

Pathetic, that thousands of years of ancient curses and spells could engender such an incompetent army of dog-sand-creatures.FEMBED PLAY Storyline: This big-budget sequel from writer/director Stephen Sommers navigates much of the same cliffhanger territory as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones franchise. And we notice that not one single member of the victorious army is dead or even wounded. Finally all the creatures are destroyed, and we see the victors standing around feeling victorious and wishing that high-fives had been invented. Each dog-creature, as it is killed, reverts to the desert sand from whence it sprang. The other army is made of countless creatures named Anubis that look like giant savage dogs that stand upright and run on their hind legs (it is not done well, but one is surprised to find it done at all). One of the big action sequences involves a battle between two vast armies, which stretch as far as computer-generated effects can see. It is written by Eratosthenes that the Earth is about 25,000 miles around, and since there are 24 hours in a day, Rick was running approximately 1,041 miles an hour.ĥ. But Rick, carrying Alex in his arms, is able to outrace the sunrise we see the line of sunlight moving on the ground right behind them. If the rising sun touches little Alex while he is wearing the magical bracelet, he will die (it is written). In "The Mummy Returns," there is a more amazing feat. I have written before of the ability of movie characters to outrun fireballs. Apparently we missed the first Apocalypse, which does not speak well for it.Ĥ. The dialogue "You have started a chain reaction that could bring about the next Apocalypse" is fascinating. I particularly enjoyed it when he was kidnapped by a fearsome adversary of his parents, chained and taken on a long journey, during which he drove his captor crazy by incessantly asking, "Are we there yet?"ģ. Alex, the kid, adds a lot to the movie by acting just like a kid.

I continue to believe the Rock has an acting career ahead of him, and after seeing this movie I believe it is still ahead of him.Ģ. I am not sure, at the end, if we see the real Rock or merely his face, connected to computer-generated effects (his scorpion is blown up to giant size, which has the unfortunate effect of making him look more like a lobster tail than a scorpion). He appears briefly at the beginning of the movie, is transmuted into a kind of transparent skeletal wraith and disappears until the end of the film, when he comes back as the dreaded Scorpion King. To call his appearance a "cameo" would be stretching it. The ads give the Rock, the World Wrestling Federation star, equal billing with Fraser. So will any attempt to summarize the plot, so I will be content with various observations:ġ. But logic applied to this movie will drive you mad.

Oded Fehr is the worried sage Ardeth Bay, who begins sentences ominously with "It is written that." until Rick finally snaps, "Where is all this written?" A good question, since much of the story involves a magical pyramid of which it is written, "No one who has seen it has ever returned alive." That logically leads us to wonder how they ever found out about it. Also back are John Hannah as the twitty brother-in-law Jonathan and Arnold Vosloo as the mummy Imhotep, whose name sounds more than ever like an ancient Egyptian chain of pancake houses. Brendan Fraser is back again as Egyptologist Rick O'Connell, and Rachel Weisz, the librarian he met in the first film, is now his wife they have an 8-year-old son named Alex (Freddie Boath).

If it were not for references to " The Mummy" (1999), this sequel would hardly have a plot at all. The mistake of "The Mummy Returns" is to abandon the characters, and to use the plot only as a clothesline for special effects and action sequences. After the first 10 minutes, the thrills subside. Imagine yourself on a roller coaster for two hours. It is a curiosity of movie action that too much of it can be boring.
