The Film
It's been seven years since the back-to-back hits The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, and while writer/director Stephen Sommers has moved onto other projects, veteran action helmer Rob Cohen (Daylight, The Fast and the Furious, xXx) took over the reins to the ongoing saga of ancient men so powerfully evil, they just won't stay dead. The hero and heroine from the first two movies, Rick and Evey O'Connell (Brendan Fraser now joined by Maria Bello in place of the M.I.A. Rachel Weisz) are stuck in a boring post-World War II retirement while their son Alex, now fully grown, discovers the final resting place of a ruthless Chinese emperor. He awakens, the end is nigh, we mere mortals fight the good fight… it's pretty much all been done before, smarter and more believably than in Dragon Emperor, with its tedious subplots and frequently insipid dialogue. Even so, fans of the franchise will surely find lots to like, as the action is once again big and fast-paced, and the essential formula remains unchanged.
Check out Mark Grady's take on The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor here.
The Picture
Details tend to pop nicely in this generally good HD rendering of the 2.4:1 image, with a reach-out-and-touch-it realism to the scenery in particular. Smoke hangs in the foreground or middle of many shots yet it always looks natural. The digital special effects are a bit of a disappointment considering how far the medium has come, and they too often look like digital effects. Areas of softer focus within the frame can also be a bit twitchy. Much of the movie is set during the celebration of Chinese New Year and so the image can be extremely colorful at times.
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack flaunts aggressive rear-channel use for both individual and crowd voices, incidental sounds behind us, and musical instruments, with noteworthy fidelity to the drums especially. We're also taken on a wild airplane trip, showered with de rigueur front-to-back/back-to-front arrows and plenty of 360-degree gunfire, and then jolted by some wonderfully sharp explosions marked by ample bass. Again, this is China, so the fireworks play well in 5.1, as do the impressive epic-scale battles and supernatural mayhem wrought by the forces of both good and evil. Clearly, we are not meant to fall asleep during this movie.
The Extras
I began with the articulate, enlightening solo audio commentary with Rob Cohen. There is also a video commentary from the director, accessible from among Universal's U-Control interactive in-movie features, which also include "Scene Explorer" to dissect a given sequence, "Know Your Mummy" that links the three films via multimedia, "The Dragon Emperor's Challenge" trivia game and further "Picture in Picture." All five can be active at once, we just need to indicate which one we want to view via a click of the remote. The disc is also BD-Live-enabled for additional content online. About eleven minutes of Deleted and Extended Scenes are presented in standard definition, along with "The Making of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" (23 minutes, high-definition), a look at shooting on location in "From City to Desert" (16 minutes, HD) while the quest for historical authenticity is highlighted in "Legacy of the Terra Cotta" (13-and-a-half minutes, HD).
Additional bonus content can be found on Disc Two, a DVD, and therefore in standard-definition. "Preparing for Battle with Brendan Fraser and Jet Li" (eleven minutes) is one of the best, showing how the many different fight scenes were put together. "Jet Li: Crafting the Emperor Mummy" (eight minutes) covers all aspects of the new villain, "A Call to Action: The Casting Process" (five minutes) discusses the changes and additions to the troupe, and "Creating New and Supernatural Worlds" (eight-and-a-half minutes) spills secrets about the design and construction of the elaborate sets. This disc is also where we find the Digital Copy of the movie for PC and iPod.
Final Thoughts
I like the first two in this series well enough and so I wanted to give Dragon Emperor every chance. The intervening years and talent changes have not been kind however, and so the movie lacks the spark of its predecessors, although the disc looks good, sounds great, and makes outstanding use of the current technology.
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