Grade:  C+

Director:  Chuck Russell		Released:  April 2002
Writer:  Jonathan Hales, Stephen Sommers		MPAA Rating:  PG-13
Players:  The Rock, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kelly Hu, Steven Brand		Running time:  94 minutes

Ratings System

It's movies like this that make me want to write my own action film.  It does a lot of things right, enough things in fact, that it's easy to point out the things that are wrong.  I wish I could have sat down with the director and told him what to fix before filming began.  But I couldn't, so too bad.

It should come as no surprise that The Rock's and Kelly Hu's characters end up together.  The problem is that early in the film, The Rock is hired to assassinate her.  There are valid reasons that he doesn't do it immediately upon finding her, but after those reasons had passed, I don't know why he doesn't do her in.  In my mind, that's the fault with this movie,  It takes one step away from the PG crowd, but it doesn't take that next step towards the R crowd.  I really believe that this film could have been a classic adventure film if they had went all the way.  Instead, we get a standard issue villain, harem girls fully clothed, and no blood or realistic violence to speak of.

Speaking of villains, I'm wondering when Hollywood is going to start remembering that a hero is only as good as the villain he defeats is bad.  So if you have a minor league villain, you end up with a minor league hero.

Complaints aside, The Scorpion King is a fun movie.  It's ten times better than The Mummy Returns.  The Rock is very likeable and charismatic as an action hero, and the comparisons to Arnold Schwarzenegger are inevitable, so let's get on with it  ...  The Rock is better in this than Arnold was in Conan The Barbarian.  The difference is that Arnold had a stronger supporting cast, and a script that didn't hold back.  If The Rock takes on future projects with higher caliber talent, that would be a step in the right direction.

- crocoPuffs