Warrior. Legend. King.
2002-04-18
$60.0M
92 min
In ancient Egypt, peasant Mathayus is hired to exact revenge on the powerful Memnon and the sorceress Cassandra, who are ready to overtake Balthazar's village. Amid betrayals, thieves, abductions and more, Mathayus strives to bring justice to his complicated world.
When The Scorpion King first came out in '02, it would be hard to imagine that between this franchise and its forebears (The Mummy & The Mummy Returns), that it would be The Scorpion King who would continue to live on in the following decade. Though that's maybe less shocking knowing that Tomb of the Dragon Emperor happened.
Scorpion King delivers on a small amount of the hammy fun it could have been, though I can't help but wonder just how amazing it would be if we had gotten a Fast & Furious level Rock portraying Mathayas.
Final rating:★★ - Had some things that appeal to me, but a poor finished product.
Spawned from the "Mummy Returns" this rather stolid and lurching drama tells the tale of “Mathayus” (Dwayne Johnson) an “Akkadian” - an ancient sort of Mesopotamian - who tries to overthrow the tyrant king “Memnon” (Steven Brand) who reigns with the aid of sorceress who can predict the future (Kelly Hu doing her best Jane Seymour impression). This is as formulaic as I've seen in this genre and leaves little for the imagination. It has humour, on occasion, but is anything but subtle. It's all just an action vehicle for the star that does look good but has little else to recommend it to anyone.
<em>'The Scorpion King'</em> isn't one to take seriously, but based on sheer entertainment factor I did suitably enjoy this. It was, at least for yours truly, a fairly breezy 90 minutes, they did a solid job at keeping the action paced well across that run time. The casting is good too.
Dwayne Johnson isn't the best actor here in terms of how he says his lines and all that (his acting has improved since), but I'd say he makes up for that by fulfilling the physicality requirements. Michael Clarke Duncan, Kelly Hu, Grant Heslov and Bernard Hill are ones I liked seeing too.
Steven Brand is the only actor that I wasn't sold on whilst watching. I do think his Memnon character is just about passable, but at the same time I'd consider him as the weakest link. Elsewhere, the special effects seemed minimally used (at least compared to the originals) - that's a plus.
It always fascinates me when I find out about these sorta franchises, simply because it is somewhat difficult to believe that they could produce five releases and have none of them enter my knowledge - until now, of course. I am interested in checking them out though, no question.
