Editor’s Note: This was originally published for FANGORIA on May 3, 2001, and we’re proud to share it as part of The Gingold Files.
Midway through the original Jurassic Park, Jeff Goldblum has the line, “You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could do it that you didn’t stop to think if you should.” He’s talking about cloning dinosaurs, of course, but the line also resonates differently today, given that Jurassic represented a turning point in the use of computer-generated FX. Suddenly, it was theoretically possible to create absolutely any fantastical or fearsome sight on screen, and for mainstream genre cinema, there was no turning back. The Mummy Returns represents a sort of ne plus ultra of CGI-based filmmaking, in which writer/director Stephen Sommers heedlessly throws everything but the kitchen sink up on screen, to varying results (both creatively and technically) and ultimately diminishing returns.
That’s a shame, because in some ways this is a better film that Sommers’ smash-hit original Mummy. I wasn’t a big fan of the previous movie’s overreliance on humor, particularly the way almost all of its characters seemed subjugated to Sommers’ desire for easy laughs. The sequel’s most significant improvement is in the character of Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), now married to adventurer Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser) and no longer the ditz whose primary function is to be rescued. While she does get kidnapped by baddies in the first act of Mummy Returns, Evie is now a forthright explorer and woman of action, and Weisz tackles the role with a new fire in her eyes. (You can almost feel a subliminal anger at having to have played Evie as such a klutz last time out.)
The movie does much for Patricia Velasquez as well; in addition to reprising Anck-su-Namun, ancient lover of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), the actress makes a strong impression as her 1933 reincarnation, one of a group of villains who plot to resurrect both Imhotep and the Scorpion King, a fearsome character from the 3000 B.C.s, as well as the latter’s army. They figure that Imhotep can kill the Scorpion King and then take command of his monstrous hordes, and use them to conquer the world. But in a plot that’s busy without being especially complex, Rick and Evie’s little son Alex (Freddie Boath) has taken possession of an ancient artifact that’s key to raising the King. The boy is soon abducted by the villains, spurring Rick, Evie, her brother Jonathan (John Hannah) and tomb guardian Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) to pursue them across various scenic locations, with plenty of creatures and action along the way.
Sommers also throws in ancient destinies for both the O’Connells that give them a heavier stake in the action. The more satisfying of the two reveals that Evie had a past life in ancient Egypt alongside Imhotep and Anck-su-Namun, and results in a pair of rousing fights between the two women. Rick gets to have a pretty good mano-a-mano with Imhotep as well, and all these tussles work because there’s a sense of honest struggle and reality to them—a quality unfortunately lacking in many of the movie’s other setpieces.
Sommers has dreamed up a constant series of supernatural and monstrous obstacles to toss in the heroes’ way, but his reach seems beyond his FX team’s grasp. It’s hard to know whether the scale or the schedule was the problem, but too much of the creature CGI seems only half-finessed—often, the monsters look like escapees from a video game. The best digital work is on the early, half-formed incarnation of Imhotep himself, which has real presence, and a quartet of ancient warriors he resurrects. These four are in part more convincing for only being seen at night, and figure in a lengthy chase and battle on the streets of London that is excitingly staged and edited. It’s the movie’s best setpiece—and it comes an hour into the film.
Much less thrilling is an attack by pygmy mummies in the movie’s second half, because for all their mayhem, the CG beasts have no onscreen weight and thus carry no true menace. There’s also the little problem of this sequence seeming lifted from the raptor attack in The Lost World: Jurassic Park, and it’s not the only element here that might raise Steven Spielberg’s eyebrows: This franchise has obviously been inspired by the Indiana Jones series, but did the first half hour of Returns have to contain such direct steals from Raiders of the Lost Ark?
The biggest disappointment, though, lies with the Scorpion King. He’s played in an opening prologue by wrestling superstar The Rock, who certainly has the right physical presence, though whether he has the chops as an actor will have to be proven by his forthcoming spinoff feature. Certainly, his many fans will feel let down by his brief screen time, and the fact that when the King reappears at the climax, his monstrous, many-legged incarnation resembles something out of a cartoon. To be brutally honest, the scorpion creature in Howard the Duck was much more convincing.
Sommers certainly shows chutzpah and enthusiasm in cramming the screen with so much action and incident, but as the film goes on, a mechanical feel comes over the proceedings, with an increasing reliance on goofy gimmicks to keep the story moving. And while the women have gratifyingly been given more to do, the men (beyond Fehr, once again giving the best overall performance) don’t fare as well. Fraser has the right spirit, but Rick is still too flip a character to have true heroic impact, while Hannah’s cowardly comic relief simply becomes annoying. Sommers may also have written in a few too many bad guys, to the point where Vosloo’s Imhotep feels like a supporting player in a feature that is, after all, named after him. (Perhaps that’s why this is one of those movies that doesn’t even have a title, much less credits, at the beginning.)
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to give the audience their money’s worth, but there’s also the risk of providing too much of a good thing—or, in this case, a mixed bag. With a little more discipline in both the scripting and FX, The Mummy Returns could have been wildly entertaining instead of mildly diverting.
