The Mummy Returns [M]

Centuries ago, the power-hungry Scorpion King was on the verge of death when he offered his soul to the dark God Anubis to spare his life and give him his undead army so that he could conquer his enemies. Now, years and years after his demise, the Scorpion King has been awakened and threatens to rule the world. What is more, the corpse of Imhotep has been found and the priest resurrected, so that he might defeat the Scorpion King and fulfil his quest for immortality and life-long rule. It falls to Rick and Evelyn O’Connell and their son Alex to once again, save the world before it gets plunged into a ruinous nightmare. 

You know I only just realised that, not since these Mummy films, have there been a film about mummies. At the moment the film industry has vampires and zombies running out of its ears, but not since 2001 (because the third instalment in The Mummy trilogy was complete tripe) have we had a good, old-fashioned, rollicking mummy movie. That alone makes these films special and playing a game of their own. Just as rollicking, if not more so, that its predecessor, The Mummy Returns is a great action-packed, Indiana Jones-esque romp that keeps me contentedly glued to the screen every time. 

Centuries ago, the power-hungry Scorpion King was on the verge of death when he offered his soul to the dark god Anubis to spare his life and give him his undead army so that he might conquer his enemies. Now, years and years after his demise, the Scorpion King is reawakened and threatens to rule the world. What is more, the corpse of Imhotep has been recovered and the priest resurrected so that he might slay the Scorpion King and fulfil his quest for immortality, eternal love, and life-long rule. It falls to Rick and Evelyn O’Connell and their son Alex to, once again, save the world before it gets plunged into a ruinous nightmare of darkness and death. 

All our favourite characters, as well as a few new ones, are back for another dose of mummified madness and action. Even though man has done much cleverer things as far as special effects are concerned, this movie still boasts the same adrenaline and adventurous vibe that makes it so rollicking and entertaining. 

My one, slight, beef with this film is that there seem to be a few holes in the story and then there were one too many stories going on at any one time. We have the story of the Scorpion King; fine, I got the gist of that no problem. Then we have the resurrection of Imhotep, the mummy from the first film; all right, I get that story fine. But then on top of that we have this story of Rick and Evelyn’s past lives and them embracing some ancient destiny, which I understood, but found a bit tacked on. The foundation for that story was just a bit too shaky for my liking, with most of it casually being dropped into the film with meaningless dialogue. It just didn’t flow as smoothly as the other stories featured in the film’s plot and I found that to be a bit of a downer. 

Aside from that, the script and screenplay still harbours a healthy balance of drama and comedy, and there is plenty of action and romance to satisfy both genders in the audience. 

Starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Freddie Boath, Patricia Velasquez, and Dwayne Johnson, The Mummy Returns is a great rollicking movie that’s packed with action, adventure, romance, gore, violence, the undead, and comedy. At the end of the day, these are just fun action movies with a good story and likeable characters. You don’t have to watch them over and over, and they make for a good night in like Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Wars, or Indiana Jones.