Reviewed by Johnny McNair 

Universal Studios Home Entertainment – 109 mins – 2008 – Rated PG-13 – 1080p Widescreen 1.78: 1 – DTS-HD Master 5.1 Audio

You’ve got to hand it to Universal, because they are dedicated to The Mummy franchise and won’t let it die. With the current installment, Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor still in theaters, Universal also decided to greenlight a direct-to-video prequel for their Scorpion King spin-off, titled Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior, which is now available on Blu-ray. After watching this you may wonder why they even bothered, because there were episodes of Xena: Warrior Princess that offered more of a thrill with less of a budget. If you need closure in the Mummy franchise, it may be worth a few laughs to watch this, but other than that this film is a mediocre as it gets.

THE MOVIE

Being that Scorpion King 2 is a prequel, The Rock is not along for the adventure this time around, and a younger actor named Michael Copon has been cast in the role of Mathayus. The film’s plot is your basic cut and paste storyline starting with Mathayus as a young boy, who is the son of a legendary mercenary and a member of the Black Scorpion warriors, a group of highly trained men who are assigned to protect the Emperor. Mathayus’s father is betrayed and murdered by a corrupt Black Scorpion named Sargon (played by Ultimate Fighting champ Randy Couture), and Mathayus is taken away from his mother and brother and sent to train to become a Black Scorpion.

Fast-forward to several years later and Mathayus is now a full blown Black Scorpion (the best, of course), and returns home to seek revenge for his father by killing Sargon, who has now become the emperor. Sargon learns who Mathayus is and realizes he’s out for revenge, so he knows he must eliminate him. Sargon posses an ultimate power that will not allow him to be killed by any man, but Mathayus discovers through his childhood friend Layla (Karen Shenaz David), who has now grown up to be a hot warrior babe, that there is a magic sword that will kill Sargon. Mathayus, Lalya, and a ragtag group of mercenaries go on an adventure to find the sword, leading to a finale to destroy Sargon and his reign forever.

Yup, sounds like the plot of a Final Fantasy game, and a bad one at that. Russell Mulcahy, who believe it or not, directed the original Highlander movie, which is one of the coolest flicks ever, directed this film. What happened Russell? Did you need to make a quick mortgage payment and resorted to this? This movie feels like you’re watching the Power Rangers, and you’re totally waiting for the pink ranger to jump into the action. (hey, did I mention that the lead actor, Michael Copon, was actually in the Power Rangers? Seriously.) Also, for the man who created the cool swordplay from Highlander, why is the director resorting to copying the style of swordplay from the film 300? There are so many shots where Mathayus swings around and stabs a guy in slow motion, then the frame freezes for a few seconds, and the action starts again. If you can’t do it better than the last guy, then don’t do it at all.

And yes this is s straight-to-video low budget flick, but the special effects are so bad, that some of them look as if they weren’t even finished. The finale where Sargon transforms into a CGI scorpion has to be seen to be believed. We’re talking Nintendo NES styled graphics here. The Mummy films have been known for their elaborate visual effects, so this is a major step backwards, and even with a limited budget other clever tricks could have been used.

The actors are completely flat, making you beg that they would sneak The Rock in there somewhere for a cameo to spice things up. If characters were more appealing this film would be more tolerable, but with bad acting, story, action, and visual effects, there’s not much to hold your attention. Even with its limitations this could have been a kick-ass movie, because the only thing that really matters is the action. Not to knock Mulcahy, but there are many guys out there desperate to direct a feature who would have used the same resources and given this film the cool factor it desperately needed. If you’re a fan of the original Scorpion King movie, avoid this prequel at all cost, because it will leave a more horrific pain inside of you than actually being bit by a scorpion.

VIDEO

This film was not ready for Blu-ray because the image quality is all over the place. While presented in 1080p with a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, there are scenes that are bright and clear, but it looks so low budget that you can see that everything was done a set. Skin tones are overexposed and there’s always a sense that the image quality was released “as is.” This is obvious when certain scenes are shown in low resolution, displaying a grainy and dark image that doesn’t match other shots. The purpose of Blu-ray is to display the best image quality possible, but this is a huge step back.

AUDIO

The DTS HD 5.1 audio is acceptable, but it won’t blow you away. The problem is that the film is so bad that every sound trick in the book is being used in hopes of distracting you. There’s no need to even turn on your surround sound system, because the effort will be wasted.

EXTRAS

Oddly, the standard DVD for Scorpion King 2 offers some basic features, but none of them were ported over to the Blu-ray. Maybe Universal had no faith in this Blu-ray and didn’t even bother doing the work. Instead the only extra is a bookmark feature that allows you to collect the your favorite scenes from the movie. Good luck with that.

BOTTOM LINE

Let’s face it; Scorpion King 2 should have never been made. Have you ever heard anyone say, “Hey, I hope they make another Scorpion King movie?” And if you were a fan of the first film, you should avoid watching this because it will scare your vision of the character. This film was intended to be a direct to DVD and obviously just dumped onto Blu-ray as an afterthought. Unless they bring Mystery Science Theater back and feature this movie in an episode, there’s really no other reason to watch it.

SCORES (Out of 5):

The Movie: 1.5

Video: 2.0

Sound: 3.0

Extras: 1.0

Bottom Line: 2.0