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 A
few years ago, Harrison Ford was being interviewed by Barbara Walters
on one of her prestigious Oscar night specials, and he was asked if
he would ever play Indiana Jones again. His response? "In a New York
minute!"
I guess New
York minutes take a pretty long time, because here we are in 2001,
and there's no sign that an inch of film is going to be shot on
Indiana Jones 4 anytime soon. In fact, as of this writing,
nobody has been cast, no deals have been made, and no potential
screenplays have been written.
Until Mssrs.
Spielberg, Lucas, and Ford find time in their busy schedules to
break Indy's whip out of decommission, there's always Brendan Fraser,
who, in the summer of 1999, surprised everyone with the box office
smash The Mummy. Now, almost 2 years to the day since its
release, along comes the inevitable sequel, and depending on which
side of the desert you're on, The Mummy Returns is either
one of the most seriously flawed big budget movies in ages or it's
simply the perfect summer movie, period. Whatever the case, this
21st Century set of hi-tech hieroglyphics can easily be translated
to read "mindless fun for the whole family."
It's now 8
years after Rick (Brendan Fraser), Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), and Jonathan
(John Hannah) first defeated the 3000-year-old Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo)
in the deserts of Egypt. These days, the adventurous Rick and Evelyn
O'Connell are busy raising their 8-year-old son Alex (Freddie Boath)
in London. Little do they know that a chain of events has been set
into motion that will allow Imhotep to once again walk the earth
and be more powerful than ever. At the same time, The Scorpion King
(The Rock)—an even more formidable foe from way-back-when—is
also in danger of being resurrected. Both are on a collision course
with destiny, but only one will survive for eventual world domination.
And who's caught in the middle? Yep, you guessed it—Rick, Evelyn,
and Jonathan, and with the help of the always-reliable mystical
guard Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr), it's up to the O'Connell's to save
the day. (Geez, where's Indiana Jones when you need him?)
Typically,
the summer movie season starts on Memorial Day Weekend and ends
right after Labor Day, but in recent years, that's changed. These
days, the so-called summer season can start as early as the first
weekend of May, which is exactly what happened when the first Mummy
came out in 1999. Not only did the film make over $413 million worldwide,
but it actually took in most of its domestic gross before the official
summer season even started (and it's a good thing, too—a little
movie called Star Wars: Episode One - The Phantom Menace
was right around the corner with a Memorial Day Weekend release).
In hindsight,
it's probably a good thing that The Mummy came out when it
did. Not only did it get a head start on the rest of the summer
competition, but it also filled a gap that hadn't been satisfied
since Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade came out ten years
earlier. But let's be honest, The Mummy was hardly a piece
of cinematic greatness. Sure the special effects were great and
the action sequences were exciting, but the script was so weak that
it was hard to overlook its flaws (even by summer movie standards).
The Mummy
Returns is more of the same, only this time around, there's
a lot more of it. That's hardly surprising, since Stephen Sommers--who
wrote and directed the original--is back for seconds. Once again,
the film feels like a blatant ripoff of the Indiana Jones
series, but in an effort to give the Mummy series its own
identity, Sommers walks a fine line between campiness and absurdity.
Sommers is
wrapped around the idea that bigger sets, better special effects,
and a cast of thousands will make a better movie. In some ways,
it does. After all, how can anyone not be impressed by such striking
visual excitement? However, even if you turn off you mind and enjoy
the fireworks, it's hard not to notice the same kind of weak writing
that cursed the first movie.
As for the
cast, the old gang is back, along with a few new faces. Once again,
Brendan Fraser seems to be relishing his action hero status as the
confident, grave-robbing Rick, but time has done wonders for Rachel
Weisz's Evelyn. She's not the meek scaredy-cat that she as was the
first time around, and most of the time, she's even more fearless
than her swashbuckling husband. John Hannah is even more satisfying
than he was in the first film, thanks to his great comic timing,
but fans of WWF superstar The Rock may be disappointed. Other than
the beginning and end of the film, he's nowhere to be seen (and
what little we do see of him is evidence that he probably shouldn't
quit his day job anytime soon).
Where the
Indiana Jones series was a homage to the classic movie serials
from Hollywood's golden era, the Mummy series seems more
like an advertisement for a ride that's coming to an amusement park
near you. Not that there's anything wrong with that. After all,
this is a summer movie, and who really wants to think anyway? In
spite of its flaws, The Mummy Returns has a lot of humor
and plenty of excitement, and is sure to please just about everyone
who fell under the spell of the first movie.
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