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The Scorpion King (Widescreen Collector's Edition) Customer Reviews (22 - 24 of 42 Reviews)

Wrestling superstar, The Rock, plays Matthias the Acadian who is a pretty dangerous fellow. The opening sequence was incredible - Matthias rescues his brother from the evil horde of crooked-teeth-folks single handedly. The bow that fires five arrows at once and knocks the people halfway across their camp was just what I was hoping to see. Unfortunately this same type of action is really not repeated later in the movie, it tends to get more realistic (hah, I feel ashamed for saying that, but note the use of the word more). Also, I have to admire the ancient sub-bikini styles and technology. From what I saw, modern times have really lost a lot in that area.

If you are looking for some good old fashioned entertainment, then I find no shortcomings in this movie. If you are looking for high drama or an intriguing plot, look elsewhere.

The Rock's performance is better than "The Mummy Returns"!!
Okay, it's like this. At least everybody in the world has seen how short the Rock's performance was in last year's "The Mummy Returns". But that was then, and this is now! I saw "The Scorpion King" a couple of days ago and to me, THIS is more like the Rock to have a challenging performance such as this, especially when he portrays the title role! The director of this film is not Stephen Sommers, who directed the "Mummy" films, it is director Chuck Russell, who brought you Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Eraser" and Jim Carrey's "The Mask" a few years back. Russell has certainly did an outstanding job with this prequel to the "Mummy" films! Also, WWF chairman Vince McMahon executive produced this film in which he did a great job as well. "The Scorpion King" focuses on an assassin called Methayus (Rock), who is later called the "Scorpion King". Methayus and his brother (Branscombe Richmond) infiltrate the camp of a ruthless, powerful, and undefeated leader named Memnon (Steven Brand), who has held prisoner a beautiful sorceress (Kelly Hu, "Martial Law"). Methayus' brother gets killed after being captured and swears revenge against Memnon for it. And the film goes on from there. "The Scorpion King" also has some comic relief from Grant Heslov ("Congo", "True Lies") as Methayus' unexpected sidekick and lots of action between Methayus and a gargantuan warrior named Balthazar (Michael Clarke Duncan, "The Green Mile")! This has certainly lived up to the first two "Mummy" films! This is definitely a DVD must-have addition to the first films when it is released! "The Scorpion King" is, without a doubt, the best performance that I've seen from the Rock since we see him every week on "WWF Smackdown and Raw".

Action Packed and Plenty of Extras
The DVD release of 'The Scorpion King' is what the DVD format is all about: a movie and plenty of extra features. 'The Scorpion King' score high on both accounts.

First, the movie. The Rock, a.k.a. Dwayne Johnson, plays Mathayus, one of the last survivors of a clan of assassins. The movie opens with Mathayus's brother being held captive by another band of cutthroats. Mathayus dutifully rescues him in over-the-top-action style, and wraps up the scene with a nice Scwarzeneggeresque one liner. Then it is on to the prologue, where we learn that Memnon, the greatest known swordsman and played by Steven Brand, leads an army bent on conquering all. At his side is a beautiful sorceress capable of predicting the outcome of any battle. Mathayus is hired by a collection of the few remaining unconquered clans in the land to kill the sorceress and open the way for Memnon's defeat.

The movie is a lot of fun. From the action packed start to the all-stakes battle at the finish, it is almost non-stop action with a few breaks for exposition thrown in. One of my favorite scenes involved Mathayus leading a band of Memnon's men into a cave during a sandstorm and then picking them off using traps set up in the cave. It was well done, and allowed the audience to believe that the Rock was playing a character that was more than just another Conan.

The Rock does an admirable job as the action hero and assassin. I suppose all his years in the wrestling ring prepared him for the action sequences, but his acting at least is different from that of his personna as the Rock. Try as he might, his down home American accent managed to peak through every once in a while.

This movie is in a way a prequel to 'The Mummy Returns' in which Mathayus appears as the 'Scorpion King.' In that movie, the Rock's character appears briefly at the beginning to set up the events that Brendan Frasier and company will explore thousands of years later, and then his character shows up again later in the climatic action scene. This movie does not explain how Mathayus fell, so to speak. In addition, 'The Scorpion King' doesn't rely on mystical aspects as much as 'The Mummy' and its sequel did, even though there is a sorceress present.

As mentioned earlier, the DVD has plenty of extras. The producers of the DVD tried to include a little bit of everything. The best feature is the ability to enable alternate scenes. The scenes in themselves don't change the outcome of the story; however, they add a prophecy that had been edited out of the final cut. The prophecy speaks of a new king being crowned when the full moon is in Scorpio, and ties the whole movie together. In fact, if they had left the prophecy in the movie, it would have made more sense and elevated the movie to something more than just an action flick.

In addition to the alternate scenes, the extras include 'making of' mini-documentaries on special effects and the use of animals. There are bios on the cast and crew. There is a director's commentary and other 'making of' featurettes. Godsmack's "I Stand Alone", which gets played during the credits, appears as a bonus video. There is even a documentary on the real 'Scorpion King.' The DVD is a considerable value.