Saturday, August 2, 2008

The Mummy 3 Review

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I was soo looking forward to this film. I just found out last June that the 3rd installment was going to be shown in theaters this August. I had mixed feelings finding out that Rachel Weisz is not coming back for the third ep. I thought, they oughta give the other girl (Maria Bello) a chance.

Sadly, I was right.

Let’s start with the plot.

They gave it a twist, I loved the idea about a Chinese dark emperor, bringing to life terracotta soldiers, the love angle between that of the general and the witch who is the dark emperor’s - supposedly concubine, I liked the general (he cutie), and Michelle Yeoh, I liked Jet Li’s character,  I liked some one on one combat in kung fu, I loved that they changed the setting from Egypt to post war Shanghai,  the concept of the ‘Imhotep bar’ was good, the trailer even better.

Begs the question - why did the movie failed the other two previous sequels?

1st - Change of major Players-

from Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, The Mummy Returns) to Rob Cohen. Hats off to both, though I must admit, if you are the director of all the sequels, you will be more familiar with the sequences. As well as very keen on details -costumes, speech accents, scripts - after all, there is only one director.

Rob Cohen put together a lot of twists on the third mummy franchise which is refreshing, however, I am not sure if he has a final say on casting.. which I will be pointing out later on.

2nd - it is sooo CG Animated.

I admit, I kinda find the second Mummy sequel all too cartoony - from the jackal soldiers up to the time The Scorpion King was let loose. But, this is much worse. I liked the idea of the terracotta soldiers charging towards the Great Wall, it kinda reminded me of my boss Mike’s chess set he bought in our trip to Beijing. But I wasn’t surprised by what I saw in the battle - the sand taking the scorned soldiers, and goodness, the face of Michelle Yeoh and the General on the sand is soo.. so… I can’t find the words… Filipino? Like.. when we watch a Tagalog movie that one of the main characters have died and you see their faces on the clouds smiling down. I find it a bit corny. Sorry, but I do, like the time Kate Beckinsale smiled a tear to Hugh Jackman at that Van Helsing movie in the end.

3rd - THE CASTING. This is a no brainer.

Maria Bello who took over Evie’s character is really pretty - and athletic. But she is no Rachel Weisz. I think its an omen to create a movie with replaced characters. And main characters at that. Thats hardly ever happened, and I believe that rarely works - to make the movie a little bit believable and to put the audience at the edge of their seats (though they know they are watching pure Hollywood fiction.) I think that Maria Bello could have made a better Evie, if she was the original Evie in the first place. But we have grown to love Rachel’s face and quirkiness in the previous sequels, plus I love her authentic Brit accent.

And Alex, Oh Alex.. what happened to your British accent? I find you soooo cute when you were a young lad. Luke Ford, who played the grown up Alex is sexy and charming, yes… But I think the casting should have looked for someone a little less taller than Brendan Fraser, who looked similar to the parents and not overpowering. aka, both parents are brunette. It’s understandable that a child of brunettes is a blonde at a young age, but Caucasian hair color changes in time - unlike us Asians.  I’ll give credit to Luke Ford, for trying his best to act a little bit like his dad’s character in the movie. They also should have made grown up Alex a little less of a rogue. I repeat, a little less - since being rougish he gets from his dad. What I meant was they should not have made his character estranged from his parents. This failed the family bonding they had on the second sequel. BUT, its nice to see Rick and Alex argued over which gun was better.

I was also looking forward to the return of that hot hott Arab guy Oded Fehr (majji). But I guess his presence is not needed here.

But overall, there was just no chemistry between the characters, and the actors. I can see it onscreen, I was waiting on my seat, looking for something more. But after the end credits came up, I felt.. WHAT THE??….

I wish Stephen Sommers would take over and make a Mummy 4. I dont know how, maybe.. he could create it in such a way that the Mummy 3 was just a bad dream?

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