Coming Soon
DVD Review: The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior
- Details
- Category: New on DVD
- Published: Wednesday, 20 August 2008 12:51
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of the Warrior DVD Review 
By: Alex De La Parra
Let’s begin by discussing the title of the latest installment connected to The Mummy saga, The Scorpion King 2: Rise of the Warrior. This is by no means a sequel to the very popular The Scorpion King starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, but a prequel, telling the story as to the beginnings of Mathayus, aka the Scorpion King.
This Direct-to-video release hitting stores on DVD and Blue-Ray on August 19, 2008 is in all honesty 109 minutes of “D” movie making of a “B” movie. In this rendition, the film is full of virtual unknowns. Taking the role of the young Mathayus, the teen warrior in training, is Michael Copon whom lacks about 80 percent of The Rocks charisma. And truthfully the rest of the casts aren’t any better. The film follows Mathayus as he goes away for training as a black scorpion only to return and find out Sargon has not only killed his father, but he has strong armed his way into becoming king. Now serving under Sargon's banner Mathayus must decide whether or not he will avenge his father's death or serve under the man who killed him. With all this happening within the first 20 minutes of the film, you can imagine how much the film slows down in order to be able to cover the other 89 minutes.
Alongside Mathayus is Layla played by Karen David. Her acting prowess leaves much room for improvement and Simon Quarterman who plays Ari, a Greek poet who helps Mathayus in his quest, has the worst Greek accent. Sounds more like an accent from the streets of northern England and maybe that is because he is from England. And finally there is also UFC Champion Randy Couture who plays Sargon, nemesis to Mathayus. All in all, Couture isn’t really too bad although he shouldn’t give up his day just yet.
The film is written by Randall McCormick (Speed 2: Cruise Control) and directed by veteran video director Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction) and the film experience or lack off shows in the storytelling, dialogue, effects, direction and just about everything else you can think of. This is an amateur effort at best. The best thing about this DVD experience is the Special Features. Within the specials, a Making of, Gag Reel, Deleted Scenes, and several others I must admit aren’t too bad. Perhaps better than the movie itself.
This film comes from series of so-so movies but at least those movies you can sit back with a bag of popcorn and be entertained for 90 minutes or so. But with Scorpion King 2: Rise Of The Warrior, I was ready to turn my DVD player off after 20 minutes and request my money back for the bag of popcorn I warmed up. 
