Featured Creature: The one that was a sequel to a remake

 

 

Title: The Mummy Returns

What Year?: 2001

Classification: Weird Sequel/ Mashup

Rating: What The Hell??? (2/4)

 

In the course of my reviews, my hardest and fastest rule has been that “franchise” movies are not my thing. As a corollary, given the choice, I have usually favored sequels over whatever movie kicked things off. With this review, I have a case where I debated right up to when I started writing whether to cover the original or its sequel. (For that matter, I had considered it back when I was doing the Revenant Review.) What settled the matter in my mind was which one fit this feature best, and the verdict was for the sequel. I present The Mummy Returns, a movie that might well be the reason a franchise didn’t get off the ground.

Our story begins after another overlong prologue with our hero and heroine, Rick and Evie, back to high-pulp hijinks in search of Egyptian artifacts with a precocious kid in tow. Meanwhile, the secondary villainess Anck-Su-Namun has assumed a living body and set out to resurrect her consort Imhotep once again. This time, however, the object of their quest is the tomb of the Scorpion King seen in the prologue, a god-king who traded his soul for an invincible army of jackal-headed demon warriors. Imhotep and his expendable minions know the secret location of the tomb, but the nosy kid has the key to open it. When the bad guys capture the kid, it’s a race to the finish, with the world purportedly at stake, but if time runs out, whoever holds the keywill die!

The Mummy Returns was a 2001 film written and directed by Stephen Sommers (see Deep Rising), a sequel to 1999’s The Mummy, a loose remake of the 1932 film starring Boris Karloff. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz returned as Rick and Evelyn, with Arnold Vosloo also reprising his role as Imhotep. Dwayne Johnson appeared in his first feature role as the Scorpion King. The soundtrack was scored by Alan Silvestri, replacing Jerry Goldsmith. The sequel was a financial success, earning $435 million against a $98M budget, but received poor reviews. The next nominal entry in the franchise was the 2002 film The Scorpion King, a prequel/ spinoff starring Johnson that did not feature or reference other characters and events from the earlier films. The next direct sequel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, was delayed until 2008. No other development was attempted until the 2017 film The Mummy, an attempt at an independent remake of the Karloff film. All 3 films remain available on digital platforms.

For my experiences, the real background here is my view of sequels and why I usually favor them for review. My primary rationale was that I am concerned with obscure, neglected or notorious films, which is obviously a common fate of sequels. My deeper feeling, however, has always been that sequels are often far more interesting, for better or for worse. It’s here where ideas either flourish or crash and burn. In my unpopular opinion, many of the most reviled sequels are in fact the most genuinely creative, for better or worse, though that doesn’t stop people from criticizing them as lazy cash grabs. With the present franchise, what brought it on my radar was the unaccountable degree to which it has seemed to fade from memory. The first one was an end-of-an-era hit that blew everyone away; the second was a commercial success that didn’t make waves; and the third was too late to have made a difference either way. After acquiring all three by chance, I decided it was time to dive in, so I watched the two that mattered back to back. My strongest reaction was that this was the one that “should” have been the best, and the reason I am reviewing it is to analyze why it certainly was not.

Moving forward, this is first and foremost a sequel that goes far enough to change the very genre boundaries of its franchise. That, in turn, accounts for most of its comparative virtues. Beneath its humor and derring-do action, the first movie was still very much a horror film, to a degree that may prove uncomfortable for anyone coming back to it out of VHS-era nostalgia. The second installment comes much closer to fantasy. The crumbly undead, the creepy crypts and the body-horror beetles are all still here, yet the Lovecraftian terrors no longer outmatch the spirit of Robert E. Howard heroism. Of course, there’s still room to argue where this fits along the perforated lines of fantasy. The early rematch with the warrior mummies on the streets of London answers to urban fantasy, which was still catching on in film. The lush enchanted jungle that sprouts around the golden pyramid achieves the sense of wonder of high sword and sorcery, with overtones of “lost world” science fantasy. Then there is the completely incongruous airship, which feels like it drifted in straight from a steampunk anime. The fairly obvious problem is that these elements come together into a finale that seems more routine and formulaic now than it really was at the time, conspicuously the onslaught of the Anubis warriors that were in fact on screen months before the orc hordes of Lord of the Rings.

With those pros and cons laid down, it is still baffling why the movie doesn’t work far better than it does. The easy blame falls upon the characters, though even here, things are not so simple. Fraser is still at the top of his game. The romance of the villain and villainess is if anything more poignant than before, with a truly heartbreaking twist at the very end. The supporting cast members remain highly engaging, especially John Hannah as Evie’s never-do-well brother.  (Rick’s musing on why people so far unknown to him are trying to kill his in-law was up there for “one scene” material.) That leaves Weisz as Evie, and here, we are definitely in the right neighborhood. The most obvious issue is that Evie gets the worst of the movie’s mishmash of incompatible theology and mythology, complete with a gratuitous cat fight in ancient Egypt. (Occultists have long complained, nobody with past-life experiences ever “remembers” being a slave.)  While this is clearly no fault of the character or the actress, the resulting empty screen time reveals certain limitations that were probably already there the first time around. Before, Evie was the exposition generator in the first half and the damsel in the second. This time, the reincarnation mumbo jumbo just serves as a hasty substitute for real development, and the payoff is no better than if she stayed behind in the library.

That brings me to the “one scene”, and I’m going with the one that’s random even for a movie like this. At the onset of the finale, the heroes and the villains discover the magic jungle in the midst of the desert. As the minions fan out, one suddenly disappears into the brush, then another. Then one peers among the roots of a tree, where a close-up reveals a face that seems made of parchment. Suddenly, it comes to life with a screech as a sort of pygmy zombie pounces. It’s the first glimpse of the most cunning and ornery undead in the whole movie if not the franchise. Of course, there are many more, though they still manage to stay out of sight. Soon enough, they close in on Imhotep, who merely gestures. There’s real expression on the grungy faces as they pause and then retreat. Still, there’s ambiguity that invites more analysis that was presumably intended. Is Imhotep able to command these fellow undead by his knowledge or power? Are they actually afraid of him? Or have they simply assessed that they’re better off going after easier prey? The questions are quickly left behind in the quite memorable battle that unfolds, but as always, it’s the little details that matter.

In closing, what I find myself coming back to is the bigger picture on sequels. This has long been an almost reflexively cited “bad” sequel, and I can personally attest, it was every bit as unpopular when it came out. Yet, as I have outlined here, there is very little that can be considered “that bad”, and that too is in line with what people were already saying at the time. The real bottom line is that a sequel is subject to a literal double standard. If it plays it safe and repeat the formula of the original, it is quite justly dismissed as unoriginal. If it actually breaks new ground, however, it is liable to be condemned at least as harshly as somehow unfaithful to the source. Worst of all, per my standing rant, it remains far too convenient for casual commentators to smear them all with the same brush. With an entry like this, we can get to the real problems, if anyone will have the conversation. It’s not great, it’s not awful, it’s certainly not unimaginative; it just feels not quite complete, which is exactly what you get when the shots are called by people who only care about making more money. Most importantly, it shows the real cost when initially promising properties are pushed forward too fast, too far and/ or in an entirely wrong direction. For the world we have to live in, we are at least left with one great movie and one that’s good enough. (And heck, The Scorpion King is good fun!) I for one am glad to have come back to it, and glad to be done.