Movie Plot – The Mummy Returns: Imhotep’s mummified body is shipped to a museum in London, where he reawakens and begins his campaign of rage and terror.

Director: Stephen Sommers
Writer: Stephen Sommers
Cast: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Dwayne Johnson, Patricia Velasquez

The Scorpion King

The Mummy Returns starts with the story of the Scorpion King, who is played by Dwayne Johnson. Now, don’t expect to see a lot of him in this movie. The Scorpion King was able to survive in the desert sands through a pact with the god Anubis. In 1933, archaeologists wanted to bring the mummy Imhotep to life to defeat Scorpion King.

The title The Mummy Returns already gives away a bit that the murderous mummy Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) from the first part returns. This time to take on another mythological creature that is about to awaken. He must defeat the Scorpion King to seize control of Anubis’ army and conquer the world. Of course, Rick (Brendan Fraser), Evy (Rachel Weisz) and Jonathan (John Hannah) must put a stop to this.

A fun film

As in the first part, the film is full of exciting and spectacular moments while there is still a huge amount of room for humor. Lead actors Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz still have a lot of fun playing their roles, while newcomer Shaun Parkes as balloonist Izzy also provides amusing fragments. In addition, the special effects and CGI are of good quality and the story sticks out well.

The Mummy Returns is a worthy sequel despite the fact that the novelty is gone. The story is a bit more complicated and I wouldn’t have needed it to be, but despite that, it’s well crafted and easy to follow. New characters like Izzy and Lock-Nah (Adewale) actually add something, while old acquaintances like Rick, Evy, Ardeth (Oded Fehr) and the dreaded Imhotep still have a major role. So an entertaining film that, like its predecessor, has stood the test of time well.

Awful CGI

The last part of the film can be compared to a cutscene from a video game. I mean this in a bad way. This scene can also be found in the top 10 lists of bad CGIs, so that says it all.

You get Dwayne Johnson with a scorpion body. Yet everything is CGI, both his face and body. I haven’t looked it up but I suspect he was never physically there for the part. Of course, there were also other scenes where the effects were terrible.

Conclusion

This Mummy Returns was a very enjoyable sequel, but it certainly doesn’t compare to the first one. It had its charming elements, and of course the action-adventure fun that the first brought was given back to us in the sequel.

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