Explorer Rick O'Connell to combat the resurrected Han Emperor in an epic that races from the catacombs of ancient China high into the frigid Himalayas. Rick is joined in this all-new adventure by son Alex, wife Evelyn and her brother, Jonathan. And this time, the O'Connells must stop a mummy awoken from a 2,000-year-old curse who threatens to plunge the world into his merciless, unending service. Doomed by a double-crossing sorceress to spend eternity in suspended animation, China's ruthless Dragon Emperor and his 10,000 warriors have laid forgotten for eons, entombed in clay as a vast, silent terra cotta army. But when dashing adventurer Alex O'Connell is tricked into awakening the ruler from eternal slumber, the reckless young archaeologist must seek the help of the only people who know more than he does about taking down the undead: his parents. As the monarch roars back to life, our heroes find his quest for world domination has only intensified over the millennia. Striding the Far East with unimaginable supernatural powers, the Emperor Mummy will rouse his legion as an unstoppable, otherworldly force... unless the O'Connells can stop him first.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean that you should pretty much sums up everything you need to know about the latest installment of the Mummy franchise. The movie fails on so many different levels that it is almost astonishing that they were able to ever get the movie made. Just because you can use lots of CGI doesn’t mean you should. Just because you can go to one action sequence after another and fail to set up any type of plot that holds up for more than a second or two doesn’t mean you should. Just because you have run out of ideas doesn’t mean you should introduce new and boring characters that don’t fir well with the story. Just because you can make another sequel to a series that is a remake of another series of sequels doesn’t mean you should. The first two Mummy films were actually good in that popcorn action kind of way, the third installment is just pure stupidity, really bad CGI, very little plot, tons of bad one liners and if this is all they have left hopefully the end of the series.

When watching the film I was reminded of Army of Darkness and Starship Troopers both action movies that were seeped with cornball campiness and became more comedies than action films. Now if the Mummy was trying to take this route they might have just succeeded as the movie is so full of campy cornball scenes that the movie could almost be considered a comedy. But the problem is they weren’t trying to take that route instead they seem all too serious about making another popcorn action film and all that screwball comedy was just to be for comedic effect to lighten the movie at times. Now in the first two films they managed to add just a enough light hearted comedic moments that fit perfectly with the movie but not go over board and turn themselves into a joke. But there seemed to be no boundaries in the third installment as every action sequence had to be punctuated with a stupid one liner or some silly cornball moment. The movie is like Batman & Robin they are taking themselves very serious and that is what ruins its chances of every being a sequel like Army of Darkness that knew what it was and had fun with it.

I am slowly growing weary of CGI being used as a device to replace plot and story. Especially CGI that they use in this film that is so fake and silly you want to throw popcorn at the screen. The yeti’s were a travesty as were most of the marching armies of the dragon emperor. But this movie goes from one really bad CGI scene to the next and then the next and doesn’t seem to care that they would have been just better off developing a story and a plot. The first two films actually spent a little time setting up the story and the plot the third installment thinks a few voice overs followed by lots of bad CGI moments is enough. If you have to resort to voice overs to tell the story because you are unable to do so through the action of the film you know your in trouble.

For some reason I thought Jet Li said he was done with martial arts movies. I guess you can’t consider the Mummy a martial arts film but Jet Li really doesn’t do anything else except when he is some silly CGI fire throwing statue. He should feel ashamed to be in this movie and honestly should go back to the martial arts films he was actually good in. and that is where a big problem in the movie arises and that is in miscasting. I understand they couldn’t get Rachel Weisz back but Maria Bello ended up being a poor substitute. Brendan Frasier seemed to have gotten old and lost his way and brining the side kick brother along for one more ride just didn’t work this time around. If this is all you can spew out as your third film in a franchise its probably just better to bury the franchise and move on.

Grade: D-