Rachel Weisz made a wise choice by passing on this project. Even though she brought grace, class, wit and sex appeal effortlessly to her role as Evelyn O’Connell, I don’t think even her can save this disaster.

Maria Bello replacing Weisz for the role could be blame for her part. It’s as if she didn’t study the role before coming in and did a 180 on the character, alienating the audience who have followed the franchise from the start. She tried too hard to be cute and to shine on the screen but you can see she’s putting in a lot of effort.

Director Rob Cohen shouldn’t be blame totally for the failure. The story by long-time collaborators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar didn’t get this franchise at all. It’s really fine if they wanted it to be set in China together with the Olympics but let’s be realistic even in this fantastical story, there are no mummies in the Chinese culture. Yet the word has been loosely inserted whenever possible, almost as if they were trying to justify the title of the movie.

The obligatory love story was even more hideous than the one in Forbidden Kingdom. It came out of nowhere with forced chemistry and the actors failed miserably trying to commit to that counterfeit chemistry.

The use of Chinese in the movie was very inconsistent. Michelle Yeoh’s character should not understand English as she’s been hiding in the Himalayas with… yetis. And while summoning the dead, again the English was used to recite an enchantment which was ridiculous as those dead were buried thousands of years ago – why would they rise to a language they didn’t comprehend?

The action and escapades were supposed to thrill the audience, but they did not. There was a hollow feeling while watching the story fly by at light speed. The audience were never given the chance to relate to any of the characters in the story. The threat of the Emperor were never felt throughout the whole movie even though the characters were rushing to stop him. It’s like fishing on calm waters.

At one point, the Emperor with all the powers he possessed, decided to tear off his face and throw at his assailants, the puny humans who he could fire-breathe to death. Go figure.

Jet Li for the second time this summer has debased himself for light and useless entertainment that will do nothing for his Hollywood career. It’s a sad, sad thing to witness.

And it’s been so many years, shouldn’t Rick O’Connell get a different haircut by now?

Rating: 3 / 10

(all images from imdb.com)