Shaffer continued, “To be honest, I can't even follow
this franchise anymore.” Mathayus has changed in every film, from WWE star Dwayne
Johnson to two unknowns, Michael Copon and Victor Webster. The story doesn’t seem
to know what it wants to be, never completely connecting the story to the
prologue for The Scorpion King seen in “The Mummy Returns.” Shaffer said, “It
doesn't help that several years pass between each entry, and it's not like I'm
watching these films with any regularity. The last time I watched The Scorpion
King was back when it hit Blu-ray, in 2008. Same with the second helping, which
also hit Blu in 2008.”
“The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption,” released
in 2012, is like a direct sequel to the first film, following what happened to
that story very little. Here, Mathayus’ kingdom has fallen (?) and his love
(which we are to think is Kelly Hu) has dies from a plague. He’s then hired by
a king (Ron Perlman) to assassinate an evil king (Billy Zane) who wishes to use
The Book of the Dead (the oldest cliché in movie history) to raise an evil army
of professional fighters. Shaffer noted, “See, it kinda fits with The Mummy
Returns, introducing the Book of the Dead, the subject of previous Mummy films.
Except here, it looks like a group of high schoolers shot the film in their
backyard.”
The rest of the movie has ear-bleeding dialogue, awful
acting (Victor Webster seems to mess up every sentence he says), and dramatic
action, much of which feels like more of a practice than the real thing. Shaffer
noted, “Plus, there's a bunch of UFC/MMA stars in the film, tossed in to target
a specific demographic that probably won't even bother to rent this junk. And
lest we forget Billy Zane and Ron Perlman. Zane's career has stalled so it's no
surprise he's slumming it here, but after coming off such a great film like
Drive, this is a very big step down for Mr. Perlman. You know what? Let's just
forget they were in this. I like both actors too much to talk about their
performances here.”
Shaffer admitted, “The Scorpion King 3 represents one
of the worst direct-to-video franchise sequels I've seen, and I've watched a
great many direct-to-video films.” It’s horrible, badly made and boring, with
no manipulative edge at all. That’s what you need with a film like this – some charge.
Some feeling of energy. A reason to see the film. You don’t need a big budget
to do that. You just need a little talent behind the scenes (a good producer or
director) and a decent script. This film doesn’t have either one.
Shaffer admitted, “My bar was very low, and yet the
film somehow found a way to sink beneath it. That's bad. I wasn't expecting The
Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption to be a brilliant piece of cinema, or
even as "good" as the first one. But maybe a pulpy C-movie would have
been cool? What we get in its place just isn't worth watching, I'm afraid. Rent
the first Deathstalker instead. Now there's a low-budget film with some teeth.”
I first started this film when it was streaming on
Netflix, but then it was made not available in my region. For a few years, I
couldn’t find this anywhere until a few months back, it was available on Amazon
Prime. I checked it out and it was a big mistake. As a direct-to-video sequel,
you know this spells disaster. You have Selina Lo, MMA fighter and professional boxer Kevin ‘Kimbo
Slice’ Ferguson, and professional wrestler Dave Bautista in here as the
henchmen, Bostin Christopher as the disgusting partner Mathayus is stuck with,
Temuera Morrison, and Krystal Vee as the new love interest. However, nobody
saves this horrid DTV sequel. Never make the mistake of seeing this because you
will find nothing savable in this poorly made sequel.
Next week we’re going to sink even deeper with how
worse this franchise got in the continuation of “The Scorpion King Month.”
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