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Scorpion King, The
Universal // PG-13 // October 1, 2002
List Price: $26.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Rock 'em Sock 'em Slash 'n Smash action and adventure is the order of the day with Scorpion King. The idea of doing a spin-off movie from the Mummy franchise intrigued me. I really enjoyed the two Mummy movies so I expected about the same sort of formula for The Scorpion King. Lots of sweat, testosterone pumping, sword swinging, butt kicking, good times.
Scorpion King is a good time popcorn style Hollywood film. Its got the full spectrum of typical characters - bad-ass barbarians, awesome assassins, sexy sorceresses, tough tyrants, scantily clad harem girls, and comedy sidekicks. There is also a full zoo of animals such as camels, horses, snakes, ants, birds, scorpions, and monkeys. Great fight sequences and choreography dominate the film as well as quite a few comic moments that made me laugh and smile frequently. Grant Heslov plays Arpid, the comic relief who saves Matheus and becomes his sidekick for the rest of the film.
The story takes place some 2000 years before "The Mummy Returns". It certainly isn't anything new, but has a few interesting angles and fun twists to keep it rolling along. The Rock (a.k.a. Dwayne Johnson) plays the Arkadian assassin Matheus and delivers a very charismatic albeit amateur performance. Wrestling certainly requires acting, but we can see here its rather different acting in a film. He certainly pulls it off and gives us a character we can like and is interesting to watch. Matheus rises up to fight against the tyrant Memnon (Steve Brand) who commands armies and a beautiful sorceress heroine played by Kelly Hu. Matheus teams up with Balthazar (Michael Clarke Duncan) who is the leader of a small tribe of people living in fear of Memnon. I'm sure I don't have to tell you the rest, but be sure to count on plenty of entertainment, flash and dazzle in the big budget, Hollywood style.
The soundtrack is alive and very appropriate for the material, but not particularly original. I would have liked the music to be punched up a couple notches in many parts of the film.
The production design is fantastic and vibrant. There are plenty if interesting locations and backdrops to feast your eyes on while watching the action. The special effects are great. There are some fantastic matte shots as well as computer generated cobras and fire ants. Part of me was expecting Matheus to use some special "Scorpion" powers in the film similar to what happened in second installment of The Mummy, but this just doesn't happen. Not a big deal, and in fact it was probably a smart move as this could have easily become corny and over-the-top.
VIDEO: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen and looking really crisp with slight edge enhancement. The colors are alive and jumping off the screen. There are a few spots where pixelation can be seen, but it is easily missed unless you are really looking for it. Its definitely above average in the quality department.
AUDIO: Quality is good, but a bit flat. I would have liked a little more separation and punch in the fight sequences and in the score at the action points. This would have been nice to really bring the action out. Disc comes with French and English Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks as well as Spanish subtitles and English captions.
MENUS: The menu designs are animated and look pretty nice, are easy to find what you are looking for and have great transitions
BONUS MATERIALS:
Commentaries:
Star Dwayne Johnson gives us a very minimal commentary here with very few comments on the film. The Rock certainly has a lot of favorite scenes in this movie, just about every one he mentions is 'his favorite scene'. Oh, and Dwayne ..."attitudinal" is not a word (eyebrow raised) There is also a separate somewhat more informative commentary by Director Chuck Russell
Featurettes:
There are several small featurettes on the film including; "Spotlight on Location: The Making of The Scorpion King", "Ancient World Production Design", "Preparing the Fight", "The Rock and Michael Clarke Duncan", "Working with Animals", "The Special Effects", "King Scorpion" Each of these is about 5-15 minutes in length and interviews different members of the cast and crew on the production, the relationships and other fun tidbits about the process of making this film. They really all could have been edited together for one simple "making of" featurette.
Alternate Scenes: There are a few low-quality alternate scenes you can access separately or while you are watching the film. There is also a small set of outtakes and deleted scenes.
Music Video: Godsmacks, "I Stand Alone" - a fairly typical video with some great skeleton animation.
There is a theatrical trailer, cast and filmmakers bios, Universal Showcase ("The Hulk" and "Taken" trailers), production notes, DVD-ROM "Total Axess", and offers for Scorpion King merchandise.
Final Thought: Scorpion King is a wild ride through great settings, colorful characters, and wondrous landscapes. Its easy to go into this film with expectations and come out disappointed, but I always choose to look for the intentions of a film and form my opinions based on as unbiased a viewpoint as I can give. The Rock certainly has the potential and ability to rise into the ranks of the elite Hollywood action stars. I look forward to seeing more from him. I recommend this DVD for anyone who likes the action genre...or if you just like to look at beautiful harem girls.
Scorpion King is a good time popcorn style Hollywood film. Its got the full spectrum of typical characters - bad-ass barbarians, awesome assassins, sexy sorceresses, tough tyrants, scantily clad harem girls, and comedy sidekicks. There is also a full zoo of animals such as camels, horses, snakes, ants, birds, scorpions, and monkeys. Great fight sequences and choreography dominate the film as well as quite a few comic moments that made me laugh and smile frequently. Grant Heslov plays Arpid, the comic relief who saves Matheus and becomes his sidekick for the rest of the film.
The story takes place some 2000 years before "The Mummy Returns". It certainly isn't anything new, but has a few interesting angles and fun twists to keep it rolling along. The Rock (a.k.a. Dwayne Johnson) plays the Arkadian assassin Matheus and delivers a very charismatic albeit amateur performance. Wrestling certainly requires acting, but we can see here its rather different acting in a film. He certainly pulls it off and gives us a character we can like and is interesting to watch. Matheus rises up to fight against the tyrant Memnon (Steve Brand) who commands armies and a beautiful sorceress heroine played by Kelly Hu. Matheus teams up with Balthazar (Michael Clarke Duncan) who is the leader of a small tribe of people living in fear of Memnon. I'm sure I don't have to tell you the rest, but be sure to count on plenty of entertainment, flash and dazzle in the big budget, Hollywood style.
The soundtrack is alive and very appropriate for the material, but not particularly original. I would have liked the music to be punched up a couple notches in many parts of the film.
The production design is fantastic and vibrant. There are plenty if interesting locations and backdrops to feast your eyes on while watching the action. The special effects are great. There are some fantastic matte shots as well as computer generated cobras and fire ants. Part of me was expecting Matheus to use some special "Scorpion" powers in the film similar to what happened in second installment of The Mummy, but this just doesn't happen. Not a big deal, and in fact it was probably a smart move as this could have easily become corny and over-the-top.
VIDEO: 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen and looking really crisp with slight edge enhancement. The colors are alive and jumping off the screen. There are a few spots where pixelation can be seen, but it is easily missed unless you are really looking for it. Its definitely above average in the quality department.
AUDIO: Quality is good, but a bit flat. I would have liked a little more separation and punch in the fight sequences and in the score at the action points. This would have been nice to really bring the action out. Disc comes with French and English Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks as well as Spanish subtitles and English captions.
MENUS: The menu designs are animated and look pretty nice, are easy to find what you are looking for and have great transitions
BONUS MATERIALS:
Commentaries:
Star Dwayne Johnson gives us a very minimal commentary here with very few comments on the film. The Rock certainly has a lot of favorite scenes in this movie, just about every one he mentions is 'his favorite scene'. Oh, and Dwayne ..."attitudinal" is not a word (eyebrow raised) There is also a separate somewhat more informative commentary by Director Chuck Russell
Featurettes:
There are several small featurettes on the film including; "Spotlight on Location: The Making of The Scorpion King", "Ancient World Production Design", "Preparing the Fight", "The Rock and Michael Clarke Duncan", "Working with Animals", "The Special Effects", "King Scorpion" Each of these is about 5-15 minutes in length and interviews different members of the cast and crew on the production, the relationships and other fun tidbits about the process of making this film. They really all could have been edited together for one simple "making of" featurette.
Alternate Scenes: There are a few low-quality alternate scenes you can access separately or while you are watching the film. There is also a small set of outtakes and deleted scenes.
Music Video: Godsmacks, "I Stand Alone" - a fairly typical video with some great skeleton animation.
There is a theatrical trailer, cast and filmmakers bios, Universal Showcase ("The Hulk" and "Taken" trailers), production notes, DVD-ROM "Total Axess", and offers for Scorpion King merchandise.
Final Thought: Scorpion King is a wild ride through great settings, colorful characters, and wondrous landscapes. Its easy to go into this film with expectations and come out disappointed, but I always choose to look for the intentions of a film and form my opinions based on as unbiased a viewpoint as I can give. The Rock certainly has the potential and ability to rise into the ranks of the elite Hollywood action stars. I look forward to seeing more from him. I recommend this DVD for anyone who likes the action genre...or if you just like to look at beautiful harem girls.
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