ViewGuide

Created Jul 24, 2011 01:39PM PST • Edited Jul 24, 2011 01:39PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Barely OK 2.0

   Oh, wait. This was a movie? Seemed more an FX ride with dialogue. I’m all for silly summer blockbusters, FX heavy and logic lite. But this one is so over-the-top that it’s distancing. Boredom follows quickly. And that’s deadly, no matter how magical the spells it seeks to cast.

   The movie and its predecessor deserve credit for one thing: making mummies not scary anymore. Notwithstanding the world-class FX and fierce violence they employ, their mix of satire and jocularity defangs what used to be a terrifying movie monster. That’s gotta count for something.

4. Acting

   Good 3.0

   A charismatic cast goes to waste: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, Oded Fehr, Dwayne Johnson and young Freddie Boath among them.

5. Male Stars Good 3.0

6. Female Stars Good 3.0

7. Female Costars Good 3.0

8. Male Costars Good 3.0

10. Film

    Pretty Bad 1.5

    Written and directed by Stephen Sommers, king of the over-the-top FX adventure movie, a guy who makes Michael Bay seem discrete.

    A great bit o’ trivia from IMDb says it all:

    Industrial Light & Magic jokingly created the “Stephen Sommers Scale” to measure the extent of digital effects used in a given movie scene. The four parts of the scale, from lowest to highest, are “What The Shot Needs”, “What The Computers Can Handle”, “Oh My God, The Computers Are About To Crash”, and finally “What Stephen Wants”.

11. Direction Pretty Bad 1.5

12. Play Bad 1.0

13. Music Bad 1.0

14. Visuals Barely OK 2.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 2.1

    Take to heart the PG-13 rating. Just because the movie is silly doesn’t mean it is appropriate for little ones.

17. Sex Innocent 1.5

18. Violence Fierce 2.5

19. Rudeness Salty 2.3

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.6

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Fantasy 4.1

24. Physical Supernatural 3.7