Time to Wrap Up Mummy

Franchise feels distinctly creaky
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 1, 2008 11:52 AM CDT

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is more than a little musty. The third movie in the cycle features "more ancient corpses come to life amid digital effects laid on with a trowel," Jane Horwitz writes in the Washington Post, but the "tiresome and messy" result doesn't measure up to the martial arts and Indiana Jones movies it liberally borrows from.

There are some "undeniably cool CGI effects," Frank Scheck writes in the Hollywood Reporter, but even though Brendan Fraser returns with a swashbuckling presence, he "can't entirely hide the fact that he's cashing a paycheck." In fact, "given the must, dust and rust" coming from this Mummy, it's time for the franchise "to be truly mummified once and for all," Todd McCarthy writes in Variety. (More mummy stories.)

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