Mummy 3 – The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Title: Mummy 3 – The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor ( 2008 )
Director: Rob Cohen
Genre: Adventure, Action, Fantasy
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh, Maria Bello, Luke Ford

Rick O’Connel and his family fight to stop the cruel Emperor Han of the Qin Dynasty who can transmogrify. He is raised back with the help of Eye of Shangrila and he tries to make himself and his army immortal. The Emperor should be stopped before he crosses the Great Wall.

Brendan Fraser plays the role of Rick O’Connell while John Hannah continue to be Jonathan. Maria Bello performs as Evelyn, Luke as Alex, Jet Li as The Dragon Emperor Han. Michelle Yeoh, the crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon star, plays a key role.

The picturization is good in this movie. The back drop and the sets do justice to a story set at Shanghai in 1947.  The screenplay is good and fast. The action scenes are picturised nicely and the background score is good.  The graphics was not too great but it was good enough not to cause any distraction. The scene where the two armies ram through each other and the shape-shifted emperor runs through the opponents has been done nicely.  Scenes involving Yeti are also good. The dialogues as a whole was ok; those of Jonathan were good and rib tickling.

“You people are Mummy-magnets”
“I hate Mummies. They do not play fair”

After an enthralling “The Mummy” and a gripping “The Mummy Returns” the latest part is not so heady. The plot seems to be too ordinary and one can guess easily what is going to come up in the next scene. The chemistry between Brendan and Maria is a little lower than that of Brendan and Rachel in the first two parts. It was not so effective. The role of the villain lacks weight. Jet Li comes with a over-did make-up for majority of the movie and he hardly shows his martial art skills. The climax where O’Connells fight Emperor Han could have been prolonged a little bit. The camera was also too close for this scene most of the time that one could not see the grandeur with which Jet Li fights. The things that you see are his legs/hands. The same is the case where Jet Li takes on Michelle Yeoh.

The movie is not so exciting as the previous two parts but it could be watched once. Watching in theater might be better as it can be easily boring to watch it on a DVD. It does not equal the first two parts definitely. The movie ends with an hint that a sequel to this movie set in Peru is most likely.