The Scorpion King (Widescreen Collector's Edition)

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Starring: Dwayne Johnson
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Chuck Russell
Studio: Universal Pictures
Release Date: 2002-10-01
In an ancient time predating the pyramids the evil king memnon is using the psychic powers of his sorceress cassandra to fortell his great victories. In a last ditch effort to stop memnon from taking over the world the leaders of the remaining free tribes hire the assassin mathayus to kill the soceress. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 06/21/2002 Starring: The Rock Michael Clarke Duncan Run time: 92 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Chuck Russell

A good entertainment for a rainy afternoon!
"Scorpion King" picks up and maintains faithfully the basic structure of the epic tale, but constructed with a smart dose of acidic humour and double sense vignettes. There are common places and stereotypes like the smart young boy and the unerring and opportunistic "fool", the beauty protagonist, the brutal villain. There are also, marvellous action sequences - specially the great explosive final - that makes it worth to watch it.

NO COMMENT
AS I LIVE IN EUROPE, I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO WATCH THIS BLU RAY DVD.
THE FORMAT WAS NORMALLY "ALL REGIONS" BUT I GUESS THAT ONLY THE PEOPLE WITH A REGION 1 APPARATUS COULD WATCH IT. SO I SPENT MY MONEY FOR NOTHING. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. I WANTED TO SEND IT BACK TO AMAZON BUT FINALLY I CHANGED MY MIND BECAUSE I WOULD I HAVE LOST MONEY.
SO I'LL NEVER PURCHASE THIS KIND OF DVD AGAIN.

This was in theatres, not straight to video
Please stop saying this is a straight to video movie. It was in the theatres, I saw it in a theater myself.

Entertaining prequel spin off from "The Mummy Returns" not quite up to that film but still fun
"The Scorpion King" was the first spin-off from Stephen Sommers' sequel "The Mummy Returns" acting as a prequel. This allowed Sommers to tell us a bit more about the fascinating character of the Scorpion King. Although this origin story tidied up different story strands left unanswered in the first film (and revised how the main character got his name slightly in a way which didn't contradict but complimented the original story but also gave us a character slightly different than what we ended up seeing in "The Mummy Returns"), it manages to stand on its own quite well even without any of the original characters (how could they be in a prequel? Well, perhaps Im-Ho-Tep could have figured in somehow but this does take place BEFORE his time)included in from the first two films. Although it wasn't quite up to the quality of "The Mummy" or "The Mummy Returns" in terms of originality, it's a solid b-movie spin-off of the series and very entertaining in its own right.

By the way, there is a direct-to-video sequel without The Rock. I haven't seen it but was initially a bit confused believing this to have been a direct-to-video release (it wasn't although I recall that now when I first wrote the review I had forgotten about its brief but profitable theatrical run)which acts as a prequel to THIS film according to all descriptions. It comes out on August 19th. Whether or not this was a direct-to-video or theatrical release isn't important what IS important is the quality of the movie. I've seen some direct-to-video sequels that have been good and bad so that doesn't impact the quality of the film itself (unless it's a Sci-Fi Channel original movie--those are mostly bad, cheap looking and is an example of everything that is WRONG with Sci-Fi Channel in contrast to "Doctor Who"(which the BBC produces), "Eureka" and "Battlestar: Galatica"

For those who have seen the movie (and if you're reading this I'm going to assume you have. If not and you want a synposis of the plot that's provided at the end of this review), you probably want to know how this looks on Blu-ray. As with "The Mummy" and "The Mummy Returns", "The Scorpion King" receives a nice transfer marred only by the over use of Edge Enhancement and Digital Noise Reduction to reduce film grain.

All of the extras from the DVD edition (both the original edition and the reissue) are ported over to this fine release and this does include the U-Control feature(something carried over from Universal's HD-DVD releases) that will allow you to customize the extras including watching picture-in-picture commentary and behind-the-scenes footage.

Written and produced (but not directed)by Stephen Sommers, "The Scorpion King" is an entertaining sword and sand epic that is filled with humor and just enough camp to make the film work. Director Chuck Russell does a great job of setting up the action sequences particularly one that takes place in a cave during a sandstorm as Memnon's men hunt for Mathayus. Russell does a terrific job of setting up the action and creating a suspenseful sequence in what could easily have been a muddled scene.

Russwell does a good job of introducing Sommers' humor and story elements that are unique to this film. The Rock does a solid job in the lead role although its not exactly a stretch for him as an actor (does it matter really? This is an action film with the emphasis on the word ACTION), he makes a believable lead for the film.


A prequel rather than a sequel, this spin-off tells us about Mathayus (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson)who is among the last of a dying breed of mercenary fighters hired to kill a sorceress Cassandra(Kelly Wu) who can see the future. Memnon (Steven Brand)uses Cassandra to predict the outcome of his battles as he takes over kingdoms. The result is that those who would oppose often give in without a fight.

When Memnon kills Mathayus brother and leaves him for dead, Mathayus makes it his mission to exact both revenge and complete his task.

"The Scorpion King" manages to become an enjoyable and fun prequel to Sommers' hit films. It's not "Citizen Kane" (or "The Godfather") but doesn't pretend to be either. "The Scorpion King" may not be as inventive,original or suspsenseful as either of "The Mummy" films but it is strong enough so that it could easily have been released to theaters and done well. Although it does display Sommers' writing moving towards the camp tendancies that hamstrung "Van Helsing", Russell's smooth direction rescues the film from becoming an overbearing campe fest.

Forgettable Movie.
It has violence, more than action. The storyline is poor and unoriginal. The acting is generally speaking nominal. Two-Stars does it.