Click Here to Read the Theatrical Review!

The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Movie Grade: C-

DVD Features Grade: C

Overall Grade: C

Where to begin on this one? It's been a while since The Mummy made regular appearances in the VCR in my living room way back in the 90's. There are a lot of nostalgic memories I associate with that movie. It was a fun adventure movie for kids that were coated with mild grittiness that made it cool for pre-teen boys who didn't want to watch kids' movies anymore. The Mummy Returns gave us more of the same, as most mediocre sequels do; nothing too special, but nothing worth complaining about if memory serves. Now we find ourselves at The Mummy and the Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It seems that now is the time to start complaining.

We start off way back in Ancient China, where The Dragon Emperor, Emperor Han (Jet Li) is playing the usual "evil tyrant" card and ordering the construction of The Great Wall and ordering the sorceress Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh) to search for the secret to immortality. Zi and Han's right-hand man General Ming (Russell Wong) eventually fall in love and Han has him killed just after the spell is cast on him. What Han didn't realize is that Zi actually cursed him. He then turns into what looks like a chocolate shake and gets set on fire. After that the same happens to all of his men and they eventually become clay for some reason.

Now it is 1946 and we see the retired Rick and Evelyn O'Connell (Brendan Fraser & Maria Bello) who have retired from the field of espionage. There son Alex (Luke Fordis on an archeological dig in China of the Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Well one thing leads to another and The O'Connells and Jonathan Carnahan (John Hannah) are all back together again and are forced to raise Han and his army. Through this mummy adventure, the Rick and Evelyn put the spark back in their marriage, they both develop a better relationship with Alex, Alex finds love, and Jonathan still remains the fifth wheel. After three movies one would think he would find someone on one of these trips, but no.

This installment has most of the warning signs of a bad sequel right in the trailer. The two biggest are probably dramatic change in scenery and replacement of a major character. We've moved from Egypt to China, as made incredibly obvious by everything prior to this and even the title. The most annoying thing about this is if these villains should really be considered mummies. According to Dictionary.com a mummy is defined as, "the dead body of a human being or animal preserved by the ancient Egyptian process or some similar method of embalming." Sorry to get technical with this but it

has been bothering me. So there you have it, they are not actually mummies because nowhere in that definition did it mention a sorcerers curse.

Now that that's out of the way, where is Rachel Weisz? For those who don't know, she played Evelyn in the first two, vastly superior films. When an actress is too good to be in a movie, but not too good to be in Definitely Maybe, or Fred Claus, that should be a bold warning sign. She isn't the best actress by any regard, but her being replaced took a small piece of my childhood and destroyed it worse than Brendan Fraser's recent career.

Fans of the film seem to have gotten shafted out of special features because on the two-disc set, there wasn't much they were offering. The Making of"¦ was just the usual stuff that you will see on any ordinary DVD, and is mostly covered by the other segments on the DVD. From City to Desert covers how they created the setting of the film. It for some reason make a big deal about them filming China, claiming it "breaks new ground." It is hard to say how that is ground breaking except that it is an American movie, but China has a great deal of movies filmed there so it is confusing. Besides, most of the movie was filmed in Montréal.

Legacy of Terra Cotta sets out to say that the film was built upon historical ideas and tries to be true to ancient Chinese culture. This si true to a point, but right about when the abominable snowmen come out is where I feel they lost all of that. It is an adventure movie involving the supernatural, so it's fine to have that involved. It just seems wrong to call it accurate. A Call to Action: The Casting Process was just a little rundown of who they chose and why. My biggest gripe with it was that they didn't mention why Rachel Weisz wouldn't return, and that they attempted to make it seem like her replacement filled her shoes.

Overall, The Mummy franchise was never the most promising thing to begin with. The original was a fun and cheeky adventure that was good enough for kids because there weren't going to be any more Indiana Jones movies (at least there shouldn't have been). The problem is, when a so-so movie gets overly popular the sequels are just bound to get worse. The Mummy Returns was alright, but now that we are up to part three, it is just replaying the first two movies. That might have been the point, but if someone has seen the other two, this one won't bring anything new to the table.

Movie Grade: C-

DVD Features Grade: C

Overall Grade: C