Ang Ikatlong Nanay: Libingan ng Butiking Emperador

Watched the third installation of "The Mummy" last Friday in Lipa before attending Wendy's wedding. Here be my review...

The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!

The spoiler:
The O'Connell's are back from retirement as they are tasked to bring an artifact (The Eye of Shangri-La) in China. Along with it, their son Alex discovers the tomb of a cursed Emperor of Qin and later on accidentally free it from its millenium-long stasis. With backup from radical Chinese militants, the Dragon Emperor schemes to conquer the world with his terra cotta army but first, he has to consolidate his powers by bathing at the pool of Immortality. This being guarded by the same witch that cursed him and his army.

The Qin Emperor later on succeeds and he is transformed into a shapeshifting megalomaniac. With the ragtag band composed of the O'Connell's, old pals Jonathan and Mad Dog, the witch and her cute daughter, and a bunch of comic Yetis, they hunt down the Qin Emperor and thwart his evil plan armed with the only blade that can send him back to Death.

Of course, we all know that they'll win.

The verdict:
I watched the film half-knowing that it'll suck. I've seen its previews and sans the fact that hot-mom Rachel Weisz will not reprise her role as Evie, it's still plain to see from it that the production team is overdoing something and the casts are otherwise cashing in badly.

...on the casts,
I can't see the flare of the prequel Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evie (formerly Rachel Weisz) on this movie and it owed much to the lackluster portrayal of the new Evelyn O'Connor (Maria Bello... who is she anyway?). Brendan's output lacks the dashing appeal he showed on the first two films and this is matched by the equally flat performance by Luke Ford who played the grown up Alex O'Connor. Repeating his role as the feisty Jonathan Carnahan, John Hannah is a comic relief to the entire boring casts. Michelle Yeoh (the witch, Zi Juan) and Jet Li (Dragong Emperor Han) could have acted better but they are underexposed on the screenplay, the latter being a CG monster on almost half of his screen outing. Argh. Have to be partial for Isabella Leong (Zi Juan's daughter, Lin). I watched the film just for her. She's cute and I just can't resist chinky chicks. She did her stunts well but her emotions are mismatched.

not another chinky girl, messing my review opinions haha...
Isabella Leong as "Lin" ...take me home!
...on the story,
It's a typical "Mummy" film. The entire franchise is based on a formula plot: Chief Evil Mummy goes alive, Chief Evil Mummy raises army, Rick's Gang musters own army, Rick's Gang's Army on the verge of being defeated by Chief Evil Mummy's army, Rick's Gang defeats Chief Evil Mummy back to wherever-land, Rick's Gang's Army saved... and so is the world!

It's just a consolation that the story setting interests me (Imperial China) but you should not expect much of a twist on the storyline. The plot has been very outright from the start of the film and you'll gonna have a near-prescient guess of how the story will go. An unexpected surprise comes from the appearance of the Yeti pack that although stirred in some good laugh, sealed my conviction that this movie's going to be corny. They're just unnecessary and even made the storyline even more sooo dragging.

CGI works is mediocre in quality but the overdone presence of the computer generated monstrosities made it look that they're there just for the sake of having beasts on the film. I've always liked the "Mummy" concept but they should have stick with a more realistic approach on the story. Making it exaggeratedly fantastic by forcing in elaborate CG beast-works is a show off that din't do any justice for the "Mummy" plot in general.

...on the fight scenes,
I rarely scrutinize much on this part of movies since as long as they are visually swashbuckling, they are good to me. However, just for the lack of any good reasons to look forward to in this movie (except again that pretty Chinese girl, Lin), they did considerably good battle scenes in fairness. I always looked forward to this scenes on the Mummy-series where both good and evil armies clashed on an open battlefield. The complexity of generating two massive armies clashing leaves me in awe and this film din't disappoint me on that aspect.

The Michelle Yeoh versus Jet Li duel is lacking in intensity.

...on everything else,
I missed Rachel Weisz because of this movie. I can imagine several Evie scenes that could have been more effective if she's the one delivering it. She has this sense of composure and sophistication that Maria Bello just can't assume. The spunky Evelyn O'Connor role became just a meer plain woman on this sequel. I can't blame Rachel for turning down the role upon looking at the screenplay (yes, it's the rumour).

Watch it for the underexposed Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li but take a good nap on the rest of the film.

I was convincing myself for a 6 of 10 rating (even 7, after watching it!) just because of Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, the army battle scene, Lin, and the pretty Chinese army Lieutenant. But the general blandness of the entire production deserves a 4 out of 10.

And I know I'm still being kind.

Ang Ikatlong Nanay: Libingan ng Butiking Emperador

Watched the third installation of "The Mummy" last Friday in Lipa before attending Wendy's wedding. Here be my review...

The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!

The spoiler:
The O'Connell's are back from retirement as they are tasked to bring an artifact (The Eye of Shangri-La) in China. Along with it, their son Alex discovers the tomb of a cursed Emperor of Qin and later on accidentally free it from its millenium-long stasis. With backup from radical Chinese militants, the Dragon Emperor schemes to conquer the world with his terra cotta army but first, he has to consolidate his powers by bathing at the pool of Immortality. This being guarded by the same witch that cursed him and his army.

The Qin Emperor later on succeeds and he is transformed into a shapeshifting megalomaniac. With the ragtag band composed of the O'Connell's, old pals Jonathan and Mad Dog, the witch and her cute daughter, and a bunch of comic Yetis, they hunt down the Qin Emperor and thwart his evil plan armed with the only blade that can send him back to Death.

Of course, we all know that they'll win.

The verdict:
I watched the film half-knowing that it'll suck. I've seen its previews and sans the fact that hot-mom Rachel Weisz will not reprise her role as Evie, it's still plain to see from it that the production team is overdoing something and the casts are otherwise cashing in badly.

...on the casts,
I can't see the flare of the prequel Rick (Brendan Fraser) and Evie (formerly Rachel Weisz) on this movie and it owed much to the lackluster portrayal of the new Evelyn O'Connor (Maria Bello... who is she anyway?). Brendan's output lacks the dashing appeal he showed on the first two films and this is matched by the equally flat performance by Luke Ford who played the grown up Alex O'Connor. Repeating his role as the feisty Jonathan Carnahan, John Hannah is a comic relief to the entire boring casts. Michelle Yeoh (the witch, Zi Juan) and Jet Li (Dragong Emperor Han) could have acted better but they are underexposed on the screenplay, the latter being a CG monster on almost half of his screen outing. Argh. Have to be partial for Isabella Leong (Zi Juan's daughter, Lin). I watched the film just for her. She's cute and I just can't resist chinky chicks. She did her stunts well but her emotions are mismatched.

not another chinky girl, messing my review opinions haha...
Isabella Leong as "Lin" ...take me home!
...on the story,
It's a typical "Mummy" film. The entire franchise is based on a formula plot: Chief Evil Mummy goes alive, Chief Evil Mummy raises army, Rick's Gang musters own army, Rick's Gang's Army on the verge of being defeated by Chief Evil Mummy's army, Rick's Gang defeats Chief Evil Mummy back to wherever-land, Rick's Gang's Army saved... and so is the world!

It's just a consolation that the story setting interests me (Imperial China) but you should not expect much of a twist on the storyline. The plot has been very outright from the start of the film and you'll gonna have a near-prescient guess of how the story will go. An unexpected surprise comes from the appearance of the Yeti pack that although stirred in some good laugh, sealed my conviction that this movie's going to be corny. They're just unnecessary and even made the storyline even more sooo dragging.

CGI works is mediocre in quality but the overdone presence of the computer generated monstrosities made it look that they're there just for the sake of having beasts on the film. I've always liked the "Mummy" concept but they should have stick with a more realistic approach on the story. Making it exaggeratedly fantastic by forcing in elaborate CG beast-works is a show off that din't do any justice for the "Mummy" plot in general.

...on the fight scenes,
I rarely scrutinize much on this part of movies since as long as they are visually swashbuckling, they are good to me. However, just for the lack of any good reasons to look forward to in this movie (except again that pretty Chinese girl, Lin), they did considerably good battle scenes in fairness. I always looked forward to this scenes on the Mummy-series where both good and evil armies clashed on an open battlefield. The complexity of generating two massive armies clashing leaves me in awe and this film din't disappoint me on that aspect.

The Michelle Yeoh versus Jet Li duel is lacking in intensity.

...on everything else,
I missed Rachel Weisz because of this movie. I can imagine several Evie scenes that could have been more effective if she's the one delivering it. She has this sense of composure and sophistication that Maria Bello just can't assume. The spunky Evelyn O'Connor role became just a meer plain woman on this sequel. I can't blame Rachel for turning down the role upon looking at the screenplay (yes, it's the rumour).

Watch it for the underexposed Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li but take a good nap on the rest of the film.

I was convincing myself for a 6 of 10 rating (even 7, after watching it!) just because of Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, the army battle scene, Lin, and the pretty Chinese army Lieutenant. But the general blandness of the entire production deserves a 4 out of 10.

And I know I'm still being kind.