Director: Stephen Sommers
Starring: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Arnold Vosloo, Patricia Velasquez, Oded Fehr, John Hannah
Story rating: 2 discs (out of 4)
Story review: “We do not want to wake the gods,” warns one unscrupulous tomb raider while robbing the crypt of the Scorpion King (pro wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), an ancient Egyptian warrior frozen in time after promising his soul to the god Anubis. Too late. The raider’s employees, led by the reincarnation of the mummy Imhotep’s beloved, Anck-Su-Namun (Patricia Velasquez), bring Imhotep back to life eight years after adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) vanquished him. The plan: use Imhotep to overthrow an awakened Scorpion King for the right to rule the world. O’Connell and now-wife Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) step in to save the day, and things get personal when Imhotep kidnaps their son Alex (Freddie Boath), who possesses a bracelet that serves as a map to the Scorpion King’s lair. A contrived, distracting and redundant connection between our heroes and their adversaries that dates back 3,000 years further complicates matters. — Robert Sims
Features rating: 3 discs (out of 4)
Features review: The Collector’s Edition DVD is chock-full of extras, always a plus, as there is almost bound to be one that someone will like even if there are many you don’t. One high point of the extras, though, is that during the commentary when director Stephen Sommers and editor Bob Duscay, who have a nice, flowing banter and are instructive as well as entertaining, rag on uber-critic Roger Ebert for his negative review of the film. A real low point is The Rock introducing a rough trailer of the upcoming prequel The Scorpion King— before the main feature begins. Is that really necessary?
The extras that follow include The Mummy Returns, a self-congratulatory on-location featurette; a fairly decent special-effects segment (even though the effects weren’t all that great); and five minutes of hilarious outtakes and bloopers. There’s also “Egyptology 201” (cursory information about Egyptian history) and some interactive DVD-ROM extras. Considering the solid video transfer and aggressive audio, it’s an engaging, if somewhat marketing-minded, presentation.
Bottom line: The movie is fun escapism, and the special features help enhance what’s fun (e.g. the outtakes) and what’s escapist (e.g. the breezy, well-done audio commentary). A nice addition to anyone’s collection–as long as you enjoyed the movie in the first place.
Special features list:
o Languages: English, French
o Color, closed-captioned, Dolby
o Audio commentary by director Stephen Sommers
o Behind the scenes with director Stephen Sommers and the cast
o Spotlight On Location: The Making of The Mummy Returns
o Outtakes
o Live’s “Forever May Not Be Long Enough” music video
o An exclusive conversation with The Rock
o “Chamber of Doom”: a virtual tour of Universal Studios’ latest theme park attraction
o “Egyptology 201”: a fun and educational look at ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology
o DVD-ROM features: The Mummy PC game demo and screen savers
o Theatrical trailer
