The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption

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.

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.

First of all I want to simply warn the movie watchers regarding the opinion I am going to express. Personally I feel that this is the worst Movie I have viewed during my existence. The movie starts with a narrative to catch the viewers interest and attention. I was under the impression that it would be a good movie, after 30 minutes of watching this movie I simply had get out of the and not look back. I have never have degraded anyones work, with the exception of this film. I wish I could comprehend what the writer and producer were thinking when they chose the acting crew. The only actor that I notice talent was from Victor Webster, the hero, the king with out a kingdom. I cannot even continue to write about this movie since its a waste of time and money. I would not watch this movie even If I was paid and given free popcorn.

Please do not go into this movie thinking it is going to be anything like Scorpion King or Scorpion King 2. The first one was great, the second one was good, but this one is a total waste of time. It is nothing like the first two since this "king" is now a hired assassin and no longer a king. The dialog is terrible, the fight scenes unrealistic, the acting seemed like they were reading off cue cards, there was no emotion at all. The story may have had something to do with it since there was very little plot to follow. Just random fight scenes, and the 6'5" 300 lb king got beat up by a 5' tall 90 lb woman in one of them. I don't know what happened to Billy Zane, but he lost whatever acting skills he had (which were minimal to begin with). He was flat out horrible. Truly, honestly, and sincerely-do not waste your time on this just because you may think it is a continuation of the Scorpion series. It is not and it stinks

It was like a test: can the third part of a franchise that spawned out of another franchise that wasn't that good be any good? Can Ron Perlman and Billy Zane save it? And the test was failed miserably.

Let me explain this to you in a way that anyone can understand: if you watch this on fast forward x4, it will be a total waste of your time. At least Ron Perlman has a small role appearing at the beginning and the end of the film. Billy Zane does his usual evil smiling villain, but it is not enough. And the "Scorpion King", not only does he not act like one, he actually plays the entire movie as a positive hero with no baggage. The only connection remains the "deep voiced" words of the narrator who pretty much says: "this is the Scorpion King! Really!" and then disappears. And the actor... is Victor Webster! He played in Mutant X, for crying out loud, and looks like an underwear model.

Bottom line: avoid this film at all costs. Or watch it at x8, maybe it works then.