Le Roi Scorpion 3 : L'Œil des dieux

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.

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

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.....

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.