Film Review: The Scorpion King (2002)
In 1999 The Mummy became one of the most successful remakes in the history of Hollywood. Its success manifested not only in massive box office results and sequel, but also in a spin-off, which would ultimately grow into film series of its own. The spin-off dealt with relatively minor character in The Mummy, played by Dwight “the Rock” Johnson, which left such good impression that he would become protagonist of The Scorpion King, 2002 film directed by Chuck Russell, today also known as the hit which turned Johnson into the proper Hollywood star and paved the way for him to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger as an icon of action cinema.
The plot is set around thousand years before the first pyramids in Ancient Egypt. The Scorpion King (played by Johnson) is still not the Scorpion King. Instead he is known as Matthayus, Akkadian warrior and one of the last members of his people. Since childhood he was being taught martial arts and, as such, he developed such combat skills that he is widely sought as mercenary. Ancient Middle East is threatened by Memnon (played by Steven Brand), evil king who intends to conquer all known world. His armies appear to be invincible, which is credited to mysterious sorcerer who can predict future for the tyrant. Chiefs of few remaining free tribes decide to resist Memnon through unorthodox means and they hire Matthayus to assassinate the sorcerer. He goes into action but soon realises that the sorcerer is beautiful sorceress Cassandra (played by Kelly Hu), who actually isn’t too happy about providing prophetic services to Memnon. Matthayus instead decides to take her away and with the help of Nubian warrior Balthazar (played by Michael Clarke Duncan), thief Arpid (played by Grant Heslov) and inventor Philos (played by Bernard Hill) creates plan how to defeat Memnon.
Before watching The Scorpion King any viewer must reconcile with number of facts. The first one is that the film shouldn’t be taken seriously, especially in terms of historical accuracy. While The Mummy had same issues, here they are more severe. Authors of the Scorpion King would like us to believe that China, Pompeii, steel, iron weapons, Ancient Greeks, Babylonians, Sumerians, gunpowder and silicon-enhanced breasts co-existed thousands of years before Egyptian pyramids, which makes films like U-571 and The Patriot look like documentaries in comparisons. The second thing is producers’ need to launch the very expensive film in cinema with “family-friendly” PG-13 censorship rating. Because of that, The Scorpion King, despite plenty of combat and high body count, doesn’t feature a single drop of blood and certain scenes even defy laws of physics simply in order to prevent Kelly Hu and other actresses to show more skin than prudes at MPAA Ratings board were willing to tolerate. This is especially disappointing if The Scorpion King is compared with Conan the Barbarian, John Millius’ masterpiece which obviously served as inspiration to creators of this film. The third thing is that the Rock was still young at the time and needed time to develop enough acting ability to take Schwarzenegger’s mantle. However, if the viewers are able to accept all those things, they are probably going to enjoy good entertainment that combines action and light humour in more than satisfying way. The success of The Scorpion King led to 2008 direct-to-video prequel The Scorpion King 2: Rise of the Warrior (with Michael Copon as young Matthayus) and three more direct-to-video sequels where Matthayus was played by Victor Webster and Zach McGowan.
RATING: 6/10 (++)
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