The Mummy’s Hand (1940) introduced an entirely new storyline and a different mummy character named Kharis. Universal’s first reboot of the original was also the first follow-up to the 1932 release. Over 40 years later, the studio rebooted the franchise using an action framework to appeal to a broader audience. Released just a year after the studio’s first two big forays into pre-code horror, Dracula and Frankenstein, it eventually led to several interrelated follow-ups in the 1940’s.
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Karloff is one of the best known actors to fill the role, but others have stepped in during Universal's original run and in the movie reboots. Having multiple bad guys confuses things, but it does allow for two enjoyable cat fights – one in a flashback to ancient Egypt – between the toughened-up characters played by Velasquez and Weisz.One of the first of the iconic Universal monsters was The Mummy (1932), with Boris Karloff portraying the resurrected high priest Imhotep. When she realizes young Alex has stumbled on the key to the Scorpion King’s resting place, she and her fearsome sidekick Lock-Nah (Adewale Akinnouoye-Agbaje who plays Adebisi in TV’s “Oz”) come to London (strangely, disappointingly empty), kidnap the boy and take him back to Egypt.Īided once again by the mysterious Berber warrior Ardeth (Oded Fehr) and Evelyn’s roguish brother Jonathan (John Hannah), Rick and Evelyn must rescue their son and at the same time stop Imhotep and Meela from wakening the Scorpion King’s army and taking over the world. The conspiracy is led by Meela (Patricia Velasquez, the Venezuelan model/actress so enjoyable in last year’s “Committed”), the reincarnation of Imhotep’s ancient lover Anck-Su-Namun.
They’re all waiting to be brought to life underneath the soil of a secret oasis. Thousands of years ago the Scorpion King sold his soul to the god Anubis in return for an invincible army of jackal-headed soldiers. This pleasingly amorous married couple are working with their son on another dig in Egypt when they come up against a conspiracy to reawaken their old foe, the powerful mummy Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) and then to enable him to absorb the powers of a fierce ancient hero called the Scorpion King (the wrestler known as “The Rock”).
In particular, Brendan Fraser is just as charming as before as Rick, the American soldier of fortune, who has now married Egyptologist Evelyn (Rachel Weisz, much feistier this time) and fathered a scrappy little son Alex (Freddie Boath). Yet the second coming of “The Mummy” is still reason for celebration in what is so far proving to be an exceptionally poor year in the movies.
It’s a shame because one of the real pleasures of “The Mummy” was the knowledgeable and affectionate way it alluded to the conventions, dramatic and technological, of old movie serials and the Sax Rohmer imperial thrillers of the ’30’s. And instead of that marvelous biplane, you’ve got a silly looking hot air balloon equipped with little jets that looks like it was assembled by the children in “E.T.” Gone are the legionnaires, villainous continental archaeologists and the treacherous Cairenes. There’s nothing quite as new or startling in “The Mummy Returns.” And some of the characteristics that made “The Mummy” different and pleasurable have been diluted: The balance between campy jokiness and straightfaced action has shifted in the direction of camp, the original’s bracing “orientalist” political incorrectness has all but vanished and, most dismaying of all, Sommers is no longer sticking so closely to the conventions of the genre. LESS nimble and more heavily reliant on computer-generated special effects than its delightful 1999 predecessor (let alone the 1932 Boris Karloff original), “The Mummy Returns” is still perfectly enjoyable swashbuckling, eye-catching entertainment.Īn overwhelming advantage of Stephen Sommers’ first Mummy movie was its sheer freshness: the way it brought an almost forgotten genre back to life (and spoofed it in the gentlest, most affectionate way), and of course that wonderful special effects image of the mummy’s face looming out of a sandstorm. E-walk, the Union Square, the 84th Street, others. Running time: 125 minutes Rated PG-13 (fights, scary creatures). Big, jokey, effects-heavy sequel to the 1999 pyramid actioner.