The Scorpion King

Image credit: Wikipedia

I was having a conversation with my partner the other day about movies and we got to talking about the different between good bad movies and bad bad movies. We all know that there is a lot of crap cinema out there; films that are either lacking in any enthusiasm from the makers, or just completely made with bad technique. But a ‘bad movie’ or B movie can be good as long as the makers understand what it is they are making (e.g. Kong: Skull Island). The other night we were in the mood for something trashy but fun and so it was to Netflix where we found the original Scorpion King.

The film chronicles the hero’s quest of desert warrior Mathayus (Dwayne Johnson) as he revolts against a tyrannical king who is destroying his homeland and slaughtering his people. Kidnapping the King’s sorceress (Kelly Hu), Mathayus rallies unwilling forces, preparing for an epic showdown.

Jumping off the back of The Mummy Returns where the Rock’s Scorpion King first appeared on screens (in all his terrible CGI glory), this movie is a pretty solid B movie in that it’s telling a clichéd story that features ridiculous action and supernatural elements, but does it without taking itself too seriously. Movies of this calibre completely die if the filmmakers try to be sincere and turn it into a serious movie because, for a third of it, you need to suspend your belief, and that gets kind of difficult when the film is saying ‘yes it’s desert magic, but this is a serious movie’. If the filmmakers are having fun, then that translates into the movie and passes through to the audience, creating an enjoyable movie experience that separates the good bad from the bad bad.

Image credit: Tour Egypt

Absolutely everything about this film is grade-A basic genre: the hero’s quest narrative, the unbelievable ‘romantic’ storyline, the bumbling sidekick, and the testosterone-fuelled fighting sequences. Being set in the desert, the majority of the film is the colour sand with either sunbright or firebright lighting and there’s a lot of skin exposed in the characters’ wardrobes with the Rock being bare armed and bare chested for the majority of the film and the sorceress always wearing some impractical, sexy gold chain bikini dress.

The screenplay itself is fine; it’s generic but it works and even without having any sort of prior knowledge regarding the Scorpion King, you can totally pick what type of movie this is just from the posters and thumbnails.

The Scorpion King is what I call a good bad movie; critically there is absolutely nothing special or particularly memorable about it, but the filmmakers obviously had a lot of fun making it and that enjoyment does seep through the film and out to the audience, making them have a fun time as they watch it.

Director: Chuck Russell, 2002

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Kelly Hu, Steven Brand, Michael Clark Duncun, Grant Heslov, Branscombe Richmond, Peter Facinelli, and Bernard Hill