The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

先週、久しぶりに映画館へ行った。今年、あまり映画館へ映画を見に行きません。でも、昨日、時間と機会もあるから、一人でサンテック(Suntec)の映画館へ行った。日本に住んでいた時、よく一人で映画館へ行った。

タイトル： The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
キャスト： ブレンダン・フレイザー、ジェット・リー、ミシェル・ヨー、イザベラ・リョン、ジョン・ハナー、ラッセル・ウォン

実際に、映画を見て、感想がありますが、今の日本語まだまだですから、やっぱり英語の方がいいだと思います。だからこれから英語で書いています。

I went to this movie with quite high expectations, and I guess this is always a recipe for disaster. The high expectations were due to the 2 previous installments in the franchise which I had watched and enjoyed. They were pretty well paced and the element of suspense was kept well.

Unfortunately, I can’t really say the same for this 3rd movie, or threequel. There were more misses than hits and I left the theatre disappointed and a little disgusted. Here are some of my grouses:

1) Evelyn “Evie” Carnahan – Rachel Weisz was perfect as Evie, the clumsy but endearing Egyptologist. She made being a librarian sexy. I like it that Rachel Weisz played her as a little scatterbrained, totally engrossed in antiquities, yet able to hold her own against the mummy. The chemistry between her and Brendan Fraser’s Rick O’Connell was really sizzling, which I really can’t say for that between BF and the new Evie (Maria Bello). I understand that it is always difficult to step into a character that has been fleshed out by another actor, but I just don’t buy MB’s explanation that her Evie is different from RW’s, a supposed older and wiser version. It’s like the whole essense of Evie is no longer there. This new version is boring and not funny and defintely not endearing. She seems so much older than BF and the chemistry is so lacking, it is difficult to see that they are supposed to be so in love. I got so irritated everytime she came on screen, I would inevitably roll my eyes. I read with disappointment that MB has signed on for 3 more Mummy movies. Well, I guess I probably won’t be watching anymore.

2) Alexander “Alex” O’Connell – Frankly, I’m not impressed by Luke Ford’s Alex. He lacks the charisma that Brendan Fraser has. I guess he didn’t inherit it from his reel dad. I read somewhere that he’s supposed to be pretty famous in Australia. Well… His acting is still pretty bland and I just don’t see him as a lead actor or someone who is able to carry a film. But my biggest critique is this – he couldn’t even get the few simple lines in Mandarin right. Yes, Mandarin is a difficult language to learn, with its tonal values something that Caucasians find difficult to grasp, although I do have Caucasian acquintances who speak it perfectly. But back to LF, if you’re going to be acting as a character who is supposed to be fluent in the language, you should at least get those few lines you have right, especially since they are so many cast and crew who are fluent. What, too cheap to get a voice/dialect coach? If Isabella Leong (who incidentally reminds me of another half-Portugese beauty Michelle Reis), who couldn’t speak any English before the show (so I’ve been told), could get her English lines PERFECT, and mind you, they weren’t simple lines but long dialogue, then why couldn’t LF? I mean listening to Isabella deliver her lines, you would think that she grew up in North America and has been speaking English from birth. It just means one thing to me, the work ethics are just different. I guess same with MB, if he is returning for subsequent issues, I don’t think I’ll be forking the ticket price.

3) The Dragon Emperor – Nah, I don’t have anything against Jet Li. Although he takes the title role, I thought his role here was pretty small and without bite. The only exciting part was the sparring between him and Michelle Yeoh’s Zi Yuan. I know JL is not known for his acting, but I doubt he was stretched much in this film. But my problem is not with JL or his protrayal of the Dragon Emperor, but with the producers, director and script-writers, specifically the director. I read in an interview that he is an Eastern philosophy scholar and has deep respect for Chinese history, but I don’t really see it here. The mummy story seems like a mishmash of myths and half-baked romantic ideas of the East. I know that there is supposed to be an element of suspension of disbelieve here but mixing Qin Shi Huang’s terracotta warriors with the legend of Shangri La and throwing in some Yetis, that’s just too much disbelieve for me to suspense. It’s like the writers were keen to show off what they know about Far Eastern history so they threw in everything they knew into one movie. The shape-shifting by the emperor (ala animagi in Harry Potter) felt like another cheap thrill CGI. Just because he’s Dragon Emperor doesn’t mean he must literally be a dragon, a three-headed monster at that. Sigh…

Perhaps I’m taking it too seriously and not watching it as just another summer swashbuckling blockbuster, to be enjoyed for the moment and forgotten after you’ve stepped out of the cinema. But I can’t help but compare it with 2 other movies that I’ve watched this year (well, actually 2 other movies I’ve watched at the cinema since I did watch a few others at home). They were probably more worth the ticket prices in my opinion.

The first is Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Like the Mummy series, I also enjoyed the initial Indiana Trilogy. In terms of plot, this is even more incredulous – aliens? But, the chemistry between the cast, so lacking in Tomb, was present here and Shia LaBeouf seems a more credible successor than LF. I think given the many similarities, comparison of the 2 films is inevitable. And Tomb just comes up short. And despite his age, Harrison Ford still oozes charisma and I do look forward to more adventures of his (geriatric) Indy.

タイトル：Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
キャスト： Harrison Ford, Shia LaBeouf

The other movie, Kung Fu Panda, also mixes Far Eastern history and philosopy, but perhaps because it’s animation, I guess I’m more forgiving. The laughs are better here (than Tomb), without doubt. Which is also one of my grouses against Tomb. The original Mummy films had quite a few humourous moments, not restricted to the comic relief provided by John Hannah’s Jonathan Carnahan. In Tomb, John Hannah’s screen time was quite limited (what a shame) and not quite as funny. And that leads us to another problem. Too many characters (don’t forget they’ve got Anthony Wong and even Russel Wong!), big names (well they are to me), but playing bit roles. And there’s not much comedy. I mean the scene where MB’s Evie waltzes into the room in her nightie trying to seduce BF who was snoring in the armchair, I just wonder if I were supposed to laugh at it? But it’s not even funny – too predictable and frankly out of place/sequence. In the end I just rolled my eyes.

Kung Fu Panda had more funny moments, the really ha-ha funny moments. It was practically a laughfest, yet, they managed to sneak in some “moral of the story” thingy into it without being cheesy, and they didn’t misappropriate too many Far Eastern philosophies, at least not to me. It was entertaining, which I couldn’t say for Tomb.

タイトル：Kung Fu Panda
キャスト：Jack Black, et. al

You can say I’m not surprised that Mummy 3 has received negative reviews and has been panned by critics. It’s not difficult to see why. Seems like some of their criticism are pretty much how I feel.

For The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

For Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull &
Kung Fu Panda