The Scorpion King Film Review

Today Dwayne Johnson is known the world over as someone who is leading alot of films and sometimes maybe wrestles but back in 2002 he was known as a wrestler who had one film acting credit to his name that being The Mummy Returns. While people did get excited when they announced that The Mummy 4 is indeed happening alot of people seem to have forgotten that there was another series of films set within the timeline and heck there's even a reboot of this film in development and so then join me as I review the film that has more entries then it's parent franchise does with the film in question being called simply just "The Scorpion King" enjoy.

The plot of this film when an evil lord Memnon wants to conquer all of Egypt it's up to a warrior named Mathayus to stop him before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. This films plot is about as good as you could expect from a film that's co-written by the writer and director of the first Brendon Fraser Mummy movies as there's not all that much to this films plot with alot of it just being there to make sure that we know that Dwayne Johnson looks good with there being more of a focus on action and plot. With this making it feel like that the films plot is more of an afterthought to quite literally anything else in the film and to be fair to the film if you have a pro wrestler at the height of his wrestling career you do of course want to show him off but that shouldn't come at the expense of the films plot as the film plot is so wafer thin that it could be the plot to the pilot episode of a TV show and nothing would need to be changed and while the films plot is more then strong enough to support an entire film no one will question that but it still did need alot of work on to make it be as good as it could possibly be as in it's finished state it does feel like the plot for a first draft in a screen play and not something that you want to find in the scripts final draft with the plot of this film also not really being really rather entertaining and as well as not really being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Dwayne Johnson as Mathayus / The Scorpion King , Steven Brand as Memnon and Kelly Hu as Cassandra. Also starring in this film is Grant Heslov as Arpid , Bernard Hill as Philos , Michael Clarke Duncan as Balthazar , Peter Facinelli as Takmet , Ralf Moeller as Thorak , Branscombe Richmond as Jesup , Roger Rees as King Pheron , Sherri Howard as Queen Isis , Joseph Ruskin as A Tribal Leader and Conrad Roberts as A Chieftain.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. While nobody was going into this film expecting the acting to be good or even OSCAR worthy we were still expecting acting that is just about OK and nothing more then that and in that sense this films acting was about as good as it was ever going to be even more so when you take into account that Dwayne Johnson as this point in time had barely done any acting and here he's playing the main character, therefor it would have been understandable if alot of this films was flat out bad however you can tell that alot of this films are trying to turn in a good performance Johnson included. With the films best actor being the great one and the final boss himself Dwayne Johnson as while these days he does usually just play different versions of himself in all of his films and TV shows here in this film does play someone who is the exact opposite of him and that does allow him to turn in as good of a performance as he possibly could have done at that point in time with him more then holding his own when it comes to acting against the films more experienced actors. With the acting that's in this very film not really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so bad as it gives none of this films actors absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there actual characters personalities are even meant to be in the first place which is something that really does harm the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is Centropolis Effects , CFX , Das Werk and the legends and the greats that are currently over at Riot. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Much like with this film plot and acting nobody was expecting this films CGI to be all that good just given the fact that this film was made in 2002 and yet even so this films CGI has aged poorly as all of the CGI creatures look horrible with them all looking like something that you'd expect to see in a PS2 video game cutscene and not something that you'd want to see in a film. However to be fair to this film tho given the fact that this film was made cheaply it does mean that they wouldn't have had the money to go out and get better effects companies and therefor not alot of money could even be given towards this films effects yet even so this film CGI has aged like milk with alot of the backgrounds looking a little bit to fake and while this film doesn't use alot of CGI as alot of the film was shot on location and had alot of practical effects in it those practical effects only serve to make the films CGI effects look all the more worse due to how well the practical effects have aged, heck the film even uses some CGI crowds in alot of it's early scenes which is fair enough as they wouldn't have been able to afford to get alot of local extras for this film but at the same time they look pretty bad even for the time that this film was being made in and while those bad effects don't harm the film in anyway they do take you out of the film alot of the time.

Much like its parent series the Brendon Frazer Mummy films thia film has spawned several films of its own with all but one of them being sequels to this film. Infact this film has launched more films then the series it's a spin off of has as The Mummy films only have the three films plus an animated TV series whereas this film has four other films in its franchise which does make you wonder how they managed to get an entire franchise out of one character that was only seen for a few minuets in total in The Mummy Returns and yet somehow the makers of those films found away to keep the story of The Scorpion King going without the use of its main star Dwayne Johnson. While it is understandable that they would want to make a prequel to that first 1999 Mummy movie as the character of The Scorpion King was a popular enough character to warrant his own movie but given the fact that this film got dreadful reviews both for the time and current day it is something that does make you wonder why the makers of this film thought that it was a good idea to carry on telling this characters story as we already know how it ends due to the fact that this is a prequel to the more popular film The Mummy Returns whereas if the makers of this film just ended it with this film had it be a one and done film then it would have ben fine as they would have been no need for both the prequel and the sequels to exist due to the fact that the opening to The Mummy Returns perfectly sums up everything that happened to this character after the events of this film and yet because of the fact tat this film did make a tiny bit of money at the box office it means that we get to see alot of this badly thought out prequel with even more cheaply made movies as all of the other films in this sub franchise never got a theatrical release they were all made direct to DVD very cheaply.

Whilst alot of people do know that this was first film in which Dwayne Johnson was the leading man what alot of people don't know is that this was the first film for WWE Studios. As they did help to get the film made with even then WWE chairman Vince McMahon serving as an executive producer on this film and yeah you an tell that he had a hand in this film as alot of the film is all about making one of the guys that he had a hand in making famous look good and while it is hard to say if he was a hands off or hands on producer it is something that does explain alot of why this film was as bad as it is due to the fact that alot the film feels like it was tailor made for The Rock but due to the fact that its a prequel film about a preexisting character it means that they can't go all the way with that and have to have scenes where his character is stoic for no reason. With the only few good things in the film being the fact that he is a character who is out for revenge as we do see Memnon kill his brother with that being something that does drive Mathayus even more to want to kill him and that is a good idea as it does give both the hero and the villain a pretty strong and personal connect with Memnon being this unstoppable character and Mathayus being the kind of character who will stop at nothing to kill his target but at the same time tho the film doesn't give Memnon much in the way of motivation as we never find out just what it is that makes him tick in the first place with alot of the film being spent with Mathayus which again is where you feel the Vince McMahon coming threw as in alot of the scenes with Mathayus he is never made to look weak and is always made to look strong when all this does is deprive us of a really good villain in Memnon as while the film does a great job of building up Mathayus it also does a bad job of building Memnon.

For whatever reason the makers of this film force in a romance between Mathayus and Cassandra all for no good reason whatsoever. As there romance adds nothing to the plot of the film as she was going to turn on Memnon anyway as she saw the kind of evil that he was doing and heck it was even she that convinced him to let Mathayus go near the start of the film therefor having her be the one to fall in love with him doesn't make sense whereas if the makers of the film had took the time to fully explore the characters relationship together un the first place and made there bond together seem all the more believable then when they do get together it would have worked all the more and it would have been all the more heartwarming because of it. However as the makers of this film didn't really care to put that much thought and focus into making there relationship work even tho it forms a key part in the films plot as its her that saves him from a Scorpion bite thus giving him the nickname The Scorpion King in the first place which is the only cute scene that the characters have together and when the film does rest on the two characters falling for each other as with out that happening then Mathayus wouldn't have been able to defeat Memnon in the first place then there really should have been more thought put into there relationship with the only good thing to com out there scenes together being the fact that Kelly Hu and Dwayne Johnson do have some good chemistry together and you do buy them as a couple that are forced together out of there hatred for this one person, yet due to the fact that the makers of this film don't even do the bare minimum like showing them bonding with each other it does make it feel like that there relationship was forced on the film by someone high up at Universal Pictures as the film would have worked just as well without them getting together.

Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and thirty one minuets and twenty two seconds. Which to be fair to this film is a decent amount of time for this film to have as the film doesn't have to set up the world of the film and it doesn't technically have to set up the films main character therefor it doesn't need a long running time however at the same time this film could have benefitted from being alot longer then that as that would give us a longer break between the films really long action scenes with this film even having the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time in the first place. Yet this film still doesn't use it's running time all that wisely due to the fact that it doesn't take the time to fully develop its plot due to the fact that the film is more focused on making its main star look good then it is in telling a good story when if the film did take the time to fully develop its main plot then the main character would look good due to the fact that the film would have taken the time to make us care for Mathayus as a character ad it would have made Memnon be all the more unlikable thus making Mathayus seem like like more of a hero. This is also something that does effect the films character develop as the film doesn't take the time to give us fully developed characters which in the case of Mathayus is slightly understandable as he was in The Mummy Returns but given that he wasn't in that film for all that long then this film really should have given some character development and yet both he and quite literally any of the films characters being just as bland and forgettable coming out of the film as they were coming into the film with Arpid also being an annoying best friend type of character but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.   

So now then as this is an action film that really does mean that I gave to actually talk about the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. With the films action being the best part of the film due to the fact that this is where Dwayne Johnson is allowed to shine and allowed to do what he did best at the best which was give us some really cool looking action whilst also getting excited for what we are seeing in the film and that is something that he does get to do in this film as he does look good in all of the action scenes in the film. With the best action scene in the whole entire film being the third act fight between Memnon and Mathayus as we get to see the fight take place all of over Memnons palace while on the side there is war going on with Mathayus's allies which is something that does make the action seem all the more exciting as it means that any moment any one of the main characters could die and while that doesn't happen in this film it doesn't mean that we get a tensionless action scene as thats exactly what we get in this film with that action scene also giving us some really cool moments all of which are things that do help the action in that scene be all the more better then what it really should have been, heck this films action is where Dwayne's wrestling expirence comes into play as he does know how to sell a move and how make a move look painful all of which are things that he puts into play in this films third act with the rest of the films action being just as good as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall this film really should have been a one and done film as there's no more story left to tell with this character with the little story that the character even had in the first place not being enough to justify it being told in this film as this film is one that is a good idea on paper it just needed more time given to it to make this idea work as well as it possibly could have done in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.