Director: Chuck Russell
Writer: Stephen Sommers, William Osborne, David Hayter (Screenplay) Stephen Sommers, Jonathan Hales (Story)
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Steven Brand, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kelly Hu, Bernard Hill, Grant Heslov
Plot: A desert warrior rises up against the evil army that is destroying his homeland. He captures the enemy’s key sorcerer, takes her deep into the desert and prepares for a final showdown.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Fun Action Adventure
Story: The Scorpion King starts in a world where tyrant Memnon (Brand) is taking over the land with ease, killing anyone who goes against him with his Sorceress (Hu) by his side everybody fears him. When the last remaining leaders Balthazar (Duncan), Queen Isis (Howard), King Pheron (Rees) Takmet (Facinelli) want to end his dominate destruction they hire Mathayus (Johnson) and his brother Jesup (Richmond) to kill the Sorceress who is helping Memnon on his rampage.
When Mathayus is betrayed the Sorceress spares him being killed at the hands of any of Memnon men’s hands, he finds himself in a sticky situation where trickster Arpid (Heslov) aids his escape. Mathayus sets out to bring down Memnon and save the land, the Sorceress while teaming up with a range of former enemies fighting the biggest common enemy.
Thoughts on The Scorpion King
Characters/Performance – Mathayus is an elite warrior assassin, so basically nothing like the Scorpion King in the Mummy Returns. He has honor and will fight against all odds for his family, freedom and mostly money. Memnon is a hands-on tyrant warrior who kills anyone who doesn’t follow him, he is the lands best swordsman and we see this in his combat against Mathayus but his weakness is believing in a Sorceress visions. I liked that he is happy to fight against any enemy, this is rare in action adventure films. The Sorceress sees how the fights are going to end, only she doesn’t because her visions don’t come true. Balthazar is a strong leader who is willing to fight up against a worthy opponent. The rest of the character all fit what you expect, the comic relief, the crazy old guy, the betraying son, the henchman the list goes on.
Performance Wise, this film was designed to make Dwayne Johnson look like a new action star, Brand is good as the villain but isn’t the worst for the action genre, with Kelly Hu being the beautiful sorceress works for the film.
Story – The story is easy to follow as long as you are not looking to learn more about the Mummy Returns character because this guy is a hero. When you look into just this story we get a basic action adventure showing the rise of a warrior uniting a nation.
Action/Adventure – The action is all fun with plenty of hand to hand, sword fights and stealth like action going on through the wild adventure. The fantasy side brings up the mythology behind how Scorpion King came to be, again going against the original idea behind the character.
Settings – The settings bring us to a land of sand and Gods which works but doesn’t create anything iconic.
Special Effects – The special effects are all fine but don’t get used too often.
Final Thoughts – This is a fun, easy to watch action adventure film that can be enjoyed as you see Dwayne Johnson on his first steps in leading actor.
Overall: Sit back, relax and enjoy.
Rating
