When The Mummy Returns, it's 1933, and Rick and Evy are happily
married with a young son named Alex. They're poking around the ruins of an old
Egyptian temple site that contains the Bracelet Of Anubis, which was worn by The
Scorpion King, whose pact with that dark Egyptian god nearly enabled him to
conquer all of ancient Egypt. During a tumultuous encounter with tomb raiders,
the O'Connell family finds the Bracelet Of Anubis and barely manages to get it
out of the temple with their lives. Meanwhile, a new squad of bad guys, led by
the reincarnated Anck-su-namum, dig up the corpse of Imhotep from the destroyed
City Of The Dead.
It turns out that 1933 is the year of the Scorpion in the Ancient Egyptian
calendar, which is the time that the Scorpion King is destined to return from
the great beyond (these ancient Egyptian dudes just won't stay dead, will they?),
leading the undead armies of Anubis to conquer the world (apparently Anubis is
no longer satisfied with just ruling Egypt anymore). However, Anck and her
friends want to revive Imhotep so that he can defeat the Scorpion King in hand
to hand combat, and thus assume command of Anubis' legions of the undead, who
will blindly follow the winner of such a battle. But they need the Bracelet Of
Anubis in order to work all of this magical mojo, and so a group of armed thugs
plan a road trip to the O'Connell's home in England.
The Mummy Returns is just as much fun as the original 1999 film. Writer/director
Stephen Sommers has his vast story taking off on all cylinders from the very
first frame, and the relentless pace never lets up as the O'Connell family finds
themselves once more fighting mummies, assassins, The Scorpion King and even
little pygmy mummies (my favorite creeps of the film). The revelation that Rick
and Evy are reincarnated spirits from ancient Egypt strikes me as being a little
lame, but at least this gives us a great excuse to witness a marvelous flashback
sequence in old Egypt where Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velasquez battle it out in
scant bikinis (which is my favorite scene from the film, and the fact that it
contains two gorgeous, skimpily clad actresses has everything to do with it).
In
her previous life, Evy was the daughter of the same pharaoh who was killed by
Imhotep and his lover Anck-su-anmum. Brendan Frasier and Rachel Weisz return as
Rick and Evy O'Connell, while John Hannah reprises his role as Jonathan, Evy's
brother. Patricia Velasquez, who briefly played Imhotep's lover Anck-su-namum
only in flashback in the first film, shines brightly in The Mummy Returns
as she vamps it up in a far larger role as a femme fatale this time out. WWE
wrestler The Rock makes his big screen debut during a flashback scene within the
first five minutes of The Mummy Returns. His Scorpion King character would be
spun off into his own movie. The DVD is jammed packed
behind the scenes goodies, including another entertaining audio commentary by
Director Sommers. With non-stop action and epic battles involving thousands, The
Mummy Returns offers plenty of popcorn-movie fun. --SF
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