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'The Mummy Returns' to steal your wallet
[Photo: Universal Studio]
Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and Im-Ho-Tep (Arnold Vosloo) do more of the same in The Mummy Returns. |
By STEVE PERSALL
© St. Petersburg Times, published May 3, 2001
There's nothing new in this sequel. The merchandise tie-ins are obvious, as are the special effects.
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Don't be fooled by the absence of a numeral in the title. The Mummy Returns makes several mistakes to be expected from a sequel.
The worst is a nagging sense of arrogance, content to patch together enough action and glib remarks for a preview trailer telling everyone it's time to spend money again. How moviegoers feel between the box office and the toy store doesn't seem to matter.
The Mummy Returns is a disjointed effort since writer-director Stephen Sommers crams anything into the film to ensure wider demographic appeal. There's a child hero for the youth market, a pro wrestler to lure WWF fans, more creatures perfect for doll designs, larger roles for breakout stars, more violence, less logic and too much happening to keep everything straight.
[Photo: Universal Studio]
Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn O’Connell (Rachel Weisz) brace themselves for trouble in The Mummy Returns.
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Sommers knows this, or else he wouldn't designate someone to explain the proceedings every 20 minutes or so. But streamlining his multi-predicament script might have cost some of those nifty computer effects he figures we're paying to see. That could cut into video game development and sales. Those strange tattoos characters wear aren't mystical symbols; they're bar codes to scan at cash registers.
Brendan Fraser is back without as much derring-do to do. He plays Rick O'Connell, whose appealing puzzlement in the first film is replaced by sequel smugness. Rick's original fear and curiosity were a nice conduit for the audience's feelings. Same happens here, but only because he tosses off lines like "I hate mummies" and "Not those guys again." Again, this time for the wrong reason, we know how he feels.
The Mummy Returns is set 10 years after the first movie for no other purpose than allowing Rick and Evie (Rachel Weisz) to have a son old enough to be endangered for entertainment. Young Alex (Freddie Boath) is a standard-issue movie kid except for a thick British accent that couldn't have been learned from these parents.
Alex gets possession of the Bracelet of Anubis, not to be confused with the Spear of Omaris or the Oasis of Ahm Shere. You need a scorecard to keep all the occult prop names straight. The bracelet is supposed to be the key to resurrecting either Im-Ho-Tep (Arnold Vosloo) or the Scorpion King (the Rock). Sommers' script briefly mentions which one before plunging into violence so confusing that you forget.
Bad guys get cursory introductions, usually a sneer into the camera lens. Come to think of it, some of the good guys also do that. It's tough deciding who we're pulling for in The Mummy Returns. Sommers believes this can be solved with one army of computer-drawn thousands crashing into another, or maybe some of those flesh-burrowing beetles everyone liked in The Mummy. He's wrong.
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The Mummy Returns
Grade: C
Director: Stephen Sommers
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Freddie Boath, the Rock
Screenplay: Stephen Sommers
Rating: PG-13; violence, mild profanity
Running time: 126 min. |
Oddly, this PG-13 film is more violent than many R-rated movies, with hundreds of bullet rounds, impalings, immolations, slashings and punches. Apparently, cutting away from death blows before blood spurts is okay by the MPAA ratings board. Im-Ho-Tep's decomposed appearance and hordes of mummified gremlins are scary enough. Adding the Scorpion King transforming into something giant to be served with a side of butter is a recipe for children's nightmares.
The Mummy Returns uses so many digital drawings of temples, armies, even insignificant rats, that everything looks too fake. Sommers joshed the Indiana Jones genre in The Mummy. Now he lunges to improve it, frantically trying to astonish. Sometimes, ambition is best kept under wraps.
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