Brendan Fraser returns as explorer Rick O'Connell for an all-new adventure in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor."

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor

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Rated PG-13 for adventure and violence

Length: 114 minutes

Released: August 1, 2008 Nationwide

Score: 1.5

Cast: Brendan Fraser, Jet Li, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Russell Wong

Director: Rob Cohen
Producer: Bob Ducsay, Sean Daniel, Stephen Sommers,
Writer: Miles Millar, Alfred Gough
Genre: Action/Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Distributor: Universal Pictures

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Provided you're not that into witty repartee or complex characters or slow-burning plotlines, "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" might be the ticket you're looking for. To be fair, Rob Cohen (director of such heady fare as "xXx," "The Fast and the Furious" and "The Skulls") successfully offers a popcorn flick that's just as loud and zippy and explosive as you might expect here in August.

But the story of Rick O'Connell's (Brendan Fraser) latest encounter with the undead forces of evil struggles to hold the interest and admiration of someone who likes their adventure flicks a little headier. The problem could have something to do with dilution; we ARE up to three Mummy installments, unless you also count "Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride," a short film screening before the Universal Studios ride.

As Rick and the little lady, Evelyn, settle uneasily into retirement, both wistful over their more exciting pasts while looking far too young to have a strapping college kid (Luke Ford) for a son, the movies suffers its first stall. It's partly due to the ridiculous conceit that Rick the Mummy Slayer would actually attempt (and fail so perilously at) something as mundane as fly-fishing. But it also has something to do with the obnoxiously tired notion of "we're married and boring and passionless."

When your wife has shared such wild adventures with you, and now writes about them and happens to look exactly like Maria Bello (yes, she's replaced Rachel Weisz of the previous flicks and cheekily admits to it, saying, "I'm an entirely different person now"), it's tough to understand why slaying a Mummy is necessary for an invigorating sex life. I mean, can't they just go away for the weekend? But what do I know? I've never saved the world from the undead with my husband. Twice. So maybe they're adrenaline junkies.

Regardless, when asked to shuttle the Eye of Shangri La to Shanghai, both put on airs of disinterest before leaping into action.

The movie begins with a pretty good origin story, set thousands of years in the past:Emperor Han (Jet Li) has captured most of China and intends to take over the world, but realizing this sort of thing takes time, he enlists the aid of the Witch Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh, of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and incidentally, a former Miss Malaysia) to hook him up with some immortality. This is a hot, hot plan for world domination, but Han makes a fatal error (oh, and how we love them) by insisting the witch become his wife. Sadly, she thinks his general (Russell Wong, "CSI") is a total dreamboat (she's not wrong). Han is a jealous dude, so the general is drawn and quartered and Han subsequently gets cursed with a wicked case of "encased in terra-cotta for all of eternity along with a whole army and a sweet horse-drawn chariot thing." He crossed a witch, forcrying out loud.

Flash-forward to 1946, when the bulk of the film takes place. Rick and Evelyn arrive in Shanghai with the Eye of Shangri-La and discover their son's not only stopped his schooling for an archeological dig involving a mummified emperor, but the Eye of Shangri-La the couple's brought to town is the one thing that can awaken the baddie. And of course, he's awakened within minutes, so now Rick and Alex can bicker about which guns to use and how to best defeat Han, leaving Evelyn the trite role of moderator.

While having characters butt heads while fighting a common enemy is a tried-and-often-true way of creating depth in an action flick, the lack of solid dialogue and father-son chemistry between the actors undermines believability. By the time Alex unearths the clay emperor, gets double-crossed and finds himself a love interest (Chinese actress Isabella Leong, in her first English movie), the movie's lost some serious momentum and moves on to a ridiculous and shallow subplot on the necessity of father-son bonding.

No amount of Chinese New Year backgrounds, exploding fireworks trucks, surprise Yeti rescues, cool Harryhausen-esque marching skeletons, avalanches, three-headed dragons or undead emperors can fluff up something that banal.

But you can't say Cohen didn't try. "Dragon Emperor" is easily the loudest, most unrelenting action flick I've seen this summer. If I was 8, I'd appreciate the gross monsters, the tricky plane rides and the laborious explanations of what's happening. I'd find this fast-moving, mid-grade comic book a pretty darned good time. We even get a "Temple of Doom"-style face melting. But I'm not 8.

Contact Camera Film Critic Jeanine Fritz at 303-473-1397 or moviefritz@gmail.com