If the script feels rushed, it has nothing on the film’s visual effects. It is a narrative mess, and shows a remarkably rushed and inattentive scripting process. The O’Connells find the bracelet, Alex gets it attached to his wrist, Imhotep is raised by the reincarnation of his long-dead lover Anck-Su-Namun (Patricia Velasquez), Rick is revealed as a prophesied warrior of Egyptian legend, Evelyn is revealed as the reincarnation of the princess Nefertiri, everyone races to the fabled oasis of Ahm Shere, and Rick and Imhotep battle one another in a pyramid to defeat the revived Scorpion King and either control or dispel the Army of Anubis. A more cleanly structured sequel might have allocated his story role – he gets irreparably attached to a bracelet that leads to the Scorpion King’s lair – to his mother Evelyn, which would have both removed the annoying child stereotype and given Rachel Weisz more material with which to work. That said, the character is still a painful irritant on the rest of the film. In the actor’s defence, he’s a far less risible than the typical kid sidekick in these sorts of films. Boath was nine when he shot The Mummy Returns, but his character can only be six given the timeline between first film and sequel.
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It should be noted that The Mummy Returns was Dwayne Johnson’s first significant dramatic role, following guest appearances on the TV shows The Net and Star Trek: Voyager, and his lack of experience at this early career stage is painfully clear.Ĭut to 1933 and the O’Connells are now married with a son named Alex (Freddy Boath). That’s the problem with deals with gods, I suppose there’s always the pesky fine print.
Once the Scorpion King succeeds in his invasion, his soul is taken by Anubis and the dog army dissolves to sand. A quick note to the writers: the evil god they were looked for was Set, not Anubis, and even then he was a god of chaos rather than evil. He tries to invade and fails miserably, and at the point of death while exiled to the desert he makes a bargain with Anubis to gain supernatural powers and control over a magical army of ferocious dog people. It begins by introducing a new villain, the Scorpion King, in ancient Egypt. The plot manages to be both overly complicated and weirdly arbitrary. Beyond this the film really is all over the place. The orchestral score – Alan Silvestri replaces Jerry Goldsmith – continues to emphasise a classically old-fashioned atmosphere of stirring adventure. Arnold Vosloo still gives the villainous Imhotep a strong, muscular edge.
Oded Fehr still infuses the Medjai swordsman Ardeth Bey with gravitas and dignity, and a neat underlying lightness. Brendan Fraser still plays his entertaining matinee idol role with warmth and humour. Many of the ingredients that made the 1999 film a delight are retained.
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It is also a textbook example of how to cripple a nascent movie franchise, a showcase of over-ambitious and woefully mishandled visual effects, an egregious abuse of popular Egyptian mythology, and more than anything else a stern lesson for Hollywood that rushing a film to meet a pre-determined release date will never end well. Ostensibly it is a 2001 sequel to the surprise 1999 hit The Mummy.
Hot in pursuit, Rick and Evelyn race to prevent Imhotep and his servants from reviving the dreaded Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson) and seizing control of the Army of Anubis. Seven years after defeating the mummy Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn O’Connell (Rachel Weisz) are dragged back into the action when forces working to resurrect Imhotep kidnap their six year-old son and take him to Egypt.