Mummies In China? Indeed.
Tomb of the Dragon Emperor draws inspiration from Asian legend, especially that of the Terra Cotta Army in China. The film begins in ancient China, during a time of unrest and chaos in the land. Jet Li’s character, Emperor Han, is a powerful military leader who garners more and more control over the land of China and its people until he becomes its emperor. Han and his forces are unstoppable, and only death it seems can stop Han. Realizing this, Han sends his friend and military commander, General Ming Guo, to seek out Zi Juan, played by Michelle Yeoh, who knows where to find the secret of immortality.
Han is impressed with Zi Juan’s beauty and wants her for himself; but General Ming Guo and Zi Juan fall in love and this upsets Han. Knowing Han’s dark ways, when Zi Juan goes to cast the spell of immortality on Han, she actually curses him. This curse entombs Han and his army in Terra cotta. They aren’t found again until Alex O’Connell, son of Richard “Rick” O’Connell and Evelyn O’Connell, finds him. Meanwhile, Rick and Evelyn O’Connell, Brendan Frasier and Maria Bello (as opposed to Rachel Weisz, who turned down the role), are finding it hard to adjust to a ‘normal’ life in England that they promised themselves after their latest adventure (Mummy Returns). They get their chance at adventure when they’re entrusted to deliver a Chinese artifact back to Shanghai, China. Jonathan Carnahan from the earlier Mummy adventures owns a club there and Alex is also there.
Before the gang knows it, they’re waist deep in another fantasy action-adventure. The artifact the O’Connell’s brought to China is the key to resurrecting the Emperor. They’re forced to give up the artifact and must then team up to fight the Emperor to keep him from becoming truly immortal and from having his army march across the earth.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a fun, entertaining film. It doesn’t try to be anything more than that and that’s to its credit. That said, there is a love story or two, but these take a back seat to the final action-adventure with bits of verbal and situational humor throughout. The cast will be familiar to any Mummy fan, with the exception of Maria Bello, but she does a superb job as Evelyn O’Connell anyway, so no worries there. I also thought Jet Li did a great job even though his actual time on screen is fairly brief, due to scheduling issues during filming, but his facial expressions and mannerisms carry into the digital realm nicely thanks to some cutting edge CG work. Speaking of the CG, there’s plenty of it in this Mummy film just as the previous two and it’s very well done; of it all, I think the Yeti animations and renderings were the most impressive.
Overall, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a fun, exciting film. I don’t know how often I would be up for watching the film, but it’s a great movie to just pop in on a late night or slow weekend and relax to.
Coming Alive On Blu-ray
The Blu-ray release of Tomb of the Dragon Emperor comes packaged in a Deluxe Edition that contains the film and several extras on Blu-ray, and a few more extras on disc two, a DVD. Visually, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is sharp and crisp. I thought just a few brief desert scenes looked a bit washed out, but otherwise it’s a very impressive treat. The variety of colors, the CG, and the special effects all look awesome. The DTS-HD 5.1 audio track doesn’t disappoint either, bringing you all of the dialogue and gun-slinging, Mummy-slaying action clearly and purposefully.
As far as extras, Universal Studios doesn’t disappoint. Their U-Control features continue to impress and you’ll find not only that but several other intriguing extras in this set:
-Deleted/Extended Scenes – A total of nine scenes here running about eleven minutes, in SD. These scenes show a variety of things including more of the love story between Zi Juan and General Ming Guo, an additional scene to the final fight with Han, and other ‘relationship scenes’ that were done to help flesh out some of the relationship details between various characters in the film.
-Making Of – The Making Of feature runs about twenty-two minutes and is in HD. Expect your typical variety of behind the scenes footage and cast and crew interviews including excerpts of interviews with Brendan, Jet, Maria, and Luke, as well as director Rob Cohen. You’ll also see footage of the crew working out details to various sequences of the film, it’s well worth a watch.
-From City To Desert – A fifteen minute HD feature here that includes more behind the scenes footage and more excerpts from interviews with cast and crew. Rob Cohen and crew talk about their interest in China and Asian culture and about the locales used for filming (Montreal, Beijing, and Shanghai).
-Legacy of the Terra Cotta – The focus of this extra is on the large battle scene near the end of the film. Rob Cohen provides thoughts on the film and some history of the Terra Cotta Army. This extra is about thirteen minutes and in HD.
-Audio Commentary with Director Rob Cohen
-U-Control– U-Control is a really cool Universal Studios Blu-ray feature that they put on a lot of their Blu-ray releases. It’s basically a feature that you can enable and disable seamlessly while watching the movie, or you can browse the chapters or scenes of the film and see what U-Control features they have. Whether you browse the scenes or just wait for the U-Control prompt when watching the film, you’ll have access to five neat features.
-Scene Explorer – Scenes with this U-Control feature allow you to view them in alternate angles or in storyboard form.
-Know Your Mummy – A cool feature that gives more information about the characters in the film. For example, when this feature is available for Alex O’Connell and you choose to watch it, the film shrinks down to a smaller size while a slick looking summary of Alex and his character appears. Included are clips (with audio) of his role in the Mummy Returns and information via text. Hard to explain, but quite cool.
-Dragon Emperor’s Challenge – This is an interactive quiz. When you get an answer wrong, your Curse Meter increases, but you’re also provided with the correct answer.
-Visual Commentary with Director Rob Cohen – Rob Cohen pops in picture-in-picture style to give you insight on the particular scene.
-Picture-In-Picture– More P-in-P features that give details about the film.
On Disc 2, the DVD, there are more extras:
-Call To Action: Casting – Running about five minutes, this feature includes a few more excerpts and more behind the scenes footage of the cast and crew talking about each other, etc.
-Preparing For Battle With Brendan Frasier And Jet Li – Mike Lambert, fight choreographer narrates much of this eleven minute feature that goes over several action and fight sequences from the film. Actors and crew chime in with thoughts on their training and more behind the scenes footage is shown.
-Jet Li: Crafting The Emperor Mummy – The CG and special effects guys talk about digitizing Jet Li and making the Mummy form of him come to life on screen. This extra runs about eight minutes.
-Creating New & Supernatural Worlds – Another eight and a half minute extra with more behind the scenes footage, this one focuses on the tremendous sets built and used during the film.
And with that, let’s get to the summary…