英文影评：木乃伊3：龙帝之墓The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
发布时间：2024-07-25 06:19:15
The Mummy franchise lumbers on into the far east. Fantasy adventure sequel starring Brendan Fraser, Jet Li and Maria Bello
Whatever the failings of Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, at least audiences had the thrill of being reacquainted with the world‘s most exciting archaeologist. Whether anyone‘s been keeping the fires burning for Brendan Fraser‘s Rick O‘Connell - Indy‘s bungling 1990s equivalent - is another matter. The leading figure in two fun if frivolous action-adventure films, it‘s not like audiences have been holding out for his return. And if cinemagoers haven‘t been pining for the lantern-jawed lug, why have Universal spent $145 million bringing him back from action exile?
Perhaps the studio hoped they could cash in on the return in 2008 of Indy. Or maybe they thought people held the The Mummy films in the same affection as, say, the Star Wars saga. Whatever the thinking, a third Mummy film is here - and right damn average it is too.
Set long enough after The Mummy Returns to allow Rachel Weisz - who plays Rick‘s wife Evelyn - to turn into Maria Bello, we begin with the history of Emperor Han (Li, sorely underused), the cruel mind behind China‘s Great Wall and her terracotta army. Falling foul of the old immortality trick, Han is in a century-spanning pickle until Rick‘s son Alex (Aussie Ford taking over from Brit Freddie Boath) unearths both his tomb and his pottery posse.
Elsewhere, Rick is trying to come to terms with retirement while Evelyn struggles to write a hit follow-up to her best-selling Mummy novels. The easy life isn‘t for them, though, and when the British secret service ask the couple to escort a diamond to the far east, it‘s not long before a fresh adventure is embarked upon. If you‘ve seen the previous Mummy movies, you‘ll have a good idea of how this plot plays out - buckles are swashed, quips are exchanged, fabulous beasts are encountered, the screen is swamped with poor CGI and John Hannah (as Evelyn‘s playboy brother Jonathan) gives a display of scene-stealing that even Robin Williams could learn a thing or two from.
But while there is always something going on - and, if you listen carefully, you can hear the budget being spent, thousands of dollars at a time - what‘s lacking is brain activity. Everything from yetis to shape-shifting dragons are paraded before us, but they‘re plopped in without finesse. And as for the terracotta army, anyone who visited the sell-out exhibition at the British Museum last year could think of a better way to bring them to life.
Idiocy might hamper Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor but the biggest problem is the series‘ inability to evolve. Back in 2001, with CGI still in its infancy and the epic yet to come fully back into fashion, people were happy to tolerate slightly shoddy FX and credibility-stretching action. In the post-Lord Of The Rings world, massive and enhanced green screen capabilities, it‘s not enough to rest on your laurels. So while terracotta warriors taking up arms against zombie hordes might once have provided a fitting climax, now it provokes yawns instead of cheers. Because, let‘s face it, once you‘ve seen one army of the dead, you‘ve seen them all.
Perhaps the studio hoped they could cash in on the return in 2008 of Indy. Or maybe they thought people held the The Mummy films in the same affection as, say, the Star Wars saga. Whatever the thinking, a third Mummy film is here - and right damn average it is too.
Set long enough after The Mummy Returns to allow Rachel Weisz - who plays Rick‘s wife Evelyn - to turn into Maria Bello, we begin with the history of Emperor Han (Li, sorely underused), the cruel mind behind China‘s Great Wall and her terracotta army. Falling foul of the old immortality trick, Han is in a century-spanning pickle until Rick‘s son Alex (Aussie Ford taking over from Brit Freddie Boath) unearths both his tomb and his pottery posse.
Elsewhere, Rick is trying to come to terms with retirement while Evelyn struggles to write a hit follow-up to her best-selling Mummy novels. The easy life isn‘t for them, though, and when the British secret service ask the couple to escort a diamond to the far east, it‘s not long before a fresh adventure is embarked upon. If you‘ve seen the previous Mummy movies, you‘ll have a good idea of how this plot plays out - buckles are swashed, quips are exchanged, fabulous beasts are encountered, the screen is swamped with poor CGI and John Hannah (as Evelyn‘s playboy brother Jonathan) gives a display of scene-stealing that even Robin Williams could learn a thing or two from.
But while there is always something going on - and, if you listen carefully, you can hear the budget being spent, thousands of dollars at a time - what‘s lacking is brain activity. Everything from yetis to shape-shifting dragons are paraded before us, but they‘re plopped in without finesse. And as for the terracotta army, anyone who visited the sell-out exhibition at the British Museum last year could think of a better way to bring them to life.
Idiocy might hamper Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor but the biggest problem is the series‘ inability to evolve. Back in 2001, with CGI still in its infancy and the epic yet to come fully back into fashion, people were happy to tolerate slightly shoddy FX and credibility-stretching action. In the post-Lord Of The Rings world, massive and enhanced green screen capabilities, it‘s not enough to rest on your laurels. So while terracotta warriors taking up arms against zombie hordes might once have provided a fitting climax, now it provokes yawns instead of cheers. Because, let‘s face it, once you‘ve seen one army of the dead, you‘ve seen them all.