The Scorpion King Review
by Eugene Novikov (lordeugene_98 AT yahoo DOT com)June 24th, 2002
The Scorpion King (2002)
Reviewed by Eugene Novikov
http://www.ultimate-movie.com/
"Will you stand alone before the fury of his armies?" "Yes."
Starring The Rock, Kelly Hu, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steven Brand. Directed by Chuck Russell. Rated PG-13.
The Mummy franchise would be terrific if the writers would bother to establish some sort of semi-concrete mythology. It has the sort of campy, absurdist, anything-goes spirit that is missing from most by-the-numbers action blockbusters, but there is only a certain amount of it we can take -- one movie, to be precise -- before some semblance of substance is required to give it footing. The Scorpion King, a spin-off/origin story for a character from The Mummy Returns , has the right idea aesthetically, but it still doesn't make any damn sense. And I'm not necessarily looking for logic, which is a completely acceptable element to jettison in movies like this. What I want is consistency, a hint that some thought is being invested in these endearingly goofy but increasingly tiresome storylines either set in or involving a grandly mythical Ancient Egypt. It's not Shakespeare I'm looking for, but something vaguely resembling the pre-Attack of the Clones Star Wars would be nice.
The Scorpion King himself showed up near the end of The Mummy Returns as, appropriately, a scorpion with The Rock's head clumsily pasted at the fore of its curiously crab-like body. Here, he is flesh and blood, and a hero no less. Actually, he begins as a bounty hunter, offering a group of rebels the head of an important target for a price that would wipe out their treasury. Eventually, after seeing his brother killed at the hands of the evil Emperor Memnon, he joins the resistance.
The action involves kidnapping the sorceress Cassandra, whose mystical guidance is rumored to be responsible for the sweeping victories Memnon has enjoyed all over the land. Played by the gratifyingly scantily clad Kelly Hu, she is a willing kidnappee, and works diligently with Mathayus (for that, dear reader, is the title character's real name) to undermine her prior master.
The Scorpion King definitely exceeded my expectations for it. The trailer, the premise, the buzz, all seemed to indicate utter disaster, a debacle in the vein of Rollerball or Scooby Doo. But no: the movie is generally entertaining, serviceably filmed, occasionally witty, with bloodless violence (yay, violence!) and neat stunts. The movie has a feel for its own absurdity, and doesn't even blink at its blatant anachronisms. Like its two predecessors, it uses the most basic Egyptian mumbo-jumbo stereotypes as the basis for its plot. It's all in good fun.
I also like The Rock as an action hero. He's a Schwarzenegger who can actually kinda sorta act, a self-deprecating tough guy who's constantly winking with one eye while glaring menacingly with the other. And really, one would be hard-pressed to come up with a better role for him than this one, which doesn't require much in the way of acting but a lot in the way of action, and as a working professional wrestler, the Rock certainly fits the bill.
One question haunted me as I watched: wasn't the Scorpion King the villain in The Mummy Returns? Why can't these people at least get their stories straight? I'm not exaggerating when I say that this franchise could give Star Wars a run for its money if only head honcho Stephen Sommers, who directed the first two films, could get his act together and write something similarly silly but at least somewhat coherent.
Grade: C+
Up Next: Frailty
©2002 Eugene Novikov
More on 'The Scorpion King'...
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
