The Scorpion King [2002]

EMM# : 29290
Added: 2014-12-16

The Scorpion King (2002)
Warrior. Legend. King.

Rating: 5.5

Movie Details:

Genre: Action/Adventure (Adventure| Fantasy| Thriller)

Length: 1 h 32 min - 92 min

Video: 640x272 (23.976 Fps - 832 Kbps)

Studio: Universal Pictures| Alphaville Films| BT Film| Kal...(cut)

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In an ancient time, predating the pyramids, the evil king Memnon is using the psychic powers of his sorceress Cassandra to fortell his great victories. In a last ditch effort to stop Memnon from taking over the world, the leaders of the remaining free tribes hire the assassin Mathayus to kill the sorceress. But Mathayus ends up getting much more than he bargained for. Now with the help of the trickster Arpid, tribal leader Balthazar and an unexpected ally, it's up to Mathayus to fufill his destiny and become the great Scorpion King. Written by

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Righty-Sock (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico
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Dwayne Johnson plays a natural-born hero called Mathayus… He starts off as an Akkadian mercenary crossing the ancient lands looking for his brother who is slain before his blazing eyes by a Nordic barbarian horde whose name is Memnon…

What has kept the vicious tyrant as the absolute conqueror of the land is the fact that he has a visionary sorceress by his side who knows when he should attack his enemies… Mathayus finds out that she's a sexy gorgeous woman who looks amazingly beautiful (Surely the audience is teased ceaselessly by her cleavage-revealing…). So Mathayus forgets his commission to kill her, and a kind of romance begins to flourish between the two as he tries to carry out his assignment…

Kelly Hu plays Cassandra, the female sorcerer who had beauty, charisma, cleverness, and enigma… In the beginning of the film, we're not quite sure where she stands… But when she first sees Mathayus, she's interested in the well-mannered warrior who's strong, brave, loyal and sincere… She realizes that he might me the future king who can save her from her power-mad jailer…

As the ruthless conqueror, Memnon (Steven Brand) has got all of the skills needed to attain global domination… He has also got the force and the will to accomplish it… The combination was pretty scary…

Michael Clarke Duncan plays the fearsome Balthazar, the Nubian King, the strong ally of Mathayus…

Chuck Russell's "The Scorpion King" is a visual feast, and an entertaining action film… It has sexy harem girls, poison arrows, quicksand, an army of red ants, black scorpions, cobras, explosions, and a lot of fun… So don't miss it!

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Shawn Watson from The Penumbra
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Okay, I'm confused. The Mummy Returns portrays the Scorpion King as some evil tyrant who wants to take over the world by smiting any and all civilizations in his way. But that's exactly the opposite of the same character in his very own movie. In fact he struggles to overthrow an evil ruler for those very reasons.

So when, and why, did he become bad? I'm afraid I'm not following this. The movie, however, is entertaining, if rather short and silly. Chuck Russell tries to cram in loads of fighting and hokum as he can. It works and The Rock is very cool as said King (or Mathayus) and former Jason victim Kelly Hu is gorgeous as the scantily-clad Cassandra. Grant Heslov and Michael Clarke Duncan fill out their usual roles as ethnic comic-relief and big, muscley guy.

The film has slightly less integrity to it than the Mummy movies. This is evident with the fun and lively, but completely inappropriate, score by John Debney. I'm not expecting anything like his Passion of the Christ score but blaring death metal guitars seem kinda out of place in a movie set 3000 years BC.

But this movie is a cheeseburger, not a 17-course dinner. So why bother complaining. After all it's a prequel of a sequel of a movie that was a re-make of a movie that was made in the 30's. But it's well made and loads of fun so just go along with it and you'll enjoy.

Filmed in Panavision the DVD is in perfect 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with very loud and thrilling Dolby/DTS 5.1 sound. The extras are fluff, but that's to be expected.

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andriy-tanatar from Toronto
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To put it short, "The Scorpion King" is not a bad movie - for the genre. Just don't expect it to be realistic or have some deep plot.

If you have ever seen "Conan" movies, you probably know the setting: early ages, a bunch of "lost" civilizations, some "emperors" whose armies march the world and a lonely hero who tries to stop him. Blend in a touch of magic (old technologies, paranormal, whatever - just to taste), add some "slashnig" sequences - and - voila - you get the movie.

Well, it sounds quite simple, but since "Red Sonja" I can't remember anything worth watching. Now this is the film: reasonably bad, quite cliche and not very imaginative. Still, it has quite a bit of eye-candy, and, in some sense, it's superior even to the famed "Gladiator" as it doesn't pretend to be any more than it is. Probably, it could have been at least 20 minutes longer, but let's blame it on the rising cost of production. Worth watching if you know perfectly well what you want. 7/10.

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Big Movie Fan from England
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Firstly, there were many great things about The Scorpion King. The Rock played a real good part and he certainly has a bright future in the acting industry. The beautiful Kelly Hu showed that she can be good on the big screen and the ever reliable Michael Clarke Duncan played a great part as well. The action scenes were hard hitting and brutal and the scenery was fantastic as well.

The only thing that spoiled the film for me was the fact that it was not an original idea. The plot has been done in so many movies before. Sometimes in the movie world, certain plots are churned out time and time again and you just get that feeling of deja vu. The plot for this film has been done in dozens of movies and countless TV shows.

I saw this film with a friend of mine and he really really enjoyed it. However, he usually likes cop movies and hasn't seen many fantasy adventure movies so watching this was a first for him. I have seen dozens of movies like this and whilst it was very good, I did get that feeling of familiarity.

But anyway, I still recommend it. The fight scenes are awesome and there are some funny scenes in it. And again, the Rock does have a future as an actor. I just hope that his next project is a fresh idea.

I'm going to really be awkward here but there's three other things that bothered me about this movie. There was a short scene with an Indian elephant in. Did ancient Egypt have elephants? I'm no wildlife expert but I didn't think they did. Secondly, wasn't it amazing that there was such a variety of accents in the film. Lastly, gunpowder in ancient Egypt? No way!

I'm just getting old though-watch and enjoy!

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Chris Williams (CrazyC24-1) from Florida, USA
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Just bring it. This movie was fantastic. It had everything about "The Rock" that I love. The eyebrow the campy humor, his kick-ass in your face dont mess with me or I'll shine my boot turn it sideways and shove it straight up your candy-ass mentality. I thought the fight scene he had with Michael Clarke Duncan rates up there among the best. Ok so "The Rock" isnt winning the Best Actor Oscar for this one, but give me a break it was his first starring role. Even Tom Hanks & Nicolas Cage weren't brillant in their first movies either. And speaking of Tom Hanks, he has the unfortunate distinction of being in "the burbs". I loved this movie and hope to see more in the future. I would also like to see "The Rock" take on some other roles. "The Rock" the action adventure superstar of the 21st century. Oh on a side note the breathtakingly gorgeous Kelly Hu was the sorceress in this movie and shows an ample amount of flesh always a bonus if you ask me. Well folks thats the end of this review "IF YOU SMELL WHAT THE ROCK, THE SCORPION KING & CRAZYC24 ARE COOKING!!", A perfect 10 out of 10

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EmperorNortonII from San Francisco, California
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"The Scorpion King" is a prequel from the "Mummy" franchise. However, fans of the previous "Mummy" movies may be in for a disappointment. Granted, the imagery may be impressive, and the action is exciting, but apart from a very few details, "Scorpion King" may as well be a completely different movie. In quality, it fares about as well as the average sword-and-sandal epic. There is a camp factor that hangs over the story, that you feel when listening to some passages of dialogue. Also noticebale are Grant Hislov's comic relief role as Arpid, and Kelly Hu as the belly-baring sorceress Cassandra. Wrestling fans may enjoy this vehicle for the Rock, but I don't think many others will.

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Ruby Liang (ruby_fff) from sf, usa
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Stephen Sommers, who wrote and directed "The Mummy" 1999 and "The Mummy Returns" 2001, also co-wrote the story and the screenplay, and co-produced "The Scorpion King" this year!

The Mummy energy, practically a trademark of Sommers, is definitely encompassed in this entertaining action/legend movie of "The Scorpion King." Led by Dwayne Johnson "The Rock" as Mathayus the Warrior with a heart, lovely Kelly Hu as Cassandra the Sorceress and object of beauty, sought by Steven Brand as Memnon the convincing evil menace of it all, and Michael Clarke Duncan as the equally brave ally Balthazar to Mathayus, this is your basic good vs. evil story splashed with fun and suspense - almost like an animated Disney film but with real live actors. An action packed myth/legend of a story, with humor/laughter sprinkled here and there at good pacing, along with special/digital effects, I almost felt at times it feels like the epic animation "Princess Mononoke," where they have the villagers (tribes here) rounding up and backing the heroine (Mathayus here) and fighting to get rid of the evil source (Memnon here.)

Other films have similar themes before: an earlier endeavor of Stephen Sommers, who wrote and directed "Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book" 1994, with Jason Scott Lee, Sam Neill, Cary Elwes, Lena Headey and John Cleese; director Xavier Koller's (received Oscar's Best Foreign Film "Journey of Hope" 1990) "Squanto: A Warrior's Tale" 1994; not forgetting director Richard Donner's "LadyHawke" 1985 with Matthew Broderick, Rutger Hauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Alfred Molina.

If you want to escape and have an enjoyable action movie, to forget your stress and strains beyond the world of cinema, go for it!

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scharlak from niagara falls, ontario, canada
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The Scorpion King was a well put together screen and script. It was more than what was anticipated! The Rock was fantastic in his debut. There were a lot of rumors about this film, but I am glad I watched it and learned for myself.

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bob the moo from United Kingdom
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Mathayus is a legendary warrior but his people face a deadly foe in the form of Memnon and his evil army that is sweeping through the lands. Despatched to assassinate Memnon, Mathayus is forced to save a child and misses his opportunity. Fleeing the city, he kidnaps Memnon's sorcerer Cassandra (who he is also meant to kill) and heads into the desert. Deep in the Valley of the Dead, he intents to use Cassandra to draw Memnon out of the safety of his loyal city and into the desert where he will be more vulnerable and easier to kill.

Despite not being impressed at all by Mummy Returns, I thought I would veg out in front of this prequel/sequel/spin off thing which was just as well since vegging out mindlessly in front of it is pretty much all it is good for. The plot is essentially a collection of action scenes held together by some overly-serious plot with a bit of flesh and titillation thrown in just in case the teens get restless. It is very derivative and very obvious and, if you are actually paying much attention to it then you'll find it pretty tiresome at times. Of course in my brainless state I found it to be brightly colourful and noisy which was enough to keep my eyes busy and let my head rest. It would have been much more fun if the material had had its tongue in its cheek and allowed the performances to match this, but by taking itself a bit too seriously at times it only ends up looking silly.

The Rock is a solid star for this sort of thing but he isn't very versatile – he needs the material to match him rather than the other way round. By having a big character in an overly serious tale, he looks ill at ease and doesn't suit it that well. Brand is a by-the-numbers villain who fills the role but not much else. Hu is undoubtedly attractive and at first I felt that she was being exploited by having her in tiny clothes and as much flesh as possible; however then I watched her performance and realised she was just playing to her strengths. Duncan takes himself too seriously and his scenes lack fun – surprisingly even in the action scenes. Support from Hill, Heslov and others don't do much other than fill out the cast.

Overall then a fairly bland, uninspiring action movie that lacks excitement, tension, characters, story and indeed fun (which is where the biggest problem lies). It is probably enough of a film to satisfy teenage genre fans but I must confess that there was so little that was special that I could barely care about it when it was on and found it unmemorable by the time it was finished.

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Hang_All_Drunkdrivers
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The Rock plays the scorpion king who is the good guy battling the evil Memnon back in ancient times. That's the whole plot but Rock makes a great action star and the film is helped immensely by the gorgeous kelly hu playing the sorceress. I also saw her in "the librarian - quest for the spear" and she is one hot babe and deserves to be a super-star. Michael Clark Duncan also has a decent part as the Rock's friend/enemy Balthazar. In the movie "green mile" he played a guy 7 feet tall and 450 pounds. Here he looks to be about 6 feet and 250!

Lots of silly scenes in the movie. SPOILER Early in the flik the rock and another guy are buried up to their heads in the sand with the fire ants heading towards them. How do they get out of this? In the TV version at least, no explanation is given. The other guy is just all of the sudden out of the sand and he digs out Rock! And the fire ants are truly pathetic special fx. Just orange blobs on the screen.

This movie is a prequel to a sequel (The Mummy Returns (2001)) to a movie (The Mummy (1999)) that was a re-make of another movie (The Mummy (1932)) that was made 70 years prior.
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Director Chuck Russell wanted to incorporate a physical feat into the movie which only The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) could perform. That is why there is a scene where the Rock springs to his feet from a position where he is lying on his back. Russell said that he had never seen a 6'3" man do that.
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Dwayne Johnson has said that he intentionally shied away from using any trademarks of his WWF character The Rock, in order to give the Scorpion King character a life of its own. The only exception was "The People's Eyebrow," which he does in response to another character's reference to a harem. He said he included the People's Eyebrow to acknowledge the "millions and millions" of Rock fans. However, The Rock's Entry music is included briefly in the score.
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Dwayne Johnson/The Rock's payday of $5.5 million made the Guinness Book Of Records for the highest salary for a first-time leading man.
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While filming the fight scene between Mathayus and Balthazar, Michael Clarke Duncan accidentally leaned too far forward, allowing Dwayne Johnson's elbow to make direct contact with his jaw, knocking him to the ground.
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More scenes had to be shot due to the movie being around 70 minutes long after being edited
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Vince McMahon is an Executive Producer on the movie only because of the use of Dwayne Johnson's fighting name "The Rock" which McMahon owns.
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Early in the production the villain role was written for Yun-Fat Chow. But Chow's manager Terence Chang vetoed this saying that Chow never plays villains and that doing so would betray his fans.
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The theme song "I Stand Alone" by Godsmack was later featured in the video game Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004).
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The film is a prequel and a spin-off of The Mummy Returns (2001), which reveals how Mathyus became The Scorpion King.
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In the special features on the DVD, there was a 100 minute extended version of the film, where deleted, extended and alternate scenes that were cut from the theatrical version are reinstated.
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When filming the fight between Mathayus and Balthazar, Dwayne Johnson accidentally hit Michael Clarke Duncan in the jaw with his elbow, knocking him down to the ground.
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Memnon the main antagonist is named after Agamemnon, the supreme commander of Greek forces in Homer's Iliad, and several literary and historic figures named simply Memnon. The most famous Memnon, confusingly enough, fights for Troy against Agamemnon in stories which were written about the Trojan War long after Homer, akin to ancient "fanfiction."
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The Scorpion King is considered an homage/unofficial adaptation of the "Conan the Barbarian" stories.
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AKAs Titles:

Certifications:
Argentina:13 / Australia:M / Brazil:12 / Finland:K-11 / France:U / Germany:16 / Hong Kong:IIA / Iceland:12 / India:A / Malaysia:18SG / Netherlands:12 / New Zealand:M / Norway:15 / Peru:14 / Philippines:PG-13 / Portugal:M/12 / Singapore:PG / Singapore:PG13 (re-rating) / South Korea:12 / Spain:13 / Sweden:11 / Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) / Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) / UK:12 (cut) / UK:15 (uncut) / USA:PG-13 (No. 38520)