{"id":4109,"date":"2024-09-18T20:35:30","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T20:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=4109"},"modified":"2024-10-12T20:43:56","modified_gmt":"2024-10-12T20:43:56","slug":"the-mummy-tomb-of-the-dragon-emperor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/18\/the-mummy-tomb-of-the-dragon-emperor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor<\/strong> (2008)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Fantasy-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (adventure action and violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Rob Cohen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Alfred Gough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Randy Edelman and John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Simon Duggan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 1, 2008 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Luke Ford, Isabella Leong, Michelle Yeoh, Liam Cunningham, Anthony Wong, Jessey Meng, Russell Wong, David Calder.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $102.4M (US)\/$401.1M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0The title The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor<\/strong> is a dead (or is it undead?) giveaway of what to expect from this third entry in the series that started in 1999 with a loose remake of the original 1932 film. It has a mummy, a tomb, a dragon and an emperor in it. It also has a terracotta army, an immortal sorceress, Yetis and a gem called \u201cThe Eye of Shangri-La\u201d that contains a liquid substance called \u201cThe Elixir of Life\u201d. Also, our intrepid heroes make a stopover in Shangri-La yet somehow never encounter Ronald Colman or Jane Wyatt from Lost Horizon. Given this movie\u2019s level of absurdity, I wouldn\u2019t have been at all surprised if they did.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I seem to recall not liking The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor<\/strong> when I saw it at the movies. I must have been in a bad mood that night. As such, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it on my second viewing this past weekend. Rob Cohen (The Fast and the Furious) takes over directing duties from Stephen Sommers and does a good job of it with this fast-paced, funny adventure flick. I swear, Cohen has a thing for dragons. His previous credits include the biopic Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (1993) and the sword-and-sorcery flick Dragonheart (1996). What\u2019s next, a remake of Dragonslayer?<\/p>\n

\u00a0While The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor<\/strong> is a big improvement over The Mummy Returns, it\u2019s just as silly and incoherent as the others. This time, the story opens in ancient China where a tyrannical warlord (Li, Lethal Weapon 4) becomes \u201cThe Dragon Emperor\u201d which gives him power over the five elements- fire, water, earth, wood and metal. I thought the last two were air and Milla Jovovich, but whatever. He also orders the construction of the Great Wall under which he buries and curses his enemies. This guy wants it all apparently; he summons the sorceress Zi Yuan (Yeoh, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon\u2026 hey, there\u2019s that mythical creature again!) to grant him immortality. She turns him into a mummy instead, imprisoning him in a sarcophagus in a tomb along with his entire army which she turns into terracotta. Why is she so pissed at him? He killed her secret lover General Ming (Wong, New Jack City) as revenge for her rejecting his advances.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now that was just the backstory. The main story takes place circa 1946-47. Rick (Fraser) and Evie O\u2019Connell (now played by Maria Bello) are retired from the mummy-killing game. She\u2019s written a couple of books about their adventures, but can\u2019t come up with a story for a third novel. He tries his hand at fishing, but that doesn\u2019t go so well. They\u2019re approached by the British government to smuggle the Eye of Shangri-La into China. Sure, why not? It\u2019ll give them an excuse to visit her brother Jonathan (Hannah) who now runs a nightclub in Shanghai.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, their now-grown son Alex (Ford, Animal Kingdom) is having an adventure of his own. Unbeknownst to his parents, he\u2019s dropped out of college to go on an archeological expedition with family friend, Professor Roger Wilson (Calder, The World Is Not Enough). They locate the tomb of the Dragon Emperor and\u2026.. you know what, let\u2019s just cut to the chase. The Dragon Emperor is reawakened and it\u2019s up to our heroes to stop him from taking over the world with his army of 10,000 spear-carrying soldiers made of terracotta. Somehow, this involves going to Shangri-La.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor<\/strong> is a fun Indiana Jones\/Army of Darkness type adventure in which the heroes explore tombs, survive deadly booby traps and face-off against a three-headed dragon. Apparently, the emperor can shapeshift and chooses the form of a three-headed CGI dragon. I could sit here and comment on the acting (which is pretty good for a movie like this), the screenplay (another confused mess) and the special effects (they\u2019re pretty good for CGI) but I\u2019m not going to waste your time on things that don\u2019t really matter. Such things are trivial and insignificant in a movie entitled The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What is important is whether or not it\u2019s fun. It is! It has a lot of action. It\u2019s funny, sometimes it\u2019s even intentional. It has romance too. Alex falls for Lin (Leong, Dragon Squad and Dragon Tiger Gate), daughter of Zi Yuan, also immortal. She doesn\u2019t want to start a relationship for the usual reasons- i.e. she doesn\u2019t want to watch him die. The sets and costumes are great. The only weak element is Bello who lacks the spunk originally brought to the role by Rachel Weisz who turned down the opportunity to reprise her role. Other than that, I really have nothing to complain about. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor<\/strong> is better than it has a right to be. It has the same fun spirit as a 1940s adventure serial. It never takes itself seriously, why should anybody else? It\u2019s just good dumb summer movie fun.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Fantasy-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 111 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (adventure action and violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Rob Cohen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Alfred Gough\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Randy Edelman and John Debney\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Simon Duggan\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: August 1, 2008 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Luke Ford, Isabella Leong, Michelle Yeoh, Liam […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/The-Mummy-Tomb-of-the-Drago.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5505,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4109\/revisions\/5505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}