Sunday, December 21, 2008

The Mummy III: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Remember what I said about HELLBOY II yesterday? Pretty much the same things apply to THE MUMMY III: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR. You’ve got an ancient bad guy trying to gain control of an invincible mystical army. You’ve got lots of CGI and explosions and running around. You’ve got a small group of heroes saving the world. Good stuff if you like that sort of thing, and you know I do. Really, all you need to know is this: Does this line, spoken in all seriousness, put a grin on your face: “Die, you mummy bastards, die!” If it does (it did for me), you’ll like this movie. I liked it a little bit more than the Hellboy movie, but that’s because I’m more of a fan of the Mummy franchise, I guess. I loved THE MUMMY, especially the first ten or fifteen minutes. The moment when Brendan Fraser’s character, who is being pursued by hundreds of enemies, runs out of bullets in both .45 automatics he’s using, is priceless. There are a lot of moments in that movie that look like pulp cover paintings come to life. The second one isn’t as good – the filmmakers make the common mistake of ramping up the special effects and explosions in that one – but I still enjoyed it. The third one falls into the same category, not as good as the first but still fun. Unless you’re a huge fan of this sort of stuff like I am, though, I’d recommend not watching it back to back with the second Hellboy movie, since they’re basically the same movie.

3 comments:

Charles Gramlich said...

I wondered if this was good, and now I know. I like Brendon Frazer quite a lot and figured I'd like this.

David Cranmer said...

I like Fraser and both his acting and these films are great throwbacks to the B films of yesterday that I enjoy so much.

Anonymous said...

I haven't seen the third Mummy yet, but I did like the first two. Plus I like Brendon Fraser. In the first Mummy Fraser's character reminded me of somebody from a Robert E. Howard story. It was the way his character charged headlong into the fray.