The Scorpion king

Year of release : 2002

 

Run time : 1h32min

 

Genre : Adventure / Action

 

Cast : Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Kelly Hu, Michael Clarke Duncan, Bernard Hill, Peter Facinelli, Steven Brand

 

 

The movie was co-written,co-produced by Stephen Sommers, the writer and director of The Mummy franchise, based on a story co-written by him.

It is a prequel and a spin off of The Mummy franchise. The movie was also the first in a series of straight to video releases (4 to be more exact). The Scorpion King is a real figure of Egyptian history from the Protodynastic Period.

 

Before the time of the pyramids, a horde of warriors from the East led by Memnon, conquers almost all the tribes. Not just that, the remaining undefeated tribes are afraid to fight him and his army,as he has a sorceress who can foresee any attack.

 

Mathayus, his brother and a friend (the last Akkadians), are hired by king Pheron (who is threatened by Memnon) to k1ll the sorceress .

 

The 3 men sneak into Memnon's camp, but they are caught as the king's own son betrayed him,bringing Memnon his severed head! His brother and friend are k1lled, but Mathayus is speared, as the sorceress tells Memnon, who listens to her blindly, he cannot be k1lled by his or his army's hand.

So, they bury him up to his neck along with a horse thief, to be eaten by fire ants. The horse thief escapes and releases him, and they end up going back together, as Mathayus was to avenge his brother's death.

A street kid steals his money bag, and he goes after him, promising him a part of it, if he helps him get to Memnon. He ends up where Memnon's scientist is working, who tells him he is training in the courtyard. Being spotted, as he tries to save the kid who was captured by the guards who think he stole the jewel Mathayus gave him, he runs away, and ends up in the sorceress' chambers,whom he kidnaps.

 

Memnon sends his best men to retrieve her, as his army grows restless, as she is a figure who gives them strength.

 

I loved the world created, the buildings and interiors, the costumes (speaking of which, Kelly Hu has the skimpiest outfits!). Watching this movie and the other Mummy movies, I remembered how good the Hollywood movies used to be, when they were made for pure entertainment, and not for propaganda!

The movie was action packed, had good,unique, characters, had funny delivering lines, keeping the movie interesting and entertaining.

 

The movie was made with a budget of 80 million dollars and made a bit more than 180 million at the box office. The movie has 2 video games made after it, and it had the largest April opening weekend at the time, beating The Matrix!

 

The actors were good. This was The Rock's first leading role.

 

The visual effects were good.

 

The soundtrack at times sounded good, at times not so much. It was actually kinda rock,considering the era its set in is the ancient times . Looking at the track listing I see the artists featured on the soundtrack are rock artists.

 

You can watch the full movie here, for free : https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8s93g0

 

Rating : Worth a watch !