The Scorpion King

Review by By Clint Morris

We zoom in on the sun-sodden desert. A gleaming heat sweeps through the dunes, the air a brisk but flaming breeze. Zoom Closer.

A six-legged insect scatters from a sand bunker upon hearing an approaching predator.

It is a man, a patriot, and a rebel. It's a Hollywood Producer - and he's on a path to milk a franchise for all it's worth.

As uninviting as a third The Mummy film sounds sans the Mummy himself, The Scorpion King is actually fairly enjoyable thanks to some matinee style adventure, some inspired set-up and a larger than life action hero.

Not too shabby at all for a film that reportedly went through numerous rewrites, reshoots and made faster than Gonzales crossing the border.

We first met the Scorpion King in last year's The Mummy Returns. Upon seeing the dailies for the characters scenes, Universal gave the greenlight to a spin-off film and in turn a leading part for wrestling superstar, The Rock. And the rest as the say is history…

The Scorpion King is the character's backstory, a whimsical, swords and sorcery adventure set in 3000 B.C. It's escapade crammed with over-the-top action and calculatedly cheesy catch-phrase dialogue.

Mathayus (The Rock) is a wily assassin hired by the assembled miscellany of several defeated tribes to kill the sorcerer who serves a powerful tyrant king who decimates their lands.

Without supernatural guidance, the inexplicably interracial tribes (led by massive Michael Clarke Duncan) believe they can defeat the pitiless, psychopathic Memnon (Steven Brand) and his band of sturdy followers. What Mathayus didn't count on, however, was the sorcerer being a levelheaded woman (Kelly Hu).

After learning the beauty has been Memnon's prisoner since childhood, Mathayus rescues her instead of terminating her, then leads the united tribes in an attack against their enemy, who rules from the outstandingly reproduced sin city of Gomorrah.

The Scorpion King isn't The Mummy, it isn't even The Mummy Returns, mainly because it doesn't offer the jaw dropping spectaculars that the earlier films did. However, it's going to win you over in a few other ways. The Indiana Jones-style action sequences are quite enthusiastic, the characters are fairly appealing, and The Rock is an awesome screen presence; expect this guy to be the next Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Scorpion King delivers quite well as a summer (US) popcorn blockbuster, but like the popcorn usually on offer at cinemas it's only lukewarm.

Still, there's enough tasty, buttery goodness in there to please even the biggest sceptic.

3 out of 5

The Scorpion King
Australian release: On now.
Cast: The Rock, Kelly Hu, Steven Brand, Grant Heslov, Peter Facinelli, Michael Clarke Duncan.
Director: Chuck Russell.
Website: Click here

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