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The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) More at IMDbPro »

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389 comments in total

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362 out of 528 people found the following comment useful :-
This Mummy should have stayed in his crypt., 1 July 2008

Author: kimgrear from East Longmeadow,MA

I was able to catch this movie at a test screening in California while i was on vacation and its not much of a film. Its the same story as the previous ones and most of the stuff in the movie were taken from them as well. I love Brendan Fraser but he didn't look happy to be there and with how the story was set up, you can't blame him for looking miserable. He has no chemistry with Maria Bello, who was just awful (She's no Rachel Weisz, that's for damn sure.) and he has even less chemistry with his own son played by Luke Ford, who has the charisma and the charm of a brick, not to mention the fact that he looks just as old as both Fraser and Bello. Fraser has more chemistry with John Hannah, who is a welcome distraction from the lousiness of the film. The movie itself is just a flat headed mess of bad visual effects with no soul. Jet Li lacks the menacing presence of Arnold Vosloo from the previous films but that problem is more than less on the shoulders of the director, who was in my opinion more concern with the style of the film than any substance it could have had and because of that, Jet Li and most of the cast got the short end of the stick and it shows.

They should have ended it with the second film but instead, we have a movie that manages to make even "The Scorpion King" look as good as Iron Man.

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322 out of 469 people found the following comment useful :-
oh, my Lord, 6 August 2008

Author: tweetsie from United States

My 11 year old son dragged us to see this. I don't spend as much time with the kid as I ought to. So, I happily paid the $40 for admission and gold-plated popcorn bucket. I didn't know Rachael W. wasn't in this one, and I can now say she rocks. Looks, talent, AND brains to avoid a celluloid crap-fest when she sees it. Anyway:

15 minutes into the film, the kid turns to me and says "I'm sorry I made you see this". I say "Oh, it's okay. We're at the movies together, having fun!"; he didn't believe my acting any more than he did that awful woman who's trying her best, apparently, to fake 3 different English accents (or was one of them Australian) and pretend she's enjoying being on screen in this TURD.

30 minutes into the film: I'm wishing I had a cellphone, so I could call in a bomb threat and get the theater emptied.

45 minutes into the film: I go to the bathroom. Theatre-hop into the middle of Mamma Mia. No kidding. Stay there for about 5 minutes (during the "Does Your Mama Know" number. Seen it twice; love it.

60 minutes into the film: Discover the kid has fallen asleep. We're at a 5 pm showing, by the way.

75 minutes into the film: I have the worst luck in theatres; if there's a crying baby, his parents will sit immediately behind me. If there's a person whose hearing was damaged by too much disco, he'll sit beside me and shout questions at his wife or boyfriend through the whole thing. You know; things like this have made me spend the money and buy a home theater with 9' screen. I still love going to the theater, however. Anyway, when the 4 year old that sits near us starts talking in his "outside voice" to his obviously deaf Grandma and Pa (or is it Great-Grandma and Pa), instead of yelling "Shut UP!" like I normally do, I start listening to HIM; it's actually more entertaining.

90-something minutes into the film: Now, I'm no longer wishing for the cellphone and have gone straight to wishing I had an actual bomb, so I could get the theater emptied out.

The End of the Film: the bedraggled audience weakly applauds the fact that it's over. No kidding. I hear people leaving, saying things like "maybe we can get our money back", and "That SUCKED". I've never heard things like that on exit from a movie like this before, and I see a LOT of movies. The kid apologizes again. I say "You OWE me. Big Time." He says "I'm soooo sorry this sucked so bad".

Did you get that, moviemaker sellouts? An 11 year old kid! Loves Star Wars, James Bond, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE. And your movie is SO bad, he feels GUILTY about me spending our money to see it! Where can I send this bill I've created for having my intelligence insulted by Mario Bello, a beautiful woman who's apparently never even HEARD of England? Maybe it's not her fault. Maybe her family has B-S'd her all her life, telling her how she sounds "just like those Harry Potter movies" or something. Pathetic is not a word that comes close. I'll have to create a new one: Skantasticalistically Snarxious. Trust me. Burn your money. Don't even go to it thinking you'll be able to make fun of it, like Rocky Horror. Let's all pitch in and bury this deep, like you're supposed to do with rotting corpses.

Geez. BTW< I would not suggest calling in a bomb threat. Nope, never do THAT. It's bad. And stay in school. Drugs are for losers. Vote. Tip your waiters.

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404 out of 637 people found the following comment useful :-
Terrible..., 20 July 2008

Author: AJ_is_Awesomness from United Kingdom

A true honest review? Some true honest advice? Don't waste your time on this, its terrible.

I am a true fan of the original. I like the way it was weaved together with interesting characters, hammy dialogue and breath taking action sequences not to mention a beautiful location and some great plot devices. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiz lit up the screen with his charisma and her likability factor. They made a good screen presence and carried the story along until its fantastic action packed finale. I also like the way the producers mixed up the scenes, to spoon out not only violent and eerie scenes involving the main villain himself but to water it down to family standards with John Hannah's comical brother. It was a film of epic proportions. A fun story, likable characters and good use of live action and cgi, for the most part. Then about 2 years later Universal ran out of idea's and so decided to return to the bandwagon to churn out another cash cow sequel. 'The Mummy Returns' was released and whilst not as good as the original at least had the decency to be spectacular enough for the risibility. Fraser and Weiz returned (having made an offspring) and warbled, walloped and crashed through the bustling busy streets in a less than original screenplay but at least maintained their charm and kept the spark glowing from the first film. It was a likable sequel, and whilst no where near as good as its ancestor still managed to be entertaining.

So here we are folks. 2008 and yet again we are re-visiting a tired series. The next gruesome threesome to bring home to Hollywood is not only the worst of the Mummy films, but quite possibly the worst sequel of the year to date. Its so bad in fact that even Rachel Weiz turned it down, but its not surprising having listened to some of the laughably dire dialogue churned out here. I bet she took one look at the script and threw it in the trash can. The story goes something like this... Brendan Fraser (back as Rick O'Connell) his wife Maria Bello (yes they replaced her with someone with half as much talent) her brother John Hannah (what is he doing in this?)and their son Luke Ford (who has now aged by about 20 years) are somehow prancing around in their ordinary lives (in the Far East?) but suddenly the son awakens an evil Mummy Emperor (because hey thats what your bound to do in a movie like this) who wants to use his army of the undead to take over the world and get revenge on the sorceress who put him to sleep so many years ago. The only people who can stop him are the O'Connels who crash and bang through armies of stone beasts, supernatural winds and all sorts of other unoriginal menaces. Of course the showdown at the end will result in global domination or ultimate Savior. But by that time, you just wont care.

So.. why do I hate this one? when when one of the main stars from the original backs down and bails out and when the other looks bored throughout the whole darn thing you know you have a problem on your hands. And its sad because Brendan Fraser makes it blatantly obvious how unhappy he is reprising the role without Weiz by his side. He is never able to connect with Bello who tries to be chirpy but comes off looking rather ridiculous as the smart girl. And there we have another problem. Bello just cannot squeeze into Weiz's cleverly filled shoes. Its embarrassing to watch her warble on and you can really tell she felt uncomfortable trying to live up to the characters standards. The same can be said for Luke Ford, who makes a very unconvincing action hero-sidekick next to Fraser. Again they have no spark or connection what so ever. It feels like a cheap decision casting Ford because he never really brings any emotion, good or bad to the screen. The exception here is Jet Li, who whilst is not as menacing as Arnold Vosloo (the original mummy) still pulls off a good dark role. Its fresh seeing him portraying an evil character and it pays off when he is actually on screen. However his presence is short lived and at times feels like a guest appearance. And of course John Hannah who never disappoints and steals the show altogether with his one liners and witty charm. He almost makes this passable. Almost.

The movie deserves another good kick in, this time for its overly used CGI action sequences which feel cheap, tacky and unoriginal. Imagine a Roger Corman flick added into a Uwe Boll video game adaptation and your halfway there. The sets are nice to look at, but the CGI is really distracting and you can tell they did things all by computers. The character development is replaced with an endless array of pointless battle sequences. Pointless !

Its also really degrading seeing our much loved characters from the first movies spout lines of almost ridicule. Brendan Fraser cringes as he reads his lines (is he auditioning for the high school play?)and like I said Bello looks uncomfortable. Even Hannah looks bored and whilst trying to rescue this epic failure always looks like he wants to be doing better things. Like the ironing for example.

There is just so much to bash this movie about. Its an obvious cash in, but even fails at being entertaining. It doesn't live up to the first or even the second. It is boring, confusing and the characters are bland. The action is over the top and don't get me started on the screenplay. Its just an all round failure and should be buried in the Tomb of the title, never to be re-awakened.

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179 out of 239 people found the following comment useful :-
Now, I Really Missed Rachel Weisz In This One!, 31 July 2008

Author: 3xHCCH from Quezon City, Philippines

I really like the Mummy series for its epic action, sense of humor and great special effects. I was very excited when I started seeing teasers for this sequel to be shown in July, mostly because it was quite unexpected.

This movie has all the required elements of epic action, sense of humor and great special effects. Of course there is still the swashbuckling hero Rick O'Connell played in grand style by Brendan Fraser. He undoubtedly has this action-comedy genre sewn up right in his alley. John Hannah is still around playing his brother-in-law, Jonathan, in his old annoying manner.

For the new stuff, the setting shift to China as the titular "Mummy" now refers to an ancient Chinese emperor who desired immortality, played by Jet Li (who really personified his anti-hero role with relish here). The emperor sought the help of a "witch" (played with much bravado by Michelle Yeoh), with whom he gets attracted to. However, the witch fell in love with his main general (played by Russell Wong, whom you'd wonder why he isn't getting more breaks in Hollywood). From hence starts the conflict and the resultant curse on which the movie stands.

The requisite martial arts you would expect in a movie set in China are of course in full play. Very well choreographed, especially that thrilling sword fight between Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh. The exciting action sequences inside the booby-trapped lost tomb, the truck and chariot (!) chase in the streets of Shanghai and the final fight sequence with the "Mummy" are all executed very well as in the two previous installments.

But then there are the drawbacks that for me pulls this one down to a five star rating. The quality of the spoken Mandarin is at times unintelligible. However, the major beef involves what for me are severely miscast actors.

The actor who plays the now college-aged son of the O'Connells, Alex, looks too mature to be the son of Brendan Fraser. I just checked to see that the actor Luke Ford was born in 1981, but he looked older than that, so it was a bit of a stretch to believe that he is Brendan's son. Furthermore, he also does not act like a son, but more like Brendan's younger brother.

But the worst and damaging mistake was the decision to cast Maria Bello in the beloved role of Evelyn O'Connell, which is wholly owned by the more beautiful and credible Rachel Weisz. I felt absolutely NO chemistry between her and Brendan. Her acting was also quite wretched when compared to Ms. Weisz, who was able to maintain her intellectuality, demureness and gentility on top of her topnotch fighting skills. Ms. Bello fails miserably in this regard to recapture the unique character of Evie we have loved before, in my opinion.

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253 out of 438 people found the following comment useful :-
Terrible cash in by all involved., 17 July 2008

Author: coolkeoo from United States

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.

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106 out of 152 people found the following comment useful :-
Failing in more ways that one..., 2 August 2008

Author: Hammad Haqqani from Pakistan

The first few minutes of the movie start out well enough but it all goes downhill from there. The story seems like a jumbled up mess of ideas that are poorly executed. The dialog in this movie is so horrible at times that one actually feels physical pain just listening to it.

The Acting was nothing to write home about but most of the time it wasn't even really the fault of the actors. Some of the lines that they had to deliver were so bad that it wouldn't matter how they were pulled off. The absence of rachel weisz and oded fehr only hurt the movie more. Maria Bello did well during action scenes but when it came to anything else she fell flat.

The special effects in this movie were good but that wasn't enough to carry the film. The final battle was a complete bust, there was no idea of scale of feeling that the world was in danger, in fact there was no feeling that anyone was in danger since it was undead soldiers vs undead soldiers (as seen in the trailer) so neither side needs to worry about dieing.

It's sad that this movie was so horrible since the previous two installments were quite decent.

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102 out of 145 people found the following comment useful :-
Very Unnecessary, 2 August 2008

Author: ClaSSics-critic from United States

Having seen the first two, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, I was looking forward to this movie. However, as the credits started to roll and people wandered out of the theater, I left with a half empty bucket of popcorn and a strong feeling of disappointment. This time around the O' Connell bunch, are fighting the Dragon Emperor (a very wasted casting of Jet Li)and his legion of undead soldiers, however there is none of the excitement in the story, if you have seen the trailer you have basically seen the movie, all the goofy humor in the first 2 movies is gone, the jokes can all be found in the trailer, the screenplay and writing and such have an extreme feel of laziness to it, and recasting Evie isn't a huge issue in comparison to replacing Freddie Boath with Luke Ford as Alex O'Connell which is just extremely bizarre, Freddie Boath is 17 and Brendan Fraser is 39, Luke Ford is 27, do the math. Overall the movie was just unnecessary, not even coming close to just your typical summer popcorn flick that the first two were

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80 out of 113 people found the following comment useful :-
Sadly disappointing, 4 August 2008

Author: Kristine (kristinedrama14@msn.com) from Chicago, Illinois

I do have a question, what ever happened to the slow walking lame Egyptian mummies? I mean, as silly as they are, they're still entertaining. Now we have The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, I loved The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, it was watchable, but this one was just an excuse to make some quick cash. I was actually looking forward to seeing this movie, I got the opportunity to see it today, I was excited, but unfortunately, we now have Chinese mummies that can do anything that will fit into the CGI budget. Another disappointment was the recasting of Evelyn, I know Rachel Weisz turned this script down, but she was seriously needed, Maria Bella, who is a decent actress, actually made Evie a very flat character and not as enjoyable. Then not only that, but we have Brendan and Maria who do look incredibly good for their age, they have a 20 year old son in the movie? This story was a waste of time and money.

The Emperor of China wanted to rule the entire world, but when a Chinese witch curses him and his army, he is put to sleep for thousands of years. Rick and Evie are now retired and have lost the spark in their relationship, but when they are asked to go to Shanghai to deliver a small little ball, they bump into their son who has discovered the Emperor. Rick and Evie are forced to wake the mummy by his followers. Now the whole family with Jonathan and the protector who was supposed to keep the emperor from rising, must destroy the Emperor or he will take over the entire world.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor has some OK moments, I loved the beginning story and the ending battle scene is held pretty strong, it's worth the look for that, but I would say this is more of a rental. It's just a sad disappointment, considering how much better it could have been. The one liners were too cheesy and we have three headed dragons, karate kicking abdominal snow men, why not just go all the way and have leprechauns with machine guns? That's how out of control the CGI effects are. Luke Ford makes Brandon Fraiser look like Marlon Brando with his acting and the love story between him and the protector girl was useless. Like I said, wait for the rental, not the worst movie of this year, but a huge let down for sure.

5/10

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87 out of 130 people found the following comment useful :-
Curse of the trilogy, 2 August 2008

Author: Fever from St. Louis

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.

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132 out of 229 people found the following comment useful :-
Mummy 3 is terrible, 3 August 2008

Author: DarkKnight35 from United States

I was really disappointed by this movie. Seeing as I really enjoyed the first two Mummy movies, I thought that this one would be decent at least. Anyway, let me explain why I thought this movie was terrible. This movie is nothing like previous Mummy films. At least the first Mummy, which was excellent because it combined drama with comedy successfully and had a good storyline. This one does a horrible job of combining drama with comedy. Whenever the Mummy 3 tries to be funny, which is most of the time(there is a bad joke every 30 seconds), it fails miserably, you end up trying to figure out a reason to laugh but can't find one. Another thing was that the story was terrible, it felt boring and that it had no point(at one point in the movie I almost fell asleep from boredom). The action and effects are no good either. The creatures all look fake and are not convincing. The one thing that made me laugh was how fake the effects were. In my opinion, I think that the studio wanted to make big money and decided that a lot of people would go see this movie out of curiostiy based on the success of the first two. Then pulled a story out of nowhere and made this catastrophe. All in all a disappointing movie that is only successful in boring its audience trying to be funny. The only funny thing is how bad this movie is.

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