The Scorpion King (2002) Universal/Action-Adventure-Fantasy RT: 92 minutes Rated PG-13 (intense scenes of action violence and some sensuality) Director: Chuck Russell Screenplay: Stephen Sommers, William Osborne and David Hayter Music: John Debney Cinematography: John R. Leonetti Release date: April 19, 2002 (US) Cast: Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Kelly Hu, Steven Brand, Michael Clarke Duncan, Grant Heslov, Bernard Hill, Peter Facinelli, Ralf Moeller, Branscombe Richmond, Roger Rees, Sherri Howard, Conrad Roberts, Tutu Sweeney. Box Office: $91M (US)/$180.6M (World)
Rating: ***
The Scorpion King is a spin-off of The Mummy Returns. It takes place about 5000 years before the events of the Mummy movies. It follows the origin of the titular Scorpion King, Mathayus (WWE star Johnson), and his rise to power. Mathayus is one of the last of his people, the Akkadians. He’s just been hired by King Pheron (Rees, Cheers) to kill a sorcerer whose powers of sight allow the vicious Emperor Memnon (Brand) to remain in power.
Mathayus, along with his half-brother Jesup (Richmond, Hard to Kill) and a friend (Cueto, Fast Five), sneaks into Memnon’s camp only to discover the sorcerer is actually a sorceress named Cassandra (Hu, X2: X-Men United). He can’t bring himself to kill this beautiful woman. They’re subsequently captured by Memnon’s guards thanks to a tip-off from Pheron’s two-faced son Takmet (Facinelli, Twilight). Memnon has Mathayus’ companions killed, but is urged by Cassandra to spare his life because killing him would bring great misfortune to his kingdom. Instead, he has the Akkadian buried up to his neck in the desert sand where he will be eaten by red fire ants.
Buried next to him is horse thief Arpid (Heslov, True Lies). Together they manage to escape. Mathayus decides to return to Gomorrah and try again to kill Memnon. He fails again. Cassandra helps him escape from the wicked city. It’s obvious that Mathayus is going to need a lot of help if he wants to kill Memnon. After an encounter with some bandits, he meets up with Balthazar (Duncan, The Green Mile), the leader of an army of Memnon’s enemies. After an intense battle, they realize they’re on the same side and agree to team up to kill the evil emperor. Also along for the ride is a thieving little boy (Sweeney) who’s taken a liking to Mathayus and Philos (Hill, the Lord of the Rings trilogy), Memnon’s court magician/inventor who’s just perfected his explosive powder. It’s going to be quite a battle as Mathayus fights for the freedom of the terrified people living under Memnon’s iron fist.
In general, The Scorpion King is pretty good. It’s a sword-and-sorcery flick with fancy special effects. Johnson makes a decent action hero; his acting is pretty good for a professional wrestler. He actually has a measure of talent. Hu is positively beautiful and does a fine job as the sorceress Cassandra. What’s really good is that Cassandra is no dummy. Even though she’s been enslaved by Memnon since she was a child, she’s managed to prevent him from taking advantage of her. I won’t say how she does this, but it’s one of the smartest ruses I’ve ever seen. Duncan looks like he’s having a ball, especially in the scene where he disguises himself as a woman in order to sneak into Gomorrah. Brand and Facinelli are wonderfully evil in their roles. Heslov is perfect as the comic sidekick.
Of course, The Scorpion King is silly. It’s pure Saturday matinee hokum. Did you honestly expect anything more from it? You have to approach it with a certain frame of mind. You know it’s going to be 92 minutes of total nonsense. To his credit, director Chuck Russell (Eraser) makes it fun and campy. It’s difficult to dislike this movie too much. The action scenes are well choreographed; some of the sword fighting is awesome. The special effects are decent enough even though they’re CGI which takes some of the magic out of it. I know I’ve mentioned this before but a movie like this calls for cheesy special effects like the ones in 1982’s The Sword and the Sorcerer.
The Scorpion King is big-budget trash, a term I use in a complimentary sense. Even though it’s obvious money was spent on it ($60 million to be exact), it’s still a B-movie. It doesn’t try too hard to conceal it either. Seasoned moviegoers will know this going in, so their expectations won’t be too high. It has plentiful action and battle scenes, but isn’t long enough to wear out its welcome. I have only one real problem with The Scorpion King. We know how he became “The Scorpion King”; it has something to do with a scorpion venom-tipped arrow. But how did he go from hero to villain in The Mummy Returns? We’re left to surmise and theorize. I think a few words of explanation would be in order. Despite this narrative glitch, The Scorpion King is a reasonably entertaining matinee movie.
