What went wrong with the third Mummy film?

Just like old times

When Stephen Sommers released The Mummy in 1999, a sequel was immediately greenlit before even one ticket had sold. Thank god it was as two years later Sommers once again directed The Mummy Returns. It's a fun ride if you don't take it too serious, especially when The Rock's CGI is often talked about in such a negative way. Lets be honest, it's not good but again if you've gotten to that point in the movie, and it's late on, then you probably don't care anyway. 

The first Mummy film is often described as being the best one, but for me it's The Mummy Returns. It just feels bigger, better and just put together in a more complete way. 

Much of the same characters return such as Oded Fehr as Medjai leader Ardeth Bay, Rachel Weisz as Evelyn O'Connell and of course The Mummy himself, played by Arnold Vosloo. John Hannah returns to play Evelyn's brother Johnathan Carnathan, and Freddie Broath plays Rick and Evelyn's young son Alex. 

The star of every Mummy film is arguably Brendan Fraser, and deservedly so. Fraser was born to play the starring hero role and you can tell from his performance in these films that he genuinely loves playing this character. These films have become classics over the years mainly because of Brendan Fraser, and you really couldn't imagine anyone else playing the role. 

The first Mummy felt like it laid the platform for what these films could be, and the sequel really took off from that. The choice to expand the characters and evolve the story which made the original so loved was vital,  and Sommers made some great decisions here. 

So what went wrong with the much anticipated third Mummy film? 

First off Sommers wouldn't be returning to direct, so the reigns went to Rob Cohen. Cohen is best known for directing Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story and even the first film in the Fast franchise. Several actors also decided not to return for a third outing, and this included Rachel Weisz. She would be ultimately replaced by Maria Bello, who's actually American so she would be adopting a British accent in line with the character. I would like to say she does a good job but most of the time she is trying to hard to be posh, and the accent doesn't really convince across the movie. Aside from that Maria Bello does a fantastic job, and it's not exactly her fault, but not having Weisz return really hurt this movie.

Also not returning would be Freddie Broath as Alex O'Connell, and as he is now older, he was played by American actor Like Ford. Ford is a good actor and does a reasonable job playing Alex, however I still don't understand why he has an American accent all of a sudden, since we knew he was very British in the second film. Maybe there is a backstory we don't know about but nothing in the film explains this and it's just sort of glossed over. 

Perhaps the biggest change to the third Mummy, aside from Evelyn being replaced, was the change in The Mummy himself. In the first two films Arnold Vosloo plays Imhotep, the mummified priest who brings plagues and armies of undead to life. Whereas in the tomb of the dragon emporer the setting is China, with a new Mummy villain. Jet Li plays the emporer who gets resurrected, and Li does a great job although he's not quite as intimidating as Imhotep. Unfortunately Imhotep doesn't feature at all in this and I think it's good that they changed the antogonist this time. Apparently early drafts of the script had Imhotep team up with our heroes Rick and Evie to take down the Chinese emporer, but he refused saying it wasn't realistic to see him on the good side (not that the mummy is a realistic film but here we are). 

Overall The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emporer is a decent family flick, and I say that as this film genuinely feels more like a cartoon version of the first two. The music's spot on with the theme and some would argue the soundtrack is better in this film. 

Many of the scenes are very goofy and feel very apart from the other films, and the O'Connells don't feel quite as a family with all the change ups. Thank god John Hannah returned at least he brings it together in his own way and his bonding with Rick as brother in law's is always funny to see.