The Mummy Returns' Notorious Scorpion King Isn't The Movie's Worst CGI Offence

Jul 26, 2023

The Mummy Returns' CGI Scorpion King fight is often considered the sequel's nadir, but there another setpiece that's somehow even WORSE.

The Mummy Returns' CGI Scorpion King monster is one of the most notoriously poor visual effect shots in cinema history, but it's not even the worst in the sequel itself. Starting in the early '90s with game changers like Jurassic Park, computer-generated effects became more and more common over the next decade. However, filmmakers still had to reckon with what the technique could and - more importantly - couldn't do. That's why some CG from '90s blockbusters like Escape From LA have aged so poorly, but The Mummy holds up surprisingly well.

That's because The Mummy had (at least by blockbuster standards) a more modest budget. This means that a lot of the effects are still practical, while the titular villain or his minions are brought to (un)life via computer. Director Stephen Sommers achieved a great balance for his original Mummy movie in terms of effects; sadly, later projects such as Van Helsing or G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra saw him forget those lessons. The Mummy Returns was greenlit almost immediately after the success of the 1999 original, but the CG of the era couldn't quite handle the sequel's larger scale.

Related: Brendan Fraser Is Right About Mummy Returns' Bad Scorpion King CGI

There are few stronger examples of this than the reveal of The Scorpion King's (Dwayne Johnson) monster form. The effects artists behind this Mummy Returns sequence admit that a lack of time and reference material for creating The Rock's CG Doppelganger are the main reasons the weightless, cartoony monster looks so poor. Bad as this scene is, the sequel actually saves the worst CG setpiece for last, as Rick (Brendan Fraser) and co have to escape The Gold Pyramid as the oasis of Ahm Shere is sucked back inside of it.

What's meant to be a thrilling escape is completely spoiled by the unconvincing waves of debris being hoovered up by the pyramid, and it never once feels like the actors share the same space as the surrounding desert. This is The Mummy Returns' nadir in terms of convincing digital effects, and it looks more like an early '00s screensaver than an effect from a summer blockbuster. Given the low bar set by the CGI Scorpion King battle, perhaps most viewers had zoned out on The Mummy Returns by that point, accounting for why it's rarely brought when discussing weak CG effects.

While the aforementioned scenes are The Mummy Returns' worst in terms of CGI, there are still plenty of other lackluster effects shots. The scene where Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) attacks the henchmen on the train has some woeful rendering of the actor's face, while the blimp chase may as well be animated. The truth is, the success of the original convinced Sommers to add ever more impressive CG action, but the production lacked the time and resources to properly execute them all. This resulted in many mediocre to poor CG effects in the end product, though the Scorpion King battle tends to take the brunt of the punishment nowadays.