movie, I didn’t get that crispy feel I got seeing the first movie play out.

In the end this movie was good to see and a third and final movie of the franchise was done, with Maria Bello replacing Rachael Weisz as Evie O’Connell. After that, Universal reboot the franchise with The Mummy (2017) starring Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe.