The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)

First, Brendan Fraser is an actor who I really enjoy watching no matter what he's in. Second, I was hoping he would do another mummy movie - I like him in these campy action movies so I was looking forward to this movie. Now I wish he had turned this one down as Rachel did, I wouldn't have wasted my money. And I have a high tolerance for so-so movies. I felt so bad for Fraser, he was trying - but you can only do so much with a crappy script and poor direction.

Pros: Very good special effects. Jet-Li, Yeoh had good fight scenes.

Cons: Forced dialogue, Maria Bello trying too hard, No chemistry between Fraser-Bello-Ford (the son). Music either too much or just not a good fit, I found it overwhelming the scenes at times.

Everything comes across as trying too hard. I miss the Sommers touch. I just didn't have any fun this time. Seriuosly, wait for it to come to cable.

Fmovies: I want to say up front that I loved the first two Mummy movies, so I am not a hater of this franchise. They were campy, very tongue-in-cheek, and there was this wonderful rapport between the actors which came out in their performances. I went into this one with some trepidation because much of the main cast of the first two films would not be in it (Rachel Weisz, Arnold Vosloo, Patricia Velasquez and Oded Fehr), but I figured, well, the first two were great (or at least a lot of fun), so how bad could this one be?

Oh. My. God.!!! I am not exaggerating when I say that the best part of the movie was the Chinese-writing animation of the closing credits. Five minutes into the film I was cringingly embarrassed for the actors, and it only got worse. The only actor whose performance didn't suck a dead dog's butt was Jet Li, but only just -- he basically spent the whole movie yelling, killing people, and looking extremely cheesed off. There was no connection between his character and the audience. I mean, Imhotep (in the first two films) did evil things, but he had this romantic tragedy thing going on because he was in love with Anck Su Namun, and you could see some reason for his actions and you could even maybe sympathize with him a little bit (particularly at the end of "The Mummy Returns" when he realized that Anck Su Namun didn't really love him -- at least, not like Evie loved Rick -- and it had all been for nothing). He had a human quality, I guess. The Dragon Emperor, not so much. As far as anyone could tell, he was just a megalomaniacal twit with a world-domination complex -- there were no redeeming features in his character -- it was just a cardboard cutout of "evil." The only thing I have to say about the mother/daughter immortal protectors team is that even put together, they're no Ardeth Bay. Maria Bello was horribly miscast as Evie O'Connell. Her performance seemed clingy and desperate (not just Evie being clingy and desperate, but herself, Maria, the "actress"). Luke Ford was a huge waste of space -- I never thought I'd see an "actor" who was worse at acting than Keanu Reeves, but Keanu Reeves is a great Shakespearean compared to Luke Ford. I echo another reviewer's comment in saying why didn't they just keep Freddie Boath? He's about the right age and he was actually funny in The Mummy Returns. Of course, it's probably better for his career that he *didn't* appear in this piece of trash (ditto Rachel Weisz, et al.) -- kudos to their agents for keeping them out of it. Brendan Fraser, whose performances I really enjoyed in the first two movies (although a great actor he is not), seemed like he was tired of the whole thing -- monumentally bored and just milking the franchise for another paycheck (I know that's a horrible thing to say, but I can't imagine why else the egregious performance -- I mean, you can only blame so much of it on the rotten script). John Hannah (another actor whom I usually really like) ditto. To paraphrase Mark Twain (from "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"): the film-maker should make the viewer feel a deep interest in the people in the film and in their fate; he should make the viewer love the good people and hate the bad ones. But the viewer of "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" dislikes the good people in it, is indifferent to the others, and wishes they would all get drowned together.

There was nothing even remotely funny about this movie -- the "jokes"

After watching 'Mummy 3', watch 'The Mummy', and you will quickly see the vast difference in the two.

There are many elements that made the Mummy 3 a horrible edition to the Mummy series. Yes, the disappearance of Rachel was disappointing, but her presence wouldn't be enough to save this film from it's ultimate demise. Even Brendan Fraiser's character lost the edge many grew to love in the first two. The idea of the Terra-cotta was interesting, but not for this series. The story was poorly executed and almost over shadowed by the even more terrible "romances" between Luke, Lin, and the O'Connells.

The random dialogue and forced chemistry was enough to make you sick. There was very little going for this movie, and I'm disappointed in this series being handed over to Rob Cohen. This was nothing short of a botched boob job.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor fmovies. I was able to see this film about a month ago in a preview screening and to put it in kind words, its terrible. Jet Li is about the only good thing about the film but he's hardly in it. Brendan Fraser was phoning in his performance and looked if he was waiting from a call from his agent to get him out of the movie. Maria Bello looked goofy and miscast and the actor who plays their son makes Hayden Christensen from the Star Wars films look like an Oscar winner. John Hannah manages to bring some laughs to the table but his stick is not as fresh as it was before and Michelle Yeoh does not really do much with her role. This movie lacks the creepiness of the first two Mummy movies and the stone warriors of this movie don't hold a candle to the ghouls of the first two films at all. Not to mention the fact that the visual effects in this film look even worse than the second film(The Mummy Returns). The film itself seemed toned down in the fun and thrills department and just feels tired in certain scenes not to mention the dialogue, which seems like it was written by a five year old. This film seemed like a quick payday from all involved and sadly with the little effort spent in giving the audience something to root for and care for, its just feels like no one even cared about what they were making.

This is probably one of the worst films I've seen in my life, and I don't tend to toss around accusations like that lightly, but this third installment of The Mummy series initiated back in 1999 deserves such dishonor, cause it's such a bad example of film making, it borders on offensive.

I'm a guy with simple tastes, I'm not one of those people who think cinema begins and ends with Bergman and Goddard, I actually enjoyed the previous Mummy pictures, even the second one, which I know was cheesy as hell, but like film critic Michael Phillips said about cheesy movies, a movie sometimes is just "10.000 pounds of cheese on a cracker, but sometimes, I'm exactly in the mood for 10.000 pounds of cheese on a cracker." But The Mummy: Tomb of Dragon Emperor is, at best, feces on a cracker, the cracker being the amazing trailer of Quantum of Solace before the movie, probably the highlight of the experience.

I won't go into any details regarding the plot, cause, well, the plot is pretty much explained fully on the trailer. We pick up with the O'Connell's, retired and bored as well, just as I was while watching the movie. They get at again to stop the evil Mummy of the Emperor Han from taking over the world...how original, when will these Mummies just wanna lay back and enjoy the comforts of the modern age. I'd love to see a movie about an ancient Mummy , brought back from the dead, only to be flabbergasted by the technology of the present, and lay around drinking beer, watching TV, and getting fat with McDonald's. That would be more fun that all that this movie had to offer.

All of the actors were there for their paychecks, Brendan Fraser has never been more boring. John Hannah was also incredibly stupid, and the jokes they wrote for him were not funny at all, some are even distasteful. Luke Ford, playing Rick's son, not only looks like two minutes younger than him, but less charm than R2-D2, Michelle Yeoh is wasted, Jet Li doesn't have the Mummy gravitas that Arnold Voosloo had, and finally, Maria Bello; filling in for Rachel Weisz, who had the good common sense to stay away from this dregs, she is horrible, she looks so concern with her fake Posh accent, which she got wrong anyhow, so, at the end, we are left with nothing in the acting department.

Rob Cohen, man, is he getting worse and worse, when you though Stealth was really the lowest a director could get, he managed to enlighten us with an even lower level of mediocre work. He has never been an interesting director, and his campy style has butchered many movies that looked interesting, if only for entertaining purposes, like Dragonheart and Daylight, but you would expect at least, with all that money spend on these summer movies, to have something to show for. But no, no, no, everything looks poor, the action sequences are dull as hell. To prove my point, this will probably be the only movie where a sword fight with Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li lasts about 20 seconds, and it's all in slow motion. If a director cannot make a sword fight between those two modern icons of martial arts films, he should really think about retiring for good.

The story is stock, which is to be expected from a B movie of this sort, but like Raiders of the Lost Ark proved, even B movies can be Oscar Hopefuls, but there was no attempt at all with this one. The pacing of the story is terrible, the special effects are sub par, and at the end, you are left with a 2 hour yawn fest, to which you would fall to sleep

Like so many great movies that became dragged-out trilogies, the newest Mummy falls right in. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved the first movie. But like so many sequels, this story line becomes repetitive. The first rule of sequels is to keep the cast. Rachel and Brendan and an amazing chemistry, but Maria Bello was abysmal as the new Evelyn. Her fake British accent and melodramatic acting was inexcusable. The sets looked like they were built by 3rd graders, the effects were overwhelming, the scenes were disjointed and the cheesy one-liners got old fast. Sure, Brendan Fraser still looks hot in a tux, but he still looks 35 even though his son is in his young 20s. Overall, I was terribly disappointed. I wouldn't even bother seeing it in theaters...and please tell me this series is finally over.