Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and Evelyn O’Connell (Mario Bello) have retired from the adventuring business. While their son, Alex (Luke Ford), is off in the Far-East digging up the remains of Emperor Han (Jet Li) who was imprisoned by the witch Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh). A plot is set in motion when Rick and Eve are sent on a mission, that they accept out of boredom, to deliver a priceless artifact which is used to resurrect the Emperor.

Now I’ve read all the reviews that have ripped this movie to shreds for all its flaws, and believe me there are enough to quantify those reviews. However, what did you really expect? The Mummy franchise has never really been about that great story. As soon as you see Brendan Fraser top billing a film you know that it isn’t Oscar worthy. I loved the first film, because it was fun and enjoyable. Yes; all those catch-phrases wreak of cheese that make you feel like the movie is just running on those alone, but there is more when you get past all of that.

The acting in this film is down right horrible [but as said above, not exactly what you came for]. Brendan Fraser is Brendan Fraser, Mario Bello is a horrible version of Eve, and Luke Ford is horrible. If I was Rachel Weisz, I wouldn’t come closer to the production of this movie than any actual Mummy did. Ohh did I mention that as well, there aren’t any mummies in this movie, all the bad guys [and good guys when we get there] are all just undead, so the title is just to get you in the room. The only connection this has with the previous Mummy movies is the characters of the O’Connell family and that they are dealing with ancient artifacts.

What really will hurt when you go to the movie, is sitting through the first 10-15 minutes [wasn’t timing it] when Rick and Eve are at home and you’re watching them having to deal with their decision to retire from the adventuring life. They really milk all the awful married and becoming acclimated to home life jokes. At that point I worried that the internet was right to say that this was a complete waste of time.

Now, the first 15 minutes are over and we are knee deep in the undead. The movie has really begun here. I loved a lot of the chase sequences, especially the first one through Shanghai with the fireworks truck and the huge firework/rocket. That was amazing and definitely pushed all the right action/adventure/comedy buttons that it needed to. A little bad story and catch phrases later (i.e. about five minutes) we movie on to our next huge location where we have another action scene which is great and funny as it should be.

Another problem with the movie is twice there are situations where the O’Connell family is confronted with a group of individuals who are here to help. However, that new group doesn’t know who is good or bad. Someone will say “I good! He bad” and then everything is good, they believe them like a true gullible duck; as if I would want to be maimed if I was a bad guy, I would claim that we are friends and then stab you in your back.

On a positive note, the Yetis looked awesome. The field goal was more cheese, but still it looked awesome to see Yetis kick some Chinese military ass. I would love to see an action movie which completely followed the Yetis from this film.

My hugest problem with this movie is some of the ending, I would’ve preferred for it to end less Hollywood-like. [see spoiler below of you’ve watched the movie]

[spoiler]

Michelle Yeoh’s character is immortal and so is her daughter, Lin (Isabella Leong). Near the end when Zi reawakens the Emperor’s enemies that he buried under The Great Wall, she has to sacrifice her and her daughter’s immortality so as to accomplish this feat. I would’ve loved that when that happens Zi and Lin both just keeled over and died. They have lived over 2000 years, and if you are no longer immortal all those years should immediately catch up with you. However, due to Hollywood’s need for a happy ending this isn’t about to happen.

So I would’ve loved it that everyone would be happy and Alex at the bottom of the bottle depressed and you would have a more general feel to the movie. However, that probably doesn’t fit into a Mummy movie.

[/spoiler]

Overall this movie is an enjoyable movie [if you are willing to make some considerations]. Forget the plot and just pay attention to the comedy and the action/adventure moments. Children will love it, and you won’t hate yourself if you don’t go into it with inflated expectations of this movie. Worth a rental if you skip it at the theatre.

IMDB says 5.5/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 9%

I say 6.0/10