My Review of "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the last entry to The Mummy franchise. It came out back in 2008, seven years after the last entry which I didn't like at all. This movie has some elements similar to that last movie that kind of irked me. Though, this movie feels a little more competent than that last entry, it doesn't mean that this one was good either.

The movie starts off much like the other two movies. There is a whole backstory behind the new bad guy which is an evil emperor. He's taken over China and has built this gigantic empire. The only thing that can stop his thirst for power is old age, so he seeks the fountain of youth.

Somehow he finds out that there's such thing as a fountain of youth and goes after it. Once he gets close to obtaining eternal youth he tries to double cross the person trying to give it to him. Then there's another double cross which turns the emperor into a mummy.

Then we have a reintroduction of our hero Rick and Evy. This time the movie sort of revolves around their son Alex. He has taken a liking to his parents career path and is now making discoveries of his own. The big discovery is obviously finding the the emperors tomb.

Rick and Evy get bored of their retirement and decide to get in on one last mission. Of course this intersects with Alex's emperor tomb discovery. They all get double crossed and the emperor comes back to life to take over the world. Sounds familiar? It should because it's the same exact plot of the first two movies of the franchise.

If you've seen those other two movies this is pretty much the same thing but set in China. I also have a sense that this movie was made to appease the Chinese market. There are certain weird decisions throughout this movie that feel politically inclined much like the last movie felt like there was studio intervention to appease its star power.

Like the other movies, the special effects in this movie don't stand the test of time. Though they are remarkably better then the other two movies. Again, like the other movies, the audio is another highlight of this movie. It's pretty immersive even with some of the out of date visuals.

There were some wacky scenes that made me chuckle a little. Some of them dealing with banter between characters and others just weird scenes. There was this weird yak in the plane with the gang and he was getting airsick. Jonathan tries to help it calm down. I don't know why I thought that was so funny but it was.

I like that they sparingly used Jonathan this time. He actually earned some good laughs and fun in this movie rather than being a weird comic relief character in the other movies. The movie also moves it's focus from Rick to his son Alex. I guess it was supposed to be a passing of the torch movie. I don't know if Alex was meant to continue on with the adventures or not but this was the last movie that did come out. Though at the end of this movie they kind of teased that there could be another movie.

Overall, there was nothing really big that made this movie stand out. It kind of took all of the elements from the last two movies and redid them in this one. If you really loved the other two movies then you might really enjoy this one as well because it's more of the same. Still it is a competent popcorn flick but nothing I could recommend. That's why I have to give this one a 4.5 out of 10.