Scorpion King, The
Going back in time in a spin off of role he played in The Mummy Returns, WWE superstar Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock, is Mathayus, one of last of the Akkadians, a warrior people trained as assassins from birth.
The desert tribes are being conquered one by one by King Memnon, played by Steven Brand, and his rampaging army with the help of a sorcerer......
Going back in time in a spin off of role he played in The Mummy Returns, WWE superstar Dwayne Johnson aka The Rock, is Mathayus, one of last of the Akkadians, a warrior people trained as assassins from birth.
The desert tribes are being conquered one by one by King Memnon, played by Steven Brand, and his rampaging army with the help of a sorcerer, Kelly Hu, who can foresee the outcome of every battle.
Hired by the last of the free tribes, to kill the sorcerer and help turn the tide of battle in their favour, Mathayus, his brother and another Akkadian, head for Memnon’s camp to do the deed and a real blast of an action adventure ensues…
Review
If you like no-brainer action movies, and I do, then this is for you. It’s got the lot – a straightforward plot, a good-looking male lead, a gorgeous female lead and a good-looking but thoroughly nasty bad guy. Combine that with Grant Heslov supplying most of the comedy as Arvid the horse thief, Bernard Hill as Philos the inventor and Michael Clarke Duncan as Balthazar, the leader of one of the free tribes, and you’ve got a great mix of characters. Oh and hordes of extras being regularly hacked, chopped, skewered and blown to pieces.
It’s a pretty standard action movie written by Stephen Somers, who did the Mummy series, and Jonathan Hayles, who’s obviously good enough as he’s co-writing Star Wars III with Geoge Lucas. It’s directed by Chuck Russell, who did a reasonable job of The Mask and Eraser.
WWE obviously want to keep Dwayne on their books as I noticed Vince McMahon as one of the executive producers and WWE as one of the production companies in the credits.
Dwayne Johnson shows a lot of promise as an action movie actor and he’s a superb athlete so the action scenes are no problem for him– hell, he’s been doing both for years as a professional wrestler. He only had a few bit parts on TV before The Mummy Returns but I’d expect to see much more of him in the future as he’s an ideal replacement hero for Arnie and Sly and a far better actor then both of them.
Kelly Hu, you probably remember her from Martial Law, is excellent as the sorcerer Cassandra and it seems her star is rising as well as she’s in X-Men 2. Steven Brand plays gives a good rendition of the bad guy, Memnon – great fighter, ruthless killer and no sense of humour – Booooo!
The quality of the stunts and action sequences are what make a good action movie and this one is no exception. They are choreographed by Ali Leong, well established in martial arts/action roles and stunts in movies and who also acts in the movie, and Andy Cheng, one of Jackie Chan’s stunt co-ordinators.
All in all a good action movie and the extras were interesting enough to keep me up to about 2am one morning.
Video/Audio
Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen format, the picture quality is excellent, good colour and a solid transfer all round.
The soundtrack is available in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS, which sounded great on my poor old Nicam telly. If only I had a decent sound system, sigh!
Extras
There are loads of extras on the disc…
Extended version of the movie in enhanced viewing mode - I’m not sure what they mean by enhanced viewing as this simply cuts in the alternate versions of some key scenes that you can view separately in the Extras menu. It’s pretty badly done as well - the movie stops while it jumps to the alternate scene, which is non-anamorphic, and then jumps back to the same point so you get to see both versions of the scene. I’d really recommend not bothering with this.
Feature Commentaries - one by the director Chuck Russell, which is pretty entertaining and informative and one by The Rock, who is a wrestler and one of the guys. He’s amusing in places but it’s more of a blow by blow account of the action sequences and any scenes that he’s in.
Outtakes - only four small ones lasting about a minute in total.
Alternate versions of key scenes - this comprises about nine scenes and lasts about 12 minutes.
Spotlight on Location: The Making of The Scorpion King – an interesting 15 minute featurette.
Ancient World Production Design - a three and a half minute short on how they did some of the set production and built Gomorrah using bits of the old Spartacus set.
Shooting a Fight Sequence – an interesting, ten and a half minute piece in two scenes about how the fights were choreographed.
The Rock and Michael Clarke Duncan - a six and half minute piece on the relationship between the two stars, who were great friends off set, and discusses the scene where The Rock actually decked Michael for real and he’s a big lad.
Costume Design - just under three minutes on how they did the clobber for anyone interested.
Working with Animals – a six minute piece on how they handled working with the snakes and camels in the movie.
The Special Effects – four minutes of how they did the CGI cobras and fire ants.
Godsmack/I Stand Alone – a rock music video of the track they played over the end credits, featuring Godsmack and a few intermingled sequences with The Rock and Kelly Hu, some of which never appeared in the movie. e.g. animated skeletons and The Rock dissolving into a pile of scorpions.
Trailers – one for the movie and one for the upcoming E.T. DVD release.
The Scorpion King Console Game – a preview of the video game version of the movie. Doesn’t look too bad.
DVD-ROM Material – an additional interview The Rock, the musical score and full storyboard.
Overall
An excellent action DVD with excellent picture and sound quality and I’d heartily recommend it to more than adequately pass a few hours some rainy night. More if you want to get into the extras and commentaries.
The storyline doesn’t finish off where The Mummy Returns picks up the story so I’d expect a sequel (or two) somewhere down the line to keep the series running.
There’s a pretty good web site for the movie with trailers, games, special effects, music, etc. at…
http://www.the-scorpion-king.com/
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