In this second exciting installment
of Stephen Summers, Mummy adventure"The Return of the Mummy,"
it is 10 years later, 1932, and we find that the happy couple, Rick
(Brendan Fraser), and Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), are now married, and
living in London with their 8 year old son, Alex (Freddie Boath).
As a family, the three of them happily are still excavating various
Egyptian archeological sites, now for the British Museum in London.
The evil believers of the mummy priest, Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo),
led by his wanna-be girlfriend, Meela (Patricia Velazquez), and
Mr. Hafez (Alun Armstrong), the London Museum curator, have dug
up the remains of Imhotep in the rubble of the ancient city, and
brought his body back to London.
These two accomplices also have sent a gang of
thugs to find artifacts needed to complete Imhotep's recovery,
and the Scorpion King's arm bracelet. Mr. Hafez and Meela plan
to resurrect the Scorpion King as well, so Imhotep can defeat
him, to become the ultimate controlling powerful force. Naturally,
these grisly fellows come to the same site that our heroes are
working on, who have already found the coveted arm bracelet. While
the usual life-threatening havoc ensues and reigns, the bad guys
fail to get the arm bracelet, which goes home with Rick and Evelyn
and Alex to London.
After arriving home, Alex is drawn to the chest
where the arm bracelet is kept. When he hears sounds coming from
the chest, he opens the chest, and puts on the arm bracelet, but
finds he can't take it off. Meanwhile, the bad guys break into
the house, rough up Jonathan (John Hannah), Evelyn's brother,
make a shambles of the house in an exciting chase / fight scene
as they pursue the family around the house and then on the London
streets using supernatural forces. Evelyn is nearly killed at
Imhotep's coming out party in London, before being rescued by
Rick and friends, (Ardeth Bay & Jonathan). Alex is ultimately
kidnapped, because of the unremoveable bracelet, which begins
the long adventure of trying to rescue Alex and stop incredible
evil, which is fueled by the obsession to gain ultimate power
and riches.
While "The Mummy," was a terrific adventure
/ horror film, "The Return of the Mummy," offers the
audience more in fun with not only great special effects, more
near escapes from death, non-stop action and horror scenes, but
also offers a fuller experience because of the in depth script,
that brings in other elements of interest.
It is more than adventure/horror movie, as it
has a healthy dose of mysticism, mythology, humor, fantasy, elements
of reincarnation, parenting and morality, all woven into this
fast-paced, fun adventure film. While the screenplay explores
the importance of love, courage, friendship, and loyalty, and
how these values can work together to defeat evil, it also shows
consequences of associating with evil people willing to do anything
to anyone in their quest for ultimate power, whose self-love and
self-interest rules their behavior totally.
One of the advantages of writing both "The
Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns" is that Stephen
Summers fills in the audience more of the historical story about
the long ago Egyptian King, Pharaoh Seti I (Aharon Ipalé),
what people were in the Pharaoh's court, and who had witnessed
Priest Imhotep's evil deed of killing Pharaoh Seti I. This is
tied into the present, when it seems that both Meela and Evelyn
find themselves to be in a reincarnated form of women who had
a vital role in the King's household and court.
Stephen Summers, within the plot, also gives an
interesting account of the story of the Scorpion King (Dwayne
Johnson), and the legends about him, to prepare us for the upcoming
adventure.
The fine direction, also by Summers, plus the
great, roller coaster pacing and action sequences, the innovative
screenplay, capable cast, and the marvelous special effects all
come together to offer an entertaining, exciting, thought provoking
film.
Brendan Fraser does a great job recreating his
role of Rick O'Connell, the brave, wise acre adventurer who is
also now a dedicated husband and father. Once again, he is both
fast-thinking and quick on his feet, ready to do the right thing,
and who is to realize something mystical about himself, that fortifies
his resolve to defeat evil in the concluding big battle scenes.
Rachel Weisz also is delightful as Evelyn, who
has to face several hard challenges along the way, like death
or near death, in her quest to rescue her son, working with Rick,
and the others.
Most of the women in the audience heartily thank
the screenwriter for giving the absolutely dreamy Oded Fehr a
substantially larger supporting actor role in this sequel. He,
of course plays most convincingly the head of the Dessert Guard,
the dashing Ardeth Bay, who is brave and courageous and all around
hot guy, who becomes friends with our heroes in the first film,
and helps them to defeat Imhotep the first time. In this sequel,
Ardeth bands together with the O'Connells and friends to try to
rescue Alex, before it is too late, and do battle with not only
the nasty pygmies, Imhotep's forces, but also the armies of the
undead, thus doing his part to defeat the forces of evil..
John Hannah does a great job, in his recreation
of Evelyn's lovable but flawed brother, Jonathan, who finds himself
changing for the good, despite himself, as he is asked to meet
the challenges of being part of a team of heroes.
Freddie Boath does a pretty good job portraying
Alex, a gutsy, precocious child who finds ways to irk and outsmart
his captors, as well as find a way to give his parents clues as
to where to find him and the unsavory company who took him.
Arnold Vosloo, does a fabulous job portraying
the powerfully evil Imhotep, a character that personifies the
worst qualities of human nature, in his lust for ultimate power
and wealth, without going over the top into a cartoonish performance.
Patricia Velazquez also plays the evil, ruthless,
self-serving Meela with much aplomb, and is the perfect match
for Imhotep, as they both have no redeeming values to offer anyone,
or to each other.
This great good verses evil adventure film has
been rated PG-13.
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