In recent notices, there has been a severe backlash against the newest installment of the new MUMMY franchise, THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR. But let’s get one thing straight: this movie succeeds where the new Indiana Jones film failed on nearly every level. Certainly, producer Stephen Sommers has been remaking RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK since the first MUMMY film in 1999 – he did so again with THE MUMMY RETURNS and again with VAN HELSING.
And, yes, this movie owes a great deal to the scope and breadth of the original RAIDERS. But where the new Indy film got caught up in nostalgia for its own past successes and delivered a stale reason for being, DRAGON EMPEROR at least delivers two hours of diverting if illogical entertainment in an otherworldly setting, papered with involving scenarios – none of which came through whatever in INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL.
Perhaps better than in any of his other directorial efforts, director Rob Cohen lends his surehanded moviemaking approach to DRAGON EMPEROR, giving us a scope to these types of films unseen since, well, the early 1980s in the first two Indy films. Bringing Cohen’s love of all things China to the proceedings is a great idea though any connection to the first two mummy films makes little sense when contemplated below the surface. We are also reminded of CROUCHING TIGER – HIDDEN DRAGON in several moments, and why not? That film was perhaps the most successful crossover of Chinese themes in a picture that played in the U.S. As pure adventure, the DRAGON EMPEROR concept works well and gives our heroes a reason to traverse the globe on a new mission.
Surely, as those heroes, Brendan Fraser is back as Rick O’Connell, but for some unknown reason, Mario Bello has replaced Rachel Weisz as his wife Eve. We have other travel companions in for the ride, including John Hannah again as the comic relief-plagued uncle Jonathan and Luke Ford as the O’Connell’s son Alex – who, it should be stated, makes for a more interesting and likeable character than Indiana Jones’ son in the new Indy film.
Into this fray comes Jet Li, out of retirement for this stint as a sinister cursed Chinese emperor from 50BC who has been watched over in a retirement of his own along with his entire terracotta army by Michelle Yeoh’s Zi Juan – and her daughter, the stunning Isabella Leong as Lin - who have kept the emperor from coming back to life for some 2000 years (the story is set just after WWII). Li is onscreen at the beginning and end of the film as himself, but through the middle third, his embodiment is an inventive mixture of visual effects technologies that involves his having different supernatural powers based on earth’s essential elements.
Once one suspends his/her disbelief and settles in for the prologue and setup, DRAGON EMPEROR becomes a fun ride, and Cohen provides numerous chases, locations, and creatures to make the experience thoroughly enjoyable (was it me or was that a cameo for Toho Studios’ Ghidrah?). As in most films of the past 15 years, the computer-generated imagery hits and misses. Some of its notable hits are an extensive avalanche sequence, where its misses are (as usually occurs) with its fantasy characters which might have otherwise worked with practical makeup effects and animatronics. But DRAGON EMPEROR delivers plenty on spectacle and gets top marks for its production design and bold use of Chinese locations where the filmmaking reads through amazingly well.
Where the film falls short and is worthy of the critical scorn that it has received is in its smart-alecky dialogue, ostensibly by the screenwriting team of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (TV’s SMALLVILLE). Perhaps they were trying to emulate Stephen Sommers’ earlier MUMMY scripts – likely aimed at 12-year-old boys – or perhaps they were led in their direction by the powers that be. Regardless, their one-liners are routinely inopportune at best, and many of their transitional elements defy even the most threadbare logic. Whether they as the credited writers were the only ones on the project is unclear, but their script nearly kills the fun.
If not for Cohen’s clear love for his setting, the film’s ambitious and photorealistic vistas, and a riveting score from Randy Edelman, the film might have fallen flat.. In terms of writing alone, DRAGON EMPEROR recalls the dreadful writing in 1998’s MIGHTY JOE YOUNG and 2001’s PLANET OF THE APES, both re-written by the team of Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. And just who started this trend of self-references and one-line quips in genre movies? Memo to filmmaking establishment: this type of writing is destroying, not enhancing science fiction, fantasy, and horror cinema.
Nonetheless, if you as an audience are able to forgive lapses in storytelling logic, moments of truly painful dialogue, and the series’ neverending homage to Lucas and Spielberg’s first collaborations, you might yet take in the new MUMMY film over the new Indy film. Or better yet, see both and compare them on every cinematic level.
By Scott Essman
