Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The O'Connells must stop a mummy awoken from a 2000-year-old curse who threatens to plunge the world into his merciless, unending service. Doomed by a sorceress to spend eternity in suspended animation, China's ruthless Dragon Emperor and his 10,000 warriors have laid forgotten for eons, entombed in clay as a vast, silent terra cotta army. That is until dashing adventurer Alex O'Connell is tricked into awakening the ruler from eternal slumber. The reckless young archaeologist must seek the help of the only people who know more than he does about taking down the undead: his parents. As the monarch roars back to life, our heroes find his quest for world domination has only intensified over the millennia.

The Mummy series has always been about campy fun and this film pretty much continues that train of thought. While I would call it the weakest of the three films, it doesn’t completely fall to pieces. The production value is still right up there and the action sequences are quite intense. The dialogue is the weakest link this time around and can become a bit grating as the film progresses. The other films were chocked full of corny one liners but this one is almost embarrassing. Still, for popcorn fun it manages to stay afloat.

The HD presentation is exquisite and offers rich detail, great depth and dimension and strong contrast levels. Fine object detail is as good as any film I’ve seen yet on Blu-ray and lends the image a mesmerizing sense of dimensionality. Even the CG characters work well within the frame with the live photography blending in perfectly. Depth of image is strong regardless of the overall light level within the frame and I was impressed by the level of shadow detail in the darker sequences. Few Blu-ray titles have looked this good!

The soundtrack is presented in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and like the Mummy films before it, excels in every department. The sound design is rich in dynamic range and soundstage presence. Panning effects do a great job of keeping you in the mix and the rich surround use really fills the room up. This film has some impressive low bass response, and plenty of it. The dynamics of the action sequences can be quite intense and the sound stage never sounds compressed. If I had to nitpick I thought the dialogue was a bit low from time to time, especially in relation to the rest of the mix. Universal has truly delivered a reference presentation with this one.

Universal is doing a bang up job with their special edition treatment on Blu-ray and I really hope some of the other studios are taking notes. Honestly, this is what next generation is all about. This disc takes full advantage of the Blu-ray advanced interactivity profiles and includes several Bonusview features. You can test your trivia knowledge during the game or check out the characters and clips that tie this film in with the others. You also get a video commentary with director Rob Cohen complete with back-story on the production and ideas of the film. Seems Cohen has been researching China for quite some time before this film. The coolest feature was the multiple-view feature which gives you a look at key sequences in different levels of development. We saw this same kind of thing recently with Hellboy II and it is a really cool feature for tech fans out there.

The disc also contains a few HD production features that walk you through the production design, sets and historical tie-ins to the film. Some special effects features give you an inside look at the creation of the mummies and the environments used in the film. Deleted and extended scenes are also included. For BD-Live capable players this disc gives you the chance to share your favorite clips with friends or take a look at other Universal titles in the works or out now. If that wasn’t enough you get a digital copy of the film for portable players on another disc.

While this film didn’t quite live up to the first Mummy film I was impressed with Universal’s effort on the presentation. Blu-ray discs don’t get much better than this in the A/V department and there are some great special features here. Definitely Recommended.