The first sign of the end of a tired franchise is when the notable actors begin to jump ship. That’s right, Rachel Weisz was the first to go. The really sad thing is that she made the right choice. Everyone else was stuck in this film for better or for worse. I was excited to hear about the other cast members, Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li, but unfortunately even seasoned action veterans like them couldn’t salvage this sad excuse for a summer action film. Why? You might ask. Well, lets try to think of things that would ruin this movie for viewers: Bad wire fighting, teen angst, horrible one-liners, misplaced comical sound effects, and continuity flaws without end? Unfortunately the third Mummy movie goes 5 for 5 on that list.
When a sequel is preceded by a good, but not great, movie like Hellboy, there is typically a 50-50 chance that it will suck. Or that it will be better than the original. There is a very slim chance that it will be on par with the original, since a director would look at that as being a step back as an artist. So yea… it’s on par. Good, but not great. The visuals were cool. and enjoyable, but it felt like every scene was an attempt to ‘one-up’ the previous movie. Apparently Guillermo del Toro felt the need to live up to his own elevated self image as a creepy-crazy-creature-guy. Oh, and get ready for a solid hour of trying not to picture Selma Blair having sex with a six foot tall red skinned demon.
Imagine Talladega Nights with serious amounts of cussing. Lots. Like half the jokes or gags in this movie are inter cut with f-bombs and various other childish potty mouth. It doesn’t hurt the film, but it wasn’t what I expected and it threw me for a loop. The plot is fairly simple: Will Ferrel and John C Riley are forty year old men acting like children. They still live with their absolutely clueless parents, don’t have jobs, don’t have girlfriends, and apparently don’t have any excuse for this behavior. That’s about all you need to know since the rest of the story is pretty much just an excuse to let these two comedic actors do what they do best… make me laugh.
As far as I was concerned there was no where to go but up. However in the same way people can’t help but stare at a dog taking a shit, I couldn’t help myself and surrendered to my curiosity. It was possibly my low expectations, or maybe my love of the first film, or maybe even the fact that Casper Van Dien played the title role as none other than Johnny Rico, but I walked away seriously loving this movie. Ok, maybe love is a bit too strong a word to describe the feeling; however I did love the first film. This addition to the series reminds me of the first, in all the best ways, and that is why it’s good. Overly gory. Overly cheesy. Best of all it’s loaded with hilarious social commentary. It’s almost as if this director actually knows about more than just virtual space bugs. (He does in fact as he was a writer for all 3 films, I am being facetious)
Caution: The songs contained in this 45 minute, 3 part, masterpiece will get stuck in your head. They will come with you to work, to school, and even to your dreams. How does this happen exactly? If I could answer that I would be a writer director myself instead of a part-time wannabe movie critic. The really amazing thing here is just how fantastic writer/director Joss Whedon really is. So much so that notable actors are willing to sign on for a 45 minute, 3 part, web release only, satirical musical about an mediocre comic book villain. The big surprise is that something with the length of a single TV episode still creates and emotional attachment to each of the characters. Nowadays we are so used to pilot episodes running for 2 hours and still not leaving us viewers with much to hold on to. It’s refreshing to see how good film making can blow them all away with a story that starts and ends in half the time.
Don’t think that all the great things you’ve heard about this film mean that it is perfectly done. It isn’t. However, it is enthralling in the sense that every scene is a thrill to watch. Every scene that includes the Joker. The rest of the film is still very good, but does pale slightly in comparison. The film is not perfect in that some characters are unlikable, there are still huge reality gaps, and that characters let other characters go crazy instead of just taking the 3 seconds to explain something properly. Things like that frustrate me in films like this, ones that take a surreal concept and introduce it into a realistic setting. The big question, again, is: Was it better than Iron Man?