The Scorpion King (2002)

Very Cool!!!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The Scorpion King (2002) Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kelly Hu, Michael Clarke Duncan, Steven Brand, Bernard Hill, Grant Heslov, Peter Facinelli, Ralf Moeller, Branscombe Richmond, Roger Rees, Sherri Howard, Conrad Roberts, Joseph Ruskin, Esteban Cueto, Nils Allen Stewart, and Amy Hunter Directed By: Chuck Russell Review WARRIOR. LEGEND. KING. This is written by the king of popcorn movies (in my opinion) Stephen Sommers. After making it big with two mummy movies he wrote this as the start of a spin-off series for the character in The Mummy returns. In the notorious city of Gomorrah, an evil ruler is determined to lay waste to all the nomadic peoples of the desert. The few remaining tribes, never natural allies, have to unite or perish. Knowing their enemy relies on the visions of a sorcerer, they hire a skilled assassin, Mathayus to eliminate the visionary. After infiltrating the enemy camp, Mathayus discovers that the sorcerer is in fact a beautiful woman. Rather than eliminate her, he takes her deep into the desert badlands, knowing that the ruler's henchman will stop at nothing to rescue her and bring her back. Seriously wounded in the ensuing battle, Mathayus must find the strength to lead his scrappy band of allies back to Gomorrah for a final confrontation. This film is going to go on my guilty pleasure list whenever I make such a list. This film came out in a time when wrestling was big and popular which is why it's produced the WWE. They got the WWE's most charismatic and likable wrestler The Rock. The Rock does a fairly great job considering I do believe this is his first movie role. Kelly Hu who played Lady Deathstrike in X-Men: United is the beautiful sorceress Cassandra and she's just hot. She pulled a good performance but did I mention she's hot. Michael Clarke Duncan is also in this as Balthazar and he was doing pretty good not as great as some of his other performances but I believe he knew what kind of movie he was in. You can tell its written by Stephen Sommers because only Stephen would have Mathayus as the badass hero, Cassandra as the beautiful love interest and Arpid as the comic relief. Much like Van Helsing, Anna, and Carl. His films are very clichéd, adventurous and action packed. They've made for great fun. This film has great ton of action and has that adventure vibe. It even looks like The Mummy Returns in production design but that's probably because it's a spin-off set in Egypt. The direction from Chuck Russel is pretty good, he's done great films like the mask with Jim Carry and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors tow films I really enjoy. This time around its like he saw the script and said you know what lets have fun with this and tried to take care of the actors so they can put out a good performance. Some of his shots in the action scenes are not always great but that's just from like one scene where Mathayus is about to shoot Memnon but then shoots the guard who's about to ax the kid. Once he gets down from the roof there was like this really bad shot from the camera as he fled. Apparently The Rock is a method actor so in that scene where the fire ants are about to eat his flesh those are real ants he said apparently even though they look fake. The Scorpion King is a fun action-adventure fantasy romp that tries to be just that and nothing more. It has good performances, some pretty decent direction and fairly good writing, some poor shots and effects but its fun from beginning to end. You can ask The Scorpion King no more than that. I'm giving The Scorpion King a three and a half out of five.

This is a great movie. It is a prequel to The Mummy. It is a great movie. It has a great story line. It also has great acting. It is very fast past. It is a great film. See it. It is one of the beast fantasy movies of all time. 5.5 is a good ratting. But this is such a great movie that 5.5 is underrating it. This is a very scary movie. It is one of the scariest movies of all time. It is scarier then The Silence of the lambs could ever be. This a great movie. See it. If it does not scary you then no movie will. I give it 9 out of 10 because it is a great movie. I need more lines and I am running out of thing to say. Great movie. See it.

Hello sir, I'll have a sword and sandal movie with extra cheese.The Scorpion King remains one of my most beloved movies of all time. Its not trying to be an Oscar-calibre movie like Gladiator (which is fine coming from someone who found Gladiator boring), rather its just a chance to watch The Rock crush people on the big screen. Dwayne Johnson is definitely in his acting debut here - he is a big beefy guy who can hold his own in the action but don't ask him to do much else. His love scene with Kelly Hu is excruciating (no thanks to the writing) and even his comic timing is a bit iffy (save for one hilarious scene where he suggests to a young street urchin "I'll kill half, you kill half").Director Chuck Russell impresses me with this film. He's definitely the strong point with his well directed fight scenes and good pacing. One of the standouts of hiring The Rock is that you're going to have awesome fight scenes. The Scorpion King's fight scenes are so awesome that I can watch this movie on repeat and never get sick of it. Its clear that they're extremely choreographed - its clear that extras are holding back waiting to fight - but they're still awesome, featuring an array of weapons (conventional and improvised) wielded by awesome beefcakes like Johnson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Ralf Moeller and Steven Brand. Some scenes feel completely staged - such as a pitchfork spear managing to land perfectly around Johnson's throat to pin him in place against a never-before-seen piece of wood - but its still awesome fun to watch. Characters often appear where they are needed, despite the implausibility. I can forgive all of this.The Scorpion King is a treat to look at - the visuals are honestly more convincing than some of the big budget fare these days, with a great attention to detail (such as digitally created civilians the size of ants rushing to the aid of a person crushed by a giant gong, despite not having any impact on the story). The sound editing is hit and miss - sometimes a sword will make a metal-on-sheath sound as it is pulled from a cloth scabbard, while in others the sound of metal on flesh is so believable it makes me flinch. Costumes are nice (especially the red guards) and production design is very impressive.The screenplay is nice and simple - Mathayus' brother is killed during a botched assassination and he seeks revenge. The extended edition reveals a prophecy played central part - I'm much happier without that. However, the dialogue and characters are cheesy and shallow. We never even learn half the main characters' names (Heslov goes by "horse thief" or "my friend" while Hu goes by "Sorceress"). There's some choice humour and some that doesn't land ("there's no need to be concerned miss" is lame even by 10 year old standards").On the acting front, the highlights include the gorgeous Kelly Hu as Cassandra, a lovable Bernard Hill as Philos and Michael Clarke Duncan as Nubian King Balthazar. What a gem this guy was - this is the film that introduced me to him. He's such a beast with his deep voice and bulging muscles, going toe-to-toe with Johnson in a brawl that starts because both men are so strong their swords shatter on impact. If you don't laugh at that you're made of stone. Brand has his moments as the antagonist Memnon, great from a physical standpoint even though he can't quite carry the serious moments. Grant Heslov drives me insane with his high-pitched voice and goofy sidekick persona.The Scorpion King is a great guilty pleasure. Its simple storyline stops it being goofy, and its awesome fight scenes between beefcake actors make it worth your while. Imagine Predator meets Gladiator with a pinch of Mortal Kombat, and you've got a fair idea.

If you've watched 'The Mummy Returns' you may be aware that it was Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson's first on-screen role. His contribution to the film was hardly iconic, but it appeared to be career-defining enough to give him his own spin-off movie, 'The Scorpion King.' Ignoring the fact that he was a baddie in the Mummy Returns, he's now our hero. And for good reason – he's so damn lovable! It's hard not to root for him, even in a film that really isn't that good. Not that that applies to The Scorpion King. It's great fun. Hardly a classic, but just good fun. And, I'll wager that the demographic most likely to appreciate it would be young boys (or men like me who are still into sword and sorcery etc – I think that qualifies me as a 'geek'). I can see gangs of young lads crowding round the telly on a Saturday afternoon to watch the Rock beat countless faceless baddies to a pulp.You certainly don't need to have seen any of the Mummy movies to enjoy this. Although both films are definitely in the 'action/adventure' genre, they don't really feel alike. It's basically a 'stand-alone' movie which is only related to its predecessor by the one central character and it's more at home among the 'sword and sandals' films than with the Mummy trilogy.It has a very basic plot. Every scene is a set-up for the next and everything everyone says is an important plot point that will have some significance later on. The goodies are good and the baddies are very easy to spot. Sometimes a film uses the tool of having the hero and the villain constantly squaring off against each other, playing off each other. However, here we have possibly the most stereotypical villain ever. He shouts. He bawls. He wants to marry women who he knows hate him. He wants to conquer the world and has a habit of killing any of his men who displease him. He's not that great to be honest, but, seeing as it's The Rock's movie and not his, it doesn't really matter. He fills the 'villain' role.Besides the Rock's charm as a leading man, it's also worth mentioning his helpers. You have Kelly Hu as 'the Sorceress' who absolutely smoulders in her role and Grant Heslov as 'Arpid' who basically plays the part that John Hannah's played in the Mummy trilogy as the 'comic relief' of the film.Like I said, this isn't an amazing movie, but if you're looking for a 'family friendly' Conan-type action film that will keep the boys entertained on a west afternoon, then this is it (or you're just a big kid at heart!).