The Scorpion King 3 - Kampf um den Thron

I was somewhat unsure of how to receive this movie, since I liked part 1, but wasn't particularly fond of part 2. But still, with nothing better to do, I decided to give part 3 a go.

Lets start off with the bad things about the movie. The dialogue was somewhat stale and halting. They tried to put in too much humor with Mathayus and Olaf, but it just didn't work. It didn't really seem appropriate for them to crack jokes like that. And also a lot of the dialogue by Talus was really way, way off.

The movie took place where exactly? Cambodia? Laos? Burma? Regardless of wherever the movie was supposed to take place, they threw in ninjas. Are you kidding me? Ninjas? Now, I like ninjas, they are cool and very 80's, but they are Japanese and thus were so unfitly put into this movie. It just made it look more comical than the intended action hype they were aiming for.

As for the good things. Well the movie had really nice location, lots of awesome and beautiful scenery, buildings and surroundings in this movie. And the cinematography itself was quite nice as well. The costumes and outfits were nicely made as well, great details and lots of interesting stuff going on.

"The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption" held some good enough names on the cast list. Victor Webster, playing Mathays, was doing a good job, though he had some big shoes to fill out from the first movie (not really counting part 2 for much). However, his character doesn't really have that whole epic-touch to it that was there in part one, he might as well have been some ordinary highwayman or mercenary, and that was a shame, because it took a great deal away from the movie. Now, Billy Zane as Talus, well I am not really keen on Zane, he brings with him that comical edge, which really seeps into the character and makes it come off a bit too much. The one that really stood out in the movie was Selina Lo, playing Tsukai. She was great at fighting, and they had done some really cool special effects to make her character come back from beyond the grave with a sense that there was something supernatural about her.

There is a lot of action and fighting in this movie, and it works out well enough. The fight scenes are well choreographed and are set at a high pace full of adrenaline. I liked what I saw.

One scene had me laughing so loud. It was where the ninjas, yeah ninjas, all jumped onto an elephant and rode away. Are you kidding me? They scale trees like others walk on the ground in this movie, with cat-like grace and dexterity, but they opt to make a daring get-away riding on an elephant? Now, elephants aren't exactly the fastest of animals. What was up with that?

Aside from suffering from bad dialogue and misplaced use of comedy, then "The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption" is a decent enough action movie that will entertain most people. Just don't compare it to what you have seen in the previous movies, because it really strays quite far from the legacy of past history.

Considering I didn't rate the big Hollywood blockbuster The Scorpion King (2002) I sure as hell didn't expect I'd think much of the straight to DVD sequels.

The second surprised me and was actually really quite fun, a great take your brain out fantasy outing.

This one, was closer in quality to the first but still better than you'd expect all things considered.

Starring Ron Perlman, Billy Zane, Temuera Morrison, Kimbo Slice and Dave Bautista it's straight to DVD status is blatant but it's not entirely awful.

Set after the 2002 outing it tells the story of our Scorpion King protagonist fallen on hard times and becoming a mercenary. Sadly The Rock by this point had become too big a star to return so Victor Webster stepped in. Now I do hate characters being recast but under the circumstances I think he did a decent enough job both in his performance and appearance.

With an odd level of comedy Battle for Redemption delivers the goods to a degree but not the ones you'd be seeking from a movie like this. The fight sequences are poor, the story is cliched to hell and the likes of Perlman are barely on camera at all.

Not bad, not good, just passable stuff.

The Good:

Couple of great characters

Billy Zane

Some surprisingly good comedy

The Bad:

Selina Lo

Action scenes are underwhelming

I do hate recasting

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

This film is a sequel to a prequel to a prequel of a sequel of a remake (No seriously!)

Last time I saw Olaf he was called Donald Gibb

"Your mission is to defeat my brother." Mathayus's (Webster) kingdom has fallen and his wife has died. He is now an assassin that is hired by King Horus (Perlman) to stop the rise of his brother and the army of ghost warriors. I have to start off by saying that I didn't really like the original. To me it was very cheesy and over the top and more of a comedy then an action movie. After watching 2 & 3 the first one looks like an Oscar winner. This review will be short because it was a struggle to make it through and I did end up falling asleep a few times and I think I missed some important stuff, but I didn't care enough to rewind it. If you like the others you will like this one. If you didn't then I would avoid it. Overall, a movie for fans of the series only. I give it a D+.

Remember that Conan ripoff star vehicle for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson? Be honest with yourself and know that it was NOT "A" grade cinema. Nothing beyond a fun but shallow summer blockbuster. It was enjoyable, had great fight scenes, good humor and Dwayne Johnson himself as Mathyus the scorpion king, but far from what is normally considered "award winning". Then came a prequel with Mathyus as a kid which felt like a pilot movie for Young Hercules. So bad it was that It could only have tanked. Now for some reason, Universal has gone back to the franchise and given us the very appropriately named "Scorpion King 3: battle for Redemption". Hoping to redeem the franchise, this film only buries it deeper.

Promising to bridge the gap between The Scorpion King and the prelude to "The Mummy Returns", Mathyus looses his kingdom and his queen. No, he does not becoming a wandering warlord out to exact bloody vengeance upon the world (as implied by The Mummy Returns). Instead he returns to his old mercenary ways and takes a contract from King Horus (Ron "I need the cash badly" Perlman) to stop his brother Talus (Billy "ham who doesn't give a crap" Zane) from conquering a kingdom in the far east and possessing the fabled "Book of the Dead".

Now the main gripe with this film is that not only does it not provide a proper bridge between The Scorpion King and The Mummy Returns, it fails to develop its own story into anything remotely like the first Scorpion King film. For starters, there's Mathyus who is now played by Canadian actor Victor Webster. While he does have the build, he lacks the presence of personality that Dwayne Johnson brought to the role. Furthermore, his Mathyus seems to be wholly unaffected by his tragic past. Did not the narrator say he was a broken man longing for a glorious death? Instead he's the same sarcastic, cynical, smiling idiot he's always been.

In scraping the bottom of the creativity barrel, the writers present one of the most confusing plots. They have Mathyus team up with the warrior Olaf (played by Bostin Christopher looking like a bad Jack Black impersonator) and travel to Thailand to save king Jango Fett (actually King Ramusan, but really he is played by the same dude who played Jango) and his daughter. While in Thailand, they have to fight Talus' army of what looks like Roman legionnaires, a resistance group of ninjas, and a demonic trio comprising of Voodoo Mcbruiser, a Shao Khan wannabe and a white haired witch from Chinese wuxia movies.

This movie lacks everything that the first Scorpion King film had. Even the prequel Scorpion King 2 at least had Russell Mulcahy as director; his tracking shots and wide crane panning sequences lending a dynamic feel to an otherwise insipid movie. Roel Reine's directing is standard action movie fare; lots of quick cuts, close ups, half body shots and the mandatory slow motion.

Billy Zane's character makes a nice quote that sums up the Scorpion King franchise at this point, "I will rise again like a bad idea.". Yes, this is an actual quote from the film. Thank you scriptwriters. Thanks to yet another bad idea, we have a wholly unnecessary entry to a dying franchise that never delivers on what it promises. The battle for redemption ends in utter failure.

This is typical Hollywood me too products. The first Scorpion King is okay. The second Scorpion King was worse than the first one but still enjoyable. And if that is any indication, then you would expect that the 3rd series would be watchable. Unfortunately, that is not the case.

The story-line is quite confusing. If the first and the second part was in some Middle East related country, this one is not very clear. It start with some sort of Middle East scenery, then you have building which definitely look like the one you find in Thailand and the inhabitant have all the Eastern look-like feature. Of course you have to have the Thai-box action and to make more confusing...... a ninja.... The only thing you can enjoy on this movie is if you like muscular men parading their half naked body in the tattered clothing and strangely enough this big men are very easy to knock out. A little slap from a woman will render them unconscious...

Anyway, don't waste you money or time on this one. I did and I regret that nobody was giving me a warning.....