The Fast, The Furious and The Mummy

Thats what Rob should have named the latest in The Mummy series. With all those chases, races, drivebys and the relentless pace, I assume he must have still been in The Fast and The Furious mood that he'd directed a while ago. The Mummy: Tomb of The Dragon Emperor. I had'nt the slightest idea what this was going to be about. Mummies from Africa, Dragons from China, and a potpourri cast.

I was wondering what Mummies have got to do with dragons. With the wierdest, wildest and funniest imagination that Im gifted with, I was expecting something like 'Aliens vs Predators', where there'd be a battle between Mummies (from The Mummy series) and Dragons (from 'Dungeons n Dragons' or any of those millions of Dragon movies). Other assumptions ranged from Dragons flying all the way to Egypt, to Mummie Zombies 'jay walking' all the way to China. But it wasn't quite that. I would'nt tell you what the movie is about, because you obviously hate spoilers.

I don't want to be judgemental about how good the movie is, but I'd let you know that I enjoyed watching it quite a bit, though my mates considered it crap, boring and a stereotypical Mummy movie. I don't agree except to the last part, that it was a cliched Mummy movie, because all the Mummy movies were about waking up a Mummy, having some action and then putting him back to sleep, and so was this one. But then again, I would say the whole Mummy series and a whole lot of other movies are labored under the shadow of Indiana Jones.
Also, 'Iam Legend' was an overused Zombie movie, and 'Wanted' was yet another Assasin movie.

The cast was big with Brendan and John Hannah as always, Maria Bello replacing Rachel Weiz, while Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh added a little more glamor. I personally like Yeoh, though I don't fancy Chinese(all east asian) women. But I do feel that she was better off as a bond-girl and as Silver Hawk, rather than as a middle aged witch living by the mountains, casting spells. Jet Li looked quite good though he's gotten old and fat; thanks to his highly imposive Chinese-Warrior costume which managed to conceal most of his unburnt calories.

It is not very illogical as some people consider, about a Mummy movie set in an oriental backdrop; unless you don't buy the explanation that its just a coincidence that wherever the O'Connell couple go, they keep waking up pre-historical characters that were once cursed to damnation. The idea of using "terracotta soldiers" to replace the mummies of the original series was very clever indeed.

I was particularly happy when the Yetis came on screen. As a kid, I've read about them a lot in books(TinTin in Tibet being the 1st one), and have seen only a few imaginary pictures as described by Himalayan Sherpas, which made me excited to see an animated Yeti for the first time. For those who don't know, Yetis are these hairy neanderthalish, monkeyish kind of guys, who're supposedly friendly to humans and are considered as "the missing link in the chain of human evolution" by some people(these people are usually put off as time-wasters only next to Ufologists and Conspiracy theorists). Another good thing about the movie was that I got to know what "Shangri La" actually means, which I'd wondered every time I ate Chicken Shangri-la or Mushroom Shangri-la.

I would've rated the movie as below average, but because of the cast, and because I din't feel very bored watching it, I'd promote it to being average. It's worth the time, because it's not very long, it has quite some humor, and impressive special effects. I won't say that it's worth the money unless you take your NUS card along and get a discount and free popcorn.