These two movies were absolutely awesome. I haven't seen the Scorpion King, and I don't seriously plan to. No way The Rock trying to act could match the two great things that the first two movies had going for them:
The Brandon Fraser Factor (tm) - Brandon Fraser is the man, and he's totally the man in this movie. He totally nails the part of a guy who kills some rather scary walking dead while still being funny and likeable. Even if you don't take the man seriously, you still have to admit that his acting in this movie was great and if it wasn't the kind of acting you get an Oscar for, it was at least the kind that lets you watch a movie many times and enjoy it every time.
The Awesome Mummy Factor (tm) - More present in the first one but definitely there in both. In the second movie you could say that it was passed on to the Cool Anubis Warriors Factor (tm) but there was a definite lack of Neato Rock-Scorpion-Man Factor. My point is that these guys are awesome to look at: they look like mummies, and if the whole time you're thinking "they're just CGI," at least they're cool-looking CGI.
These two factors add a ton to both movies, but they wouldn't be complete without some other stuff. First mention goes to awesome supporting characters. Definite props go to Jonathan's actor, John Hannah, for being hilarious comic relief without being annoying. Rachel Weisz, playing Evelyn, may not be the hottest babe in Hollywood but her acting is solid and she does make quite a few contributions to both movies. Ok, he might look funny with hair, and cooler as a mummy, but the Mummy himself, aka Arnold Vosloo, is pretty cool himself. Plus if you watch the special features on the DVD you know that he actually stood in for most of the parts where you see a CG Mummy, so that is actually him playing the CG Mummy sorta. When the weird Arab dude (his real character name is Ardeth Bay, and his actor is Oded Fehr) survived the first movie I was really happy. He's definitely a cool guy, and he kicks ass of course. The second movie wouldn't have been the same without his comment about the bus ride. Final mention goes to the two flyers in the movies, the cool old British dude in the first one and Izzy in the second one. Okay, seeing a dirigible (it's not a balloon!) go flying around on rockets was a bit zany at least, but the whole concept that perhaps airplanes were on their way out really enforced that this was taking place back in the day.
One thing that I've noticed, and if you're reading this you might have heard it, is that the dudes who made the look of the second movie played a ton of Diablo II. The pygmies are definitely Undead Fetishes, and the Scorpion King's lair could as well be the dungeons of the Second Act. Then the hell-dudes look a heck of a lot like the dudes trying to climb out of the River of Flames (I think that's what it's called). But it's all good, seriously.
These movies are creepy, they're funny, they're good watchin'. Definitely dead 'ard.