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We all know about The Mummy (1999). Dashing, bold, exciting, sexy, harrowing, etc. Some of Brendan Fraser's best. But what about The Mummy Returns... ? I've heard it said many times before that The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is inferior even to this movie, but giving The Mummy Returns a fresh watch... I don't know, guys. Don't get me wrong though, this is not a bad film at all. The action's pretty campy fun and it delivers on that generally well with some missteps here and there, but damn, man. Also, Dwayne Johnson was wasted here. Whoever decided to make him some voiceless scorpion thingy in the end should be fired. It could have been this badass three-way fight between Rick, Imhotep, and a at least mostly normal-looking King, but no. We get the crab special.
There were too many times when I was watching this where I was like, "Huh, here we go again." The same villain (generally) with the exact same motivations, the same main cast (pretty much), and the same basic plot outline. Also, the CGI has REALLY not aged well at all, taking me out of the movie a few too many times. And it's used a lot. Now, this can easily be excused by the fact that this was made in 2001, but at the same time, there are a few CGI shots in here that look decent, and finally, let us remember that Jurassic Park came out in 1993. Not that I blame the CGI team though for the CGI really.
In fact, I think the ENTIRE production of this movie was too rushed overall, not just the CGI. And looking at its production, I get the sense that the whole production team felt kinda the same way about it too. It clearly needed another year in the oven all around. I know that what is confirmed is that Stephen Sommers got a call in the morning from Universal just a day after The Mummy (1999) was released saying, "We need another one." I'm guessing that in the studio's over-enthusiasm for another movie, they made the deadline for its release too soon and it led to a lot of problems. Shame, as the idea for the Scorpion King is not actually a bad one at all and had a lot of potential for both a stirring origin story and a pretty cool and intriguing villain. But as this movie stands, the execution definitely leaves a lot of something to be desired.
