The Mummy 3

I knew when I was typing up my weekend post that I was forgetting something! I'd actually tried to block in from my memory and I was pretty successful for a while, but it's come back. In all good conscious, I must share at least a bit to potentially save you.

On Saturday, Stuart and I beat the heat by hitting the theaters for another flick that's been on our "to see" list: The Mummy 3. We all know that sequels aren't famous for their quality, but I actually didn't mind the second Mummy movie, so I had hopes. Boy, were they resoundingly squashed. The Mummy 3 was awful.

The acting was appalling. I like Brendon Fraser, I think he can do serious material and he excels at comedy, but the whole movie seemed like it had been pieced together from film taken of the blocking rehearsals. There was no life, no spark, none of the actors seemed the least interested in being there! I blame it on whoever that was they had playing Evey, she was awful - where the hell was Rachel Weiss?

Then you take Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li, two exceptionally good actors who've built reputations on kicking ass with style and put them in a movie with the lamest fight choreography that I've seen in ages. I hope they got paid very well for participating in that travesty.

And then there were the special effects. Let me step back to the Mummy 2 and those amazing little head hunting guys in the forest. I loved them; the care and detail put into their movements and facial expressions was outstanding. In the Mummy 3, we have people turning into terracotta, yetis, a three headed dragon and an army of zombies and all of it was so obviously special effects. I'm not educated enough to put my finger on why, but none of them meshed particularly well with the rest of the action. I was happy that the yetis had expressive, more human style faces (as opposed to dog/bear muzzles) but they sure didn't make the most of them.

What a freakin' mess.