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Author Topic: The Mummy : Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor
Demetris Thoupis
Phenomenal Film Handler

Posts: 1240
From: Aradippou, Larnaca, Cyprus
Registered: Apr 2001


 - posted 08-18-2008 03:54 AM      Profile for Demetris Thoupis   Email Demetris Thoupis   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Watched this at Leicester Square last week when I was in London. Boy did this movie suck!! What a poor way to actually put another film in the series. I guess people do not have anything better to do and think "well lets do another Mummy sequel and don't care about the script. Our actors will improvise.. Actors?? Who need actors who can act?"

Acting really sucked big time. Not even Michele Yeoh or Jet Lee was good. The film really got more and more boring. Raise another Mummy blah blah blah blah blah forever and blah blah blah and snow and blah blah blah and desert and blah blah. I did not enjoy it at all. There are some small moments where I remember having a smirk on my face in the great despair of trying to laugh but unfortunately couldn't. Brendan Fraser actually seems like he is being tortured into doing this. Rachel Weisz did not even bother attending the shooting so they replaced her with another. Oh and yeah, the son actually grew up about 20 years more and the parents still look the same! I did not enjoy it. Oh and one think which really took me off even before the movie started was the fact that I was watching in in Dolby Digital Cinema! And yes the image did look aweful. For people who might watch it in Digital (although not recommending it) check out he white smoke at the beginning of the movie when a general rides pass a gate. The white smoke really is blue green red pixels bouncing in an attempt to create the white!!

Now some spoilers SPOLERS SPOILERS:
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The fighting sequence in the end reminded me of a pitiful attempt to mix 300 with Lord of the Rings. It was some poorly done. The Yeti in the snow actually put the best performances worth watching in this film and actually kicked butt! [Smile]
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Well this and that Don't go to see this movie. It is not worth it. Especially in full Digital!

Demetris

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Louis Belloisy
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 120
From: morris, ct usa
Registered: Jun 2006


 - posted 08-18-2008 02:29 PM      Profile for Louis Belloisy   Author's Homepage   Email Louis Belloisy   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Brendan Fraser is a jerk. The movie is full of one liners. This is an action adventure, you dont need one liners.

The master of one liners was Henry Youngman. A couple of his gems:

My grandmother is over eighty and still doesn't need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle.......

There was a girl knocking on my hotel room door all night! Finally, I let her out.........

Bring back the good old days. [Roll Eyes]

Lou

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Paul Mayer
Oh get out of it Melvin, before it pulls you under!

Posts: 3836
From: Albuquerque, NM
Registered: Feb 2000


 - posted 08-18-2008 06:17 PM      Profile for Paul Mayer   Author's Homepage   Email Paul Mayer   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
To paraphrase Blazing Saddles:

That's Henny! [Big Grin]

We now return you to the thread already in progress:

Glad I wasn't planning to see this. Getting really tired of paying to lose two hours of my life. At least you guys get paid to watch this crap.

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Sally Ann Burgess
Expert Film Handler

Posts: 120
From: Queenstown, New Zealand
Registered: Apr 2008


 - posted 09-10-2008 03:47 AM      Profile for Sally Ann Burgess   Email Sally Ann Burgess   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Saw it this morning....oh dear. It could have been soooo much better if they had given Michelle Yeoh more screen time, as I found her character more interesting than anyone's. I personally didn't like the yetis being there, and they were really poorly put together! 2/5

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Stu Jamieson
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 524
From: Buccan, Qld, Australia
Registered: Jan 2008


 - posted 09-13-2008 11:02 PM      Profile for Stu Jamieson   Email Stu Jamieson   Send New Private Message       Edit/Delete Post 
Running afoul of a love triangle, ancient Chinese Emperor Han (Jet Li) is turned to stone by sorceress, Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh), and his plan for world domination and immortality are thwarted. 2000 years later, bad people mean to lift the curse which would allow Emperor Han to enslave all of mankind with the help of his terracotta militia armed with ancient pre-Christian weaponry. (Good luck with that!) Enter retired adventurers and Indiana Jones wannabes, Rick and Evelyn O'Connell (Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello, respectively). The pair are enduring a loathesomely comfortable English aristocratic lifestyle when approached by the British government to undertake "just one more job" - to courier an ancient Chinese relic with the power of resurrection back to its country of origin. Naturally the artefact falls into the wrong hands and the O'Connells have another mummy to despatch.

Like the second film in this series (and to a lesser extent the first film) Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor is an exercise in what Hollywood does badly and nowhere is this more evident than in its frustrating lack of attention to detail: a sword swipe through a row of candles results in a zigzag cut; the antagonist is turned to stone only to be found a couple of millennia later in a completely different pose to that in which he was frozen. Certainly these are small details in the overall scheme of things but it is exactly this which makes it all the more annoying. It's almost harder to get these tiny details wrong than it is to just get them right and it reflects a Hollywood laziness which typifies the entire production.

Performances are solidly patchy. Maria Bello attempts to prove that a whole character can be embodied solely within an accent and fails. Putting so much effort into getting her English-toff accent right, she leaves little energy for fleshing out her character, lacking completely the earthy charm brought to the role by genuine ol' Blighty actress, Rachel Weisz (who wisely opted out of this production). Brendan Fraser remains a reasonable action hero in search of a better vehicle (perhaps he will fare better in Journey To The Centre Of The Earth 3D but initial reports are not promising). Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh provide a level of statesmanship beyond the worth of this film. And O'Connell Jnr. (Luke Ford) is so uncommitted to this project that he can't even bung on an English accent to maintain canon with the rest of the production (English accents must be so uncool with the young folk).

This is a by-the-numbers action adventure reciting a special-effects-over-substance mantra and while $145M worth of entertainment for 15 bucks can't be all bad, the money could have been better spent.

5 out of 10

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