Movie review: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the third "The Mummy" movie starring Brendan Fraser. While the first two took place where you would expect to find mummy's, this one takes place in China. Some will take issues with this, but I don't. Living-dead creatures don't actually exist, after all. Right??? ;-)

Has it was said before by Rick O'Connell, our hero and again this time, "Here we go again!". Bringing the story to China was one way of making something old new again. Somewhat. I wouldn't call it entirely new, but it does bring new elements to the story, between battles with decayed walking corps. It also brings Jet Li as the Dragon Emperor and Michelle Yeoh as Zi Juan, a witch who once magically imprisoned the Emperor and, due to a certain digging expedition, will need to do deal with him again. But this time, he must be killed, so he can't come back again. I won't tell you if this succeed, as I do not want to insult your intelligence...

Evelyn O’Connell is back as Rick's wife, but is played by Maria Bello this time around. I guess Rachel Weisz was not interested in another easy blockbuster movie. On the other hand, John Hannah is back as Jonathan Carnahan, who happens to have moved to China to get away from those darn mummy's... New to the main cast is Luke Ford, as Alex O'Connell (Rick's son) and Isabella Leong, as Lin (Zi Juan's daughter). Both kids are following their parent's path in live, respectively.

I liked the movie for what it is, a fun summer ride with great special effects (while not always perfect) and a comical undertone. As can be seen in the trailer, there is a lot of mummy's to be seen, as well as a few Yetis. If this movies makes enough money, then there could be a fourth one coming, but I think it may be a good idea to keep it as a trilogy, before they start to spread this franchise too thin... We'll see.

Movie review: Speed Racer

I may never have seen the cartoon it is based on, but I have seen the Speed Racer movie and it's a thrill ride! As a matter of fact, it does look like a cartoon for the most part, which is OK for a movie like this one. It is live action, but with a lot of CG. It holds very well on the Imax screen I saw it on. The type of races we see are way over the top and are fun to watch, with lots of action. The music is fun too, the story is interesting and the actors are good.

The movie is directed by the Wachowski brothers (Andy & Larry), of The Matrix fame. It stars Emile Hirsch as Speed, Matthew Fox as Racer X, John Goodman as Pops (Speed's father), Susan Sarandon as Mom and Christina Ricci as Trixie, Speed's girlfriend (we don't get to see her a lot, unfortunately, but it suits the story). There are actually a lot more interesting characters, but you can go to IMDB for those details...

If you are looking for a realistic car racing movie, go somewhere else. On the other hand, if you are looking for family friendly, special f/x heavy action, impossible racing moves and just plain silly fun, this is a good choice. It's over two hours (2:15), but it sure didn't feel like it.

Movie review: Transformers

I saw Transformers a few hours ago and it was awesome! Better than I expected, as a matter of fact. I did expect good special effects and action, but I got more with a good story and surprisingly, lots of funny scenes. I didn't think I would be laughing this much, with several out loud laughs. And I wasn't the only one laughing, so it's not just me. It's not a comedy, to be sure, but for an action film, the humour is more than the usual one-liners.

I'm not too familiar with the back-story of the Transformers, since I didn't read or watch them when they were 'just cartoons'. There is a nice intro at the beginning of the movie, so I knew enough for this particular story. On the other hand, I may have missed a few references, but it would not have affected my enjoyment of the movie if this was the case. Actually, not knowing what it should have been, if they diverged from the origins of the characters, may be a good thing. I just don't know.

One reference I was not expecting is to the Kill Bill movies. It may just be a coincidence, but I doubt it very much. What I know is that we laughed when we saw and heard it. I won't say anything more, not to spoil it for you guys.

In short, there are two clans of Transformers, the bad guys, the Decepticons and the good guys, the Autobots. And the fact that they battle on our planet is not a coincidence, as something brought them here...

One thing I did expect was great special effects and we got that big time. The visuals are spectacular and believable. One of the FX house that worked on this movie is ILM, which is not surprising.

There's a few short scenes during the beginning of the credits, but nothing at the end, which did surprise me, as I thought they would hint at a sequel with a short visual clue, but that was not the case. The end of the movie do make a sequel possible, so that is very likely to happen, IMHO.

Go see it already!