Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) and his wife Evelyn (Maria Bello) are once again forced into a battle against the undead as their son Alex (Luke Ford) discovers the tomb of emperor Han (Jet Lee). Long ago Han was betrayed by the witch Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) who cursed Han and his army turning them into stone statues. But when Han is reawakened by a Chinese general who wants Han to bring China back to its former glory all hell breaks loose.
When it comes to the use of CGI in movies these days, the Indiana Jones style adventure movies may perhaps be the one type of film that suffers the most. Maybe it is because we are used to practical effects contra digital in this genre and when looking at movies like the Mummy series the CGI really stands out from the rest of the world. This is not to say that CGI in adventure movies are always bad as Lord of the rings certainly pulled it off brilliantly. But Lord of the rings had the advantage of a budget that most adventure movies don't get and it is a lack of such a budget that really sticks out in Tomb of the dragon emperor (which will be from now on be referred to as Mummy 3).
Mummy 3 is at its core a fast paced action adventure that is not meant to stand up to strong scrutiny and is generally designed for an audience that want to sit back with their popcorn and see something cool in screen. And in this fashion Mummy 3 delivers on all cylinders. It never goes for too long without an action set piece and always delivers everything from Yetis in the Himalayas to armies of the undead battling it out at the base of the Great Wall of China.
Overall the movie doesn't immerse itself in the Chinese culture or history as much as the previous two did with Egypt. Maybe this is because Egypt has more of a mystic quality to it then China for most people or simply because Chinese culture and mythology is less known in general. If any of those two are correct I don't know, but Mummy 3 doesn't have the same cultural weight to it that the others did. Jet Lee as the new mummy works great for the franchise, but he never seems as threatening as Imhotep did in Mummy and The mummy returns. This is curious seeing how the dragon emperor has allot more power at his disposal then Imhotep ever did, but then again Imhotep could suck the very life out of you if you got close where as emperor Han is depended on fireballs and spikes of ice. But an overall good performance by Jet Lee and the new mummy works fine for the story.
Mummy 3 also sees a recast of the Evelyn O’Connell character previously played by Rachel Weisz and now taken over by Maria Bello. This is a major contributor to why the film will never rank as good as its two predecessors as there is little if no chemistry between Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello. After having watched two films where Evelyn and Rick are a believable couple head over heels in love, its hard to have to sit and see someone impersonating the Evelyn character in a way that can only remind you who she isn’t rather then who she is.
Lastly we come to the use of CGI in the film and it is the reason why this is a second rate adventure film. Whenever CGI is used (and it is used just in about every scene) it stands out and is never truly able to blend in with the real surroundings. The only thing that really works is emperor Han himself as he walks around as a living statue. It would seem most of the budget went into making the mummy work, but when it comes to everything else it simply falls short.
Emperor Han can transform into a variety of mythical creatures, but whenever he does we are treated to second rate CGI work that really draws attention to it self and not the movie and in 2008 that is should be unforgivable.
So there you have it. The mummy: tomb of the dragon emperor works as a second rate action adventure that flows along well enough to get you into the story if you are able to ignore some bad CGI work and static romances, but you would ultimately be better off revisiting the previous two mummy films on DVD.
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