Blu-ray Movie Reviews

In an ancient time predating the pyramids, the evil King Memnon is using the psychic powers of his sorceress Cassandra to predict 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 sorceress. But Mathayus ends up getting much more than he bargained for.

Now with the help of the trickster Arpid, tribal leader Balthazar and an unexpected ally, it's up to Mathayus to fulfill his destiny and become the great Scorpion King.

When The Mummy Returns came out I just knew they were going to do a follow-up for “The Rock's” character. Unfortunately, it isn't nearly as entertaining as the other two films and comes off as a B-action movie at best. It also portrays the lead as a good guy, which seems to contradict what we saw from the Mummy follow-up. Oh well. The film continues the great production design of the other films though and starts a new series for itself. Universal will be releasing the sequel here shortly, but straight to video.

Being the newest film in the Mummy series, this is also the best looking. The special effects aren’t quite on par with The Mummy Returns but the image has a bit more detail and dimension. I didn’t have the HD DVD on hand to compare with but I didn’t find anything to complain about with this one. The image has exceptional depth and detail and shadow detail is impressive. The image doesn’t have any signs of enhancement or processing and colors look great with solid detail and punch. A solid video presentation from Universal.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is exactly what I would expect from a summer blockbuster like this. Lots of action brings plenty of intense explosions and dynamics from the score and swordplay. The mix has a very open quality and like the other Mummy films, there is plenty going on in the low end. Dialogue is balanced nicely with the action and I didn’t notice any signs of strain. The surround soundstage is aggressive and has some interesting panning effects as well.

Universal has included full “U-Control” interactivity on this Blu-ray release. You can turn this feature on and toggle the picture-in-picture feature on and off with the enter button on the remote. The PiP feature has interviews, storyboards and on-set footage throughout the film. There is also a feature commentary with the film’s director and a ticket to the new Mummy movie coming out later this summer.

This one has always been the weakest film in the Mummy series in my opinion, but I know it has its fans. Universal has done a great job with the A/V presentation though and the PiP feature is a nice addition to the package.