The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor (2008)

On the seventh minute, Russell Wong gets pulled apart by horses.

On the eighth minute, Michelle Yeoh is stabbed.

And on the ninth minute, Jet Li becomes a flowerpot.


[Nah, he gets encased in terracotta, which is red clay, hence, the flowerpot reference. Credit goes to Terry Pratchett's Interesting Times.]

When I read the initial release description for the movie, the words "shape-shifting mummy" gave me the impression that Jet Li'll go back and forth from looking undead during fights and stuff. Kinda like the flying toilet papermummy in Talos The Mummy, but minus the awful storyline and lack of famous people. And even though he was the bad guy, Jet Li (being Jet Li, of course) really didn't deserve to die after such a lame fight scene. The way they killed him was pretty good, though. His death was much better than Cate Blanchett's in Indiana Jones 4.

It being Jet Li, I was expecting an ass-load of fight scenes. Unfortunately, there isn't much. They saved what little of it for the end. Short sword-fight with Michelle Yeoh, short unarmed combat with Brendan Fraser... It's like, he's starring in the movie, but his kung-fu is just making a cameo. It's way much shorter than Venom's screen time, and that's saying something. Jet Li was SEVERELY (even more emphasis on the word) underused in this movie.

Then, we had a blatant and obvious attempt at fanservice in the form of Brendan Fraser with his shirt off. Not that I'm complaining. I was pleasantly surprised. I haven't seen that since George Of The Jungle. Teeheehee xD

There's this bit when Jet Li throws the magic knife at Brendan Fraser, and he jumps aside to dodge it, and I thought, whatever happened to Fraser's mad knife-catching skillzzz as demonstrated in The Mummy Returns. Ya know, near the beginning, in the mansion, this baddie throws a knife at Fraser and he just catches it and swings/hurls it back at the dude. That was awesome.

Anyway, the movie seems to focus more of his son Alex than anything *hellowhereisBrendanFraser*, and I've read that the next few Mummy movies will be revolving around Alex, with parents taking a back-seat kinda role.

Not that Luke Ford isn't eye-candy material, but... ugh. George Lucas, anyone? *rolls eyes*

Alex has an American accent in this one. Apparently, 13 years is long enough for you to lose all trace of YOUR ENGLISH ACCENT!!

Sorry to nitpick, but I'm a stickler for continuity. Don't get me started on the lack of Rachel WeiszEvie. Nothing wrong with Maria Bello, but original cast owns all. And besides, why couldn't they have gotten Freddie Boath to play Alex again? Six years is long enough for a fricken' growth spurt.

Ending was typically hilarious. Jonathan leaves China to go to Peru where, according to him, "there won't be any mummies". A post-script as Jonathan rides off in his cab states: "Soon after, mummies were found in Peru."

As interesting as the whole concept of China's first emperor returning as an undead bent on ruling the world (I thought that whole terracotta army thing was ingenious), the movie was kind of a letdown in my book. I miss Egypt. I miss the music. Bring back Imhotep, I say! Although I don't think he'd be too keen on it since he got spurned by Anucksunamun in the previous movie, and thus, wouldn't have much of a point in future instalments :P

And as usual, whenever Anthony Wong is in an English-language production, be it American or no, he plays a villain. Not THE villain, but A villain. Poor guy. Talk about being typecast.