Critics are saying this movie is the awful, and that is simply not so. Critics are poo-heads, we all know this. I seem to recall they hated the first two, and those were fantastic!
This one is cute and fun, with lots of cool stuff going on all the time. Plus, what a cast: Michelle Yeoh! Jet Li! Russell Wong! and that's not even counting Brendan Fraser and John Hannah! And Yetis. How can you not like a movie with Yetis?! They're like Ninja, they make any movie they're in better .. and they are less well represented than the ninjas.
However .... (I'm so sorry there has to be a "however")
When I heard that Rachel Weisz wasn't going to be in part 3, I was a little sad. Then I thought, "Hey, this is going to be Rick and Alex on an adventure, and Evie will off doing something for the museum, and that will cool too." Then I found out that wasn't the case, that they cast Maria Bello as Evie, and it would be all of them. I never like the idea of another actor stepping into an established role (James Bond the exception, of course) but I have enjoyed Bello's work.
Stephen Sommers isn't directing this one. He's producing it, but Rob Cohen is directing it. Cohen's directing credits include Stealth, xXx, and The Fast & the Furious.
The character of Ardeth Bay, played by Oded Fehr, isn't in the movie. True, he has no business being in the movie, as it doesn't deal with "his" mummy, nor is it in Egypt, his home turf, but he's really important to the series -- to me anyway.
Okay, there are the changes from the first two. I don't know if it was any one thing, or a combination of a couple of them, but this one doesn't spark and sizzle the way the first two did. Please remember, I think it's a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it, but there was something missing in the chemistry of the show that means it will always be the weak link in the series.
Part of it is the writing choices. They chose to make Alex a young man who has the same level of brat in him as teenager -- not attractive. They also didn't give me a lot of reason to understand why the great kid from 2 had turned into this spoiled man who is old enough to know better. On the other hand, it gave him the opportunity to grow up, emotionally, in front of us, which was nice. I think they spent a little too much time on him ... he's good enough in action, I guess, but he's no Rick O'Connell.
When Rick and Evie were played by Fraser and Weisz there was some serious heat. Not so much with Fraser and Bello. There's something there, don't get me wrong, but Bello is a little too stiff, so it doesn't get the chance to get quite the intensity it needed. Not needed, I guess, but intensity that would have been scorching. Scorching would have been nice.
Michelle Yeoh was brilliant, as usual. Russell Wong was fantastic, but only in it for a little bit, which was a shame. Hope this leads to bigger stuff for him, he deserves it. Li was supercool, which seems to be part of his DNA. He can't help but be supercool!
It pains me to do it, since 1 & 2 were definately Full Price movies, but I have to give this one -- Matinee.