Get your sunscreen and sunglasses ready as this Tuesday Universal Home Entertainment is releasing The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor on both DVD and Blu-ray. In addition to our original review, beyond the break you can read David Harley’s thoughts on the Blu-ray release. Don’t forget to write your own review and tell other B-D readers what you thought of the movie.
Despite being the last major studio to get on the Blu-Ray wagon, Universal is doing a real bang-up job with their catalog so far. They consistently go the extra mile for their films, giving them some of the best transfers around and a bevy of bonus materials for the supplemental junkie in all of us. They even give the royal treatment to their terrible titles, like THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR (review).

Make no mistake about it: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR is abysmal. I hate almost everything about it. The acting? Horrendous. The script? Awful. Recasting Rachel Weisz with Maria Bello? A bad idea that should’ve never happened. Every second of this film is as terrible as the one that precedes it. If it wasn’t for the impressive set designs, I would have nothing positive to say about it.

I feel the exact opposite way about the Universal Blu-Ray release. The AVC MPEG-4 codec used for the 50GB disc looks magnificent for the most part. When watching DRAGON EMPEROR during its theatrical run, it was hard to make out what was going on in the darker parts of the film, of which there are many, so it was nice to see that rectified. The downside to seeing the film in 1080p, besides the fact that it’s unentertaining and a chore to sit through, is that a good bit of the CGI looks much worse than it did theatrically (and it was painfully bad then!). The 5.1 DTS-HD outdoes the transfer, delivering a flawless soundtrack that puts you right in the middle of the action. During the climactic battle sequence, arrows sounded like they were flying right over my head, while swords and spears clanked all around me. As far as technical specifications go, this Blu-Ray is top of the line, which is a shame since I can’t recommend buying it on the basis that the film itself is barely watchable.

Special Features

Commentary – Director Rob Cohen comes off as a little too proud of himself during the commentary, considering he made the worst film in the franchise. He talks passionately about all the hard work and research that went into making the film feel authentic for its time period and I can’t help but agree that it does live up to his intentions in that respect. Too bad the other aspects of the film don’t.

Deleted and Extended Scenes (10:45) – There are nine deleted and extended scenes included: “Secret Lovers,” “General Ming’s Death,” “Conversation in Shanghai,” “Night in Himalayas,” “Tea Time: Yang and Choi,” “Motorcycle Grenade Toss,” “Female Fight in Cog Room,” “Emperor Reassembles,” and “Jonathan and Maguire at Club.” There are a few CGI shots mixed in the collection and there is a little extra gore in “General Ming’s Death.”

The Making of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (22:49) – This making-of featurette is basically a condensed version of all the other supplementals in the set. So, if you want a Reader’s Digest version of the film’s production, this is all you’d need to check out.

From City to Desert (15:44) – The creative talent behind the film (if you can call them that) sound off about the different locations used during the production. There’s a lot of information about the set design, the different soundstages used in Montreal and a decent amount of coverage on the location shooting in China, both in the desert and downtown Shanghai (which reminded Brendan Fraser of The Jetsons).

Legacy of the Terra Cotta (13:35) – Rob Cohen’s enthusiasm for the film lies in his appreciation for Chinese culture. This featurette has a fair amount of overlap with Cohen’s commentary, but goes a little bit further in explaining some of the history behind the film’s story.

U-Control – I actually don’t hate the U-Control on this Blu-Ray as much as I’ve hated it on other releases so far, since the supplementals are PIP. However, I still don’t like the idea of only being able to watch these features using this method. For example, “The Dragon Emperor’s Challenge” is a trivia game that asks 34 questions about Chinese history during the film. When you get a question wrong, your curse gauge fills up a little. If you answer too many wrong, you get cursed at the end (which amounts to a small screen popping up, reading “You’re toast,” at the end of the film). It’s a fun idea and gives you the opportunity to flex your brain muscles during an otherwise completely stupid movie, but you have to sit through the whole film (minus the credits) to play. That’s fine, if this is your first time watching the film or you really love it, but it’s too time consuming to play time and time again. Other U-Control features include: Scene Explorer, which shows you pre-rendered CGI scenes, as well as raw footage from the production; Visual Commentary, which is the same as the regular commentary, except you get to watch Cohen talk as opposed to only listening to him; Know Your Mummy, which compares certain scenes to those in the other Mummy films; and Picture-In-Picture, which plays snippets from other featurettes in the set.

A Call to Action: The Casting Process (4:44) – The recasting of Weisz is barely mentioned, making this featurette a complete failure. It’s pretty obvious why she didn’t do it: she went on to make an Oscar-nominated film and work with Aronofsky, while her co-stars did nothing worth noting. I would’ve liked to hear them address the issue head-on.

Preparing for Battle with Brendan Fraser and Jet Li (10:40) – Showcases the fight choreography used in the film, as well as footage from several training sessions. At the end of the day, though, it’s an opportunity for everyone to pat Jet Li on the back and say how wonderful his martial art skills are.

Jet Li: Crafting the Emperor Mummy (7:59) – This featurette focuses more on the CGI-rendered scenes of the Emperor, rather than the live-action sequences featuring Jet Li. They claim everything was state-of-the-art and they worked extra hard to make everything believable but the proof is in the pudding: the CGI looks completely unrealistic and poorly done.

Creating New and Supernatural Worlds (8:34) – To me, this was the best featurette in the two-disc set. The sets are incredible and they give production designer Nigel Phelps his due. Upon looking at his resume, it’s not a surprise that he was able to create such a vast and impressive looking universe, since he has previously worked on other films such as TROY, FULL METAL JACKET, JUDGE DREDD and ALIEN: RESURRECTION.

A digital copy is included on the second disc.

Film: 1/5
Blu-Ray: 4/5