The Film
In case you've lost count (and why wouldn't you?), we're six deep into The Mummy franchise. The latest is The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption, a movie so bad that even original King star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson probably won't see it.
Even though this flick is Rock-free, the direct-to-Blu-ray sequel manages to rope in stars like Billy Zane and Ron Perlman -- and even they don't seem all that interested.
Maybe that's because the main character is Mathayus, who is played by TV regular Victor Webster. Webster is the third Mathayus out of three movies, which may tell you something. Maybe everyone else moved on to bigger and better things. Maybe everyone else knew to get the heck out of Dodge. Good for them.
That said, Mathayus is one bad mofo, and not just in the acting arena. It probably has something to do with his queen and his kingdom being long gone. That and a lack of a full shirt will do crazy things to a man.
The screenplay, which may have been written on the back of a napkin, is filled with bad puns and one-liners. If you're scraping for reasons to watch, all we've got is Zane and Perlman, and even they aren't very good here. Zane hams it up in every scene that he's in, which is actually a perfect complement to the cheese that is the rest of this movie. At least he shows some type of emotion. Perlman spends all of his time with a "WTF? I was just in Drive!" look on his face.
Proceed with caution -- and possibly a lobotomy.
The Picture
Universal does a decent enough job with the image on this action flick. It's a low budget, direct-to-video sequel, so it's hard to expect all that much. The colors are a bit on the dim side, but that seems intentional. It works in this 1.78:1 transfer, but it's certainly not pretty. Blacks, on the other hand, are weak and that sort of stinks, since it's the film is so dark. That said, it has some pretty nice detail, mostly in the film's many close-ups. The wider ones, however, not so much. It's not the best looking sequel in Universal's lineup. It's probably not even the best looking direct-to-video sequel. That said, the image should please the handful of people that actually venture out to buy it.
The Sound
The DTS-HD Master Audio track doesn't play as well. Dialogue levels go up and down, and don't seem to match up with the film that well. Most film sound is added on a soundstage but if it's done properly, you never notice that. In this case, it's painfully obvious, which makes the whole film seem sort of fake. How dare they mess with the realism of The Scorpion King! It doesn't really matter, though. We're not sure who would be in this for the dialogue. There are plenty of immersive punches, crunches, explosions, and screams. Enjoy.
The Extras
Sadly, there's no extra explaining exactly why The Scorpion King 3 movie was actually made. At least, not an honest one. Besides bloopers and deleted scenes, everything is extra fluffy. If you want someone to take the film seriously, check out the commentary track by director Roel Reiné. He seems to be the lone wolf in thinking that the film has any merit.
Final Thoughts
Wasn't it bad enough that there was one of these things? That may have been harmless fun, but The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption is a complete mess. It has Billy Zane and Ron Perlman and very little else. The audio is weird and the image is fair, to say the least. Unless you're a hardcore Mummy fan (seriously?), stay away.
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