Mummy : Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor comes unravelled

The Mummy : Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (12a)

The Lord of the Rings style monologue opening the film lures us with the promise of exciting battles, stunning scenery and adrenaline action but unfortunately we're disappointed.

Witches, curses, raising armies from the dead are all things you would expect from a Mummy sequel - but Chinese-speaking Yetis to help save the day and to protect Shangri-La and the pool of immortality?

Puh-lease.

Set in China, expect martial arts aplenty. Combine that with Brendan Fraser's cowboy gunslinging attitude and you've got the action covered.

Maria Bello replaces Rachel Weisz in this sequel, Jet Li is wasted in his role as the cursed Emperor and Luke Ford appears to be way too old to get away with being the son of our heroes.

Even John Hannah's comic one-liners didn't seem up to scratch in this movie.

The O'Connells have retired from the espionage business but are swayed back for one last mission when they come across their son out in China on a dig to uncover the Emperors Tomb, having dropped out of college.

Is this sounding very Indiana Jones?

Double-crossed by an old family friend professor and unlocking the curse, it's down to the trouble-seeking family to save the day - helped by the immortal martial arts expert girlfriend (two a penny these days) - and solve the family issues along the way.

As you'd expect, cheesy happy endings all round.

We can expect yet another Mummy movie to follow because the film ends with hapless brother Jonathon leaving for Peru, concealing the diamond that points the way to Shangri La.

"There are no mummies in Peru," he comments.

Cue an onscreen caption to say that Mummies were later found in Peru...

I can hardly wait.

(Reviewed by SARA COLE)