There they go...

THERE they go... again. And this time, the family’s gotten bigger. Plus, they’re out to prove that two thousand years of existence ain’t enough for some people (namely, Zi Yuan and Lin) to come up with a simple solution to a simple problem. YRLY.

Alright, I’m supposed to be doing the usual movie review after watching a film, but I just can’t seem to maintain neutrality (as I always did) on THAT particular movie (hint: it’s about a mummy, a tomb, a dragon and an emperor). But I ain’t saying it’s very bad – not at all, sir/madam - it’s just bloody retarded in the end.

Well, for those who at this point still haven’t figured the insinuations, I’m talking about "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" – the movie I watched a couple of days ago (four days and running, to be exact). The reason for the late review is my usual laziness coupled with the usual weather disturbances and recurring power interruptions.

First off, the good: this movie had everything; the bad: maybe a tad too much.

True, the story is quite solid enough, following a few years after the last Mummy storyline. The original couple, now retired, is happily living a monotonous English life somewhere in London while their son had taken over the task of tomb raiding (albeit secretly in the beginning). As expected, the mummy (in this story, a Chinese emperor) is resurrected through a bizarre twist of events and wreaks havoc. And as if in conformity with the two preceding films, the resurrected villain needs something to achieve completion (and conquer the world) and manages to clear those necessities one by one – only to be defeated in the end. Defeated, mind you, by being stabbed on the heart by a cursed dagger - the very dagger that could have killed him long before had Zi Yuan just thought of resurrecting him one sunny day and driving the blade the instant it was possible. But no, it wouldn't make for a good movie, would it? The mother and daughter tandem just had to wait for the O'Connells to finally put things to and end.

In other words, the movie was quite predictable. Furthermore, it tried to squeeze in lots of scenes and story material in such a relatively short span of time (2hours) such that some shots are noticeably hurried and under-exposed.

On a subjective viewpoint, I’d say I didn’t enjoy it as much as the producers would have wanted, plainly because I personally didn’t like what they did with the third movie. This is coming from one who truly liked the first two movies.

If I were to put it bluntly, this movie just isn’t the sequel I was hoping for. But it could be just me, of course.

Yes, the movie ain’t so bad. In general, it’s worth the ticket, I daresay. I’d still give it a 7/10 despite the shortcomings I listed above, mainly because watching it was a nice enough experience (really better to watch it on the big screen instead of on the_usual_channels). And yeah, it is a good date movie, if I may add. I really wasn’t expecting it to be so, but I guess that it’s good as it is anyway.