Director: Russel Mulcahy
Writer: Randall McCormick (Screenplay) Stephen Sommers (Characters)
Starring: Michael Copon, Randy Couture, Natalie Becker, Karen David, Simon Quarterman, Tom Wu, Andreas Wisniewski
Plot: In Ancient Akkad, Mathayus grows up as the proud son of Ashur, a captain in the world-renowned military corps of Black Scorpions, first-rate bodyguards, most of which are sent to courts wide away. By objecting to young Mathayus joining the corps, Ashur incurs the undying enmity of ruthless generalissimo Sargon, gets killed and the orphaned knave is shipped off to a desolate training camp for six years by king Hammurabi’s clemency. When he returns as a Black Scorpio, Sargon has bloodily seized the throne and demands cruel proof of blind loyalty. Mathayus refuses, becoming a chased hero. With youth friends, the resourceful Greek Pollux and various mercenary warriors, he embarks on a daring quest to obtain a legendary sword from Sargon’s magical ally, the war-goddess Astarte.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Re-Writing Mythology Sequel
Story: The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior starts with an origin story, yay, Mathayus’ father Ashur was part of the elite warriors known as thee Black Scorpions but objects of his son following in his footsteps but after Mathayus finds himself training under the ruthless general Sargon (Couture) making an early enemy within the kingdom. When his father is killed by Sargon, Mathayus has no proof, so he sets out to prove himself by learning the ways of the Black Scorpions, but upon his return Sargon has risen to power.
When Mathayus (Copon) refuses to surround blind loyalty to Sargon, he learns the strength he posses with the dark arts and must train to return to bring down the tyrant Sargon with the help of friends along the way including old friend Layla (David), Ari (Quarterman) and Pollux (Wisniewski) who must first fight against the Minotaur.
Thoughts on The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior
Characters/Performance – Mathayus is the young warrior trained in the art of the Black Scorpion which again goes against everything we have learnt in the first two films. But away from these strange new character developments, he is mostly just a warrior seeking revenge for the murder of his father. Layla is the strong adventurous woman that wants to be a warrior and love interest for Mathayus. Sargon is the deadly warrior who has become king, he has used the dark magic to gain his power and makes for a great opposition for Mathayus.
Performance wise, Copon doesn’t reach the levels we have come to expect from this character with Johnson’s ability in the leading role. Karen David is good in the lead lady role with Couture struggling to make the impact with his villainous role but he can handle the fights well.
Story – Looking at the story, we get a prequel to the prequel that was involving a character from a sequel, yeah it is getting confusing already. This time Mathayus gets trained by the Black Scorpions and works under a king in what is a flat-out revenge adventure action fantasy film. we dive into a mix of mythologies now mixing Greek and Egyptian and a deadlier villain. It works as a one of film but as a sequel it is almost irrelevant.
Action/Adventure – The action is plenty of combat scenes which all are fine without being anything special with the adventure being to the underworld and back which does make for a good fantasy side to everything.
Settings – The settings all look fine but you don’t identify with enough of them for the ancient world.
Special Effects – The weakest of all here are the special effects that are nearly all awful looking CGI.
Final Thoughts – This is a fine starter for an action adventure on low budget but as a sequel/prequel it goes in the wrong direction for me.
Overall: Easy to watch action adventure.
Rating
