The Mummy Trilogy/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Alas, Poor Scrappy - Mr Burns in the first movie was a bit of a Jerkass (as were his companions, but it's hard not to be horrified as Imhotep slowly destroys him, and Evie's expression upon seeing his corpse mirror's the audience's feelings on the matter.
  • Alas, Poor Villain - In The Mummy Returns, Imhotep sees what True Love is really like. He'd sacrificed everything, his position and his mortality for Ankh Su-Namun, and she abandoned him when the chips were down. Then he got to watch Evy race to Rick's side in his moment of need. To top it off, while he was begging Ankh-Su-Namun to save him, his enemy was begging his beloved to save herself -- and she refused, insisting on trying to help him. With this came the realization that his sacrifice and suffering had been pointless and empty, and he let go of the ledge.
    • In the first movie Beni may have been a huge coward who was also quite the backstabbing little traitor, but he just didn't deserve a fate as terrifying as the one he was dealt by Imhotep. Being locked in a dark room full of hungry flesh eating scarabs with only a single torch keeping them away that will eventually flicker out in minutes is a scary way to go no matter who it is that is left to that fate.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: Imhotep is never that clear as a full villain or simply someone who got pushed into the role in the first movie. On the one hand, he cheats with his Pharaoh's wife... on the other, the wife didn't love the Pharaoh and was forced into the role. He also murders the Pharaoh... who, as established, was a dick. It's said he'll bring about horrible plagues and end the world... but that's the curse that was put on him, it's not something he chose... but then again, he seems to be enjoying all these horrible things he's doing... well, spending a few thousand years being tortured would piss anyone off. The second movie ditches all this to make him essentially a Card-Carrying Villain, including retcons to make his previous actions more Obviously Evil... up until the very end, where it weirdly shows that he did indeed do it all for love.
  • Complete Monster: Qin Shi Huang AKA The Emperor Dragon in the third movie. In life he was a ruthless tyrant who asserted himself into power by leading his troops on a merciless campaign throughout ancient China, killing any resisters along the way. He also displayed remorseless coldness in his orders and plans, notably at the execution of his former friend and most trusted general, Ming Guo. Even as a mummy he attempts to once again conquer and enslave every human being.
  • Crazy Awesome - The third movie abandons plot in favor of... whatever the writers felt would look really, really cool. Disappointing for fans of the other films, but a fine stupid action movie.
  • Crosses the Line Twice:
    • Greedy jailor digging out the gold scarab for himself? Predictable. Gold scarab turns out to be a real one and starts eating into him? Not funny. Greedy jailor inexplicably running screaming across the cave to smack into a wall? Funny.
    • Imhotep physically taking the American's eyes? Not funny. Imhotep winding up with the guy's astigmatism? Funny.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Jerry Goldsmith with the first movie, Alan Silvestri with the second.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse - Oded Fehr, as Ardeth Bay, steals every single scene he's in. Also Beni Gabor, who despite his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder still has many of the best lines and funniest moments in the movie.
  • Evil Is Cool - Let's face it, the scene in the first movie where we see Imhotep fully regenerated for the first time, he oozes awesome.
  • Fan Dumb - Many reviewers and other people did a great deal of smug snarking about the reference to metal being one of the "elements" the Dragon Emperor could control, seeming to believe this was some moronic error on behalf of the writers since it wasn't one of the four standard elements in western mythos. However, Chinese mythology does regard metal as an element, meaning that it was one of the things the filmmakers got right.
  • Fridge Brilliance: In the first movie, Evelyn is a geeky, clumsy and shy librarian, whereas by the time of the second movie, she has become a confidant warrior and a master of swords and guns. While some may find this a jarring change, if we consider what she's been through, along with her choice of husband and lifestyle, it's a very believable change for the 10 year gap between movies.
    • One of the deleted scenes in the first movie involves a pair of zombie priests digging out the Book of Amon-Ra before Rick and Johnathan can get to it, wherein they're sprayed with the same acid that killed the group who unearthed the Book of the Dead. Why delete the scene? Because no doubt the Egyptians would not have wanted to make it as hard to kill the creature as it would have been to release him.
  • Fridge Logic - When the scarabs are poured over Imhotep, they appear to begin devouring him gradually, a fact which Evelyn later confirms, stating that the beetles devoured a corpse "very slowly." However, whenever the scarabs devour anyone else later on in the film, they do so almost instantaneously.
    • Well, they had been in an ancient temple for a long time with probably nothing else to eat. Maybe they were just really really hungry?
    • Different breed of Scarab?
    • It's outright stated several times in the first movie that the curse used on Imhotep grants the victim invincibility and lots of cool undead superpowers should they ever be dug up. Given this, why did they bother using it on him? Granted, that was apparently the only time they used it, and he does suffer the whole "eternally chewed on by flesh eating beetles" thing.
      • Well, think about it. The Egyptians were big on the afterlife, they spent massive resources trying to reach it. By making him immortal, they're basically DENYING him rest, forever. He can't die, period. Any death is just temporary. So, he has no chance of reaching the afterlife, which for the ancient Egyptians would've been a terrible curse.
      • The point was to dissuade anyone who might otherwise choose to bring him back. It was the Ancient Egyptian equivalent of burying him with a crate of land mines.
    • Didn't the guy Imhotep took his new eyes from wear glasses, because he had really bad' eyesight?
      • Not necessarily, I'm nearsighted, so I wear glasses at all times, but unless I needed to read something I could probably function without them just fine.
      • Stealing his eyes was more of a mystical act. Im-Ho-Tep got his own eyes back, not Burns'.
      • Beni mentions to Burns that "Prince Imhotep thanks you for your hospitality. And your eyes...and your tongue..."
      • Word of God (the DVD commentary) states that Imhotep took Burns' eyes literally. His resulting imperfect eyesight is what makes him initially believe that Evey is Ankh Su-Namun.
    • How the hell does the pharaoh's wife scratch an itch or go to the bathroom? And what about sitting or eating? I mean, the smeared paint could mean she just got itchy or something dammit!
    • In the Mummy Returns, Imhotep scares the bejesus out of a trio of mercenaries seemingly For the Evulz. What does Meela Nais tell them to do? "Open the chest!" But if the chest was lost when Hamunaptra sank, where did they get it... and where Imhotep learn English?
    • The Medji know damned well the Egyptian gods are real and their curses work, and exist only to fight the monsters they left behind and prevent their rise by any means necessary. How were they ever converted to Islam?
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: In Hero Jet Li is trying to kill the first Emperor of China. In Tomb of the Dragon Emperor he is the first Emperor of China.
  • Large Ham - Damn near everybody by the second movie.
  • Sequelitis - The Scorpion King 2 is a prequel to a prequel to a sequel to a remake of a movie from the 1930's. Wheras The Scorpion King 3 is a sequel to the first Scorpion King film, which in fact was the prequel to a prologue of a sequel to a remake of the movie from the 1930's. Head hurting yet?
  • Nightmare Fuel - The PG-13 version. Highlights include being eaten alive by scarabs, having your body parts ripped out by a reincarnating mummy, innocent people being tormented by plagues, and all done in as much detail as the film could get away with just under an R-rating.
  • Special Effects Failure:
    • The CGI scorpion king is frightening to behold for all the wrong reasons.
    • The third film's filled with it such as the infamous yetis.
  • Squick: Imothep kissing Evy when half his face was still that of a rotting corpse.
  • Tear Jerker - Evie's death.
    • "They took my eyes!"
      • The subsequent finishing of the job...*Dies A Little Inside*

Beni: Mr. Burns, Prince Imhotep thanks you for your hospitality.
Mr. Burns: *smiles* Nah.
Beni: *whispers* And for your eyes, and for your tongue.
Mr. Burns: *smile gone* Wha?
Beni: But I'm afraid more is needed. The prince must finish the job.

    • Ankh-Su-Namun's betrayal of Imhotep at the end of the second movie.
    • When Horus the hawk got killed.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks: In the third movie, where Evie's actress was changed. Some fans of the original were very disappointed in this. Justified in that Rachel Weisz was just recovering from her pregnancy at the time.
    • Plus, she reportedly turned down the film after a brief look through the script.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome - The first two films feature some great special effects work. The third however, to a much lesser degree due to moments of fairly jarring Special Effects Failure, specifically Jet Li's character transforming into King Ghidorah as well as his character beheading someone earlier in the movie.
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