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The Scorpion King
Studio: Universal
Year: 2002
Rated: PG-13
Film Length: 92 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 16X9 Enhanced Widescreen (2.35:1)
Warrior. Legend. King.
The Scorpion King ballyhoos itself as a
prequel to the hit films The Mummy and The Mummy
Returns. Unfortunately, if you treat this film
as part of that series you are going to make a big
mess out of this film.
The Scorpion King stars The Rock/Dwayne Johnson
as Mathayus, one of the last of his tribe of people—
and one of the last free people on earth. A warlord
named Memnon (Steve Brand) has conquered the known
world using his skill as a soldier and the services
of a sorceress who can predict where and when the
enemy will strike.
Mathayus is initially hired by the last free tribes
to kill the sorceress. But when he is betrayed and
his brother is killed, Mathayus vows to kill Memnon
himself. Along the way, he collects a band of helpers
including a goofy horse thief (this year's Jar-Jar
Binks), a giant black tribal king (Michael Clark
Duncan), and eventually, the sorceress herself
(Kelly Hu).
While the film will probably not disappoint the
legions of wrestling fans waiting to see "The Rock"
in action, it's most everyone else that will see
this film only as a typical action movie--full of
gratuitous non-violence, horrible acting by the
film's star, and a script that is about as intricate
as a pro-wrestling main event.
How is the transfer?
This transfer ranks up with the rest of the
very best transfers from Universal. What really
stands out amongst the crystal-clear and vividly
sharp detailed picture is the deepest blacks I
have seen in recent memory. These are blacks
that are often very hard to achieve, and they
just add a certain richness and texture that most
transfers seem to lack.
The day lit scenes are outstanding to watch as
you really see how crisp and clean the transfer
is, giving much emphasis to picture detail. A
tropical oasis is perhaps one of the most beautiful
scenes in the film with its lush green foliage and
blue petal flowers.
The night scenes are equally impressive. Though
immersed in orange filters and dimly lit by camp
fire, these sequences come off with astounding
detail and not a hint of video grain.
The 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack is above average,
but I greatly missed the spacial quality that a DTS
track would have added here. The entire scope of
the sound seems somewhat confined.
The mix is about as pumped up as you would
expect from a film of this kind. The front and
LFE channels are filled with thunderous bass-heavy
sound that will push your subwoofer to its limits.
A sequence where a gong falls to the floor and
rolls across the screen and another sequence that
featured an engulfing sand storm had my floor
literally shaking from bass response. The rears
never cease to provide the sounds of slinging
arrows, hurling tomahawks and spinning spears that
seem to come from every direction.
As I stated above, I was disappointed that the
overall sound felt more compressed than the
DTS soundtrack of some of Universal's other
notable action films including The Mummy.
Special Features
Universal has released The Scorpion King
as single disc Collector's Edition DVD. I can almost
see the frustration Universal had with either going
with a 2-Disc DTS release or as in this case,
preserving the bandwidth by eliminating DTS but
providing an ample amount of added material.
One very important suggestion. If you have seen
the film already, go into the Bonus Materials
area and be sure to turn on the Enhanced
Alternate Versions mode. In this mode, a red
sword icon will occasionally appear in the corner
of your screen. Press ENTER. and you will be
branched out to an alternate version of that scene
that was never used.
I had made the mistake of missing this feature
the first time out, so I had to go back a second
time and scan through the entire DVD for the added
content. Though there are supposed to be a few places
this sword icon appears, I found it in the last
scene of the movie. Clicking on the sword I was
able to watch a few extra minutes of narrative
dialogue that was added to the film's finale. A
rather cool feature that I wish I didn't miss the
first time out.
There are two feature commentaries on this
DVD. The first is with Director Chuck Russell.
The second is actually an enhanced commentary
with The Rock. Let's talk about the latter. The
Rock's commentary is a lot like reading this review.
It's not from someone of professional intellect, but
it can be entertaining. The problem with the
commentary is that the star rarely speaks, and
when he does, there's nothing much of interest said
other than "this is a great scene" or "Look at the
way that guy looks" kind of stuff. There are often
reflections from The Rock on how a scene was filmed,
or why several takes had to be done in a particular
sequence. As an added bonus, on occasion a red
cobra icon will appear. Click on it and you can
see a secondary window of The Rock providing live
video commentary.
This is actually kind of fun. There are a little
more than 3 minutes worth of outtakes shown
as a continuous montage of sequences. Some of these
outtakes are quite funny. We have The Rock trying
to catch an object in take after take. There's a
camel with Sorceress on board that just will not
cooperate. Then there's The Rock hitting Michael
Clarke Duncan a little too hard and getting a nice
comeback from the actor afterwards. Really cool stuff
here that had me laughing, but alas, just not enough.
Here it is! For those of you, like myself, that
missed the Alternate Versions of key scenes
(indicated by the red sword icon) during the watching
of the film. All of those scenes have been gathered
here for you to watch. There seems to be a total
of 9 extended sequences, some of which include: the
fire ants attack; the scorpion blood laced spear
hitting Mathayus; Memnon and the Sorceress alone;
extended dialogue in the film's finale.
The Making of The Scorpion King is your
standard promotional fare beginning with a
narrative overview of the film set over many
hyped-up film clips. Producer James Jacks briefly
explains that a story had to be dreamed up that
coincided with The Rock's appearance in The
Mummy Returns, but that story had to take place
before that film. Director Chuck Russell and
The Rock give a basic outline of the film's story.
During the layout of the story, we meet cast members
Steve Brand, Kelly Hu and Michael Clarke Duncan
who talk about their characters while Director
Russell describes how each were chosen for the part.
There's some funny bantering between The Rock and
Duncan over their drawing star power. In between
all this, we take a look at life on the various
sets as we watch action from behind-the-camera.
There's some nice moments of Director Russell
showing The Rock the dailies, explaining what is
to be done next. This featurette dwells briefly
into the building of the massive sets and the
handling of all the different exotic animals
brought aboard. Steve Brand and Kelly Hu joke
about how scary it was being close to some of
the snakes. This entire documentary wraps up with
a look at some of the visual effects that were
added to the film, particularly, how the sandstorm
sequence was filmed. Not a bad featurette, but
bothersome that it makes the film look better than
it actually is. Of course, that's why these
featurettes are made in the first place.
(length: approx. 14 minutes)
Ancient World Production Design takes
a look at the creation of the film's Sodom and
Gomorrah sets. Production Designer Ed Verreaux
shows us original concept drawings and tells us
the many California locales that sets were
built in. It's interesting to note that a cave
that Mathayus exits from is the actual Bate Cave
from the Batman TV series. Most of the sets used
were recycled from other films, such as the huge
statues originally seen in Spartacus, that
were changed for this film. A very interesting
look at how an entire world was built with a lot
of ingenuity from the Production team.
(length: approx 2.5 minutes)
How do you train actors in using swords and other
special weapons that they have no skill in?
Preparing The Fight features Director Chuck
Russell giving us an overview of the training.
Cast members talk about the challenges of their
training since choreography was often changed at
a moment's notice. Many of the swords weighed
25 lbs., and although the edges of the blades
were dull, there were still a lot of safety
concerns about the way they were swung at one
another. It would have been nice to have heard
some words from fight coordinator William Burton,
but alas, we only see brief shots of him training
the actors.
(length: approx. 5.5 minutes)
There was great friendship yet immense competition
between The Rock and Michael Clarke Duncan.
This short piece features the friendly bantering
that went on between the both of them. The big
story of this featurette can originally be seen
in the outtakes sequence, but is told more
in-depth here. It's of course, the story of The
Rock giving a bad punch to Michael Clarke Duncan,
and Michael's response.
(length: approx. 3.5 minutes)
What about all those animals? In Working With
Animals, we briefly take a look at the many
animals used on the film. It is the beautiful
white camel, however, that gets particular attention
here. Director Chuck Russell talks about how
unpredictable and wild the camel was. Would
The Rock opt to ride this camel after it threw its
trainer off its back? The Rock thought nothing
of it and assured all would be cool.
(length: approx. 2.5 minutes)
We take a look at two Special Effects sequences.
The first is of the sorceress handling cobras which
actually was CGI generated since using real cobras
would be too dangerous. We take a look at some neat
test footage involving real cobras which give you
an idea of how the CGI was created. The next sequence
involves the red fire ants. From rehearsals inside
a conference room, The Rock was able to properly
act against danger that was not immediate as the
CGI ants were added later. This is a wonderful and
intricate look at how this scene was mapped out
and executed.
(length: approx. 3.7 minutes)
The film's music video, I Stand Alone
by Godsmack is included in its entirety.
Could there really have been a Scorpion King? In
Man or Myth: The Historical King Scorpion,
we see the first hint as to the possible existence
of a Scorpion King that was found just before the
turn of the 20th century. Pages of text follow
that talk about archeological findings that had
depictions etched on weaponry that might prove the
existence of a Scorpion King. Read it with an open
mind.
Concluding the immense amount of added material,
we have the film's original theatrical trailer
as well as Production Notes that basically
tell how the film was built around the WWF star.
There is a very nice Cast and Filmmakers
area that gives a little more than just a simple
filmography. We get pages of background information
on each individual.
This would be a good time to mention that the
DVD begins with trailers for E.T. and
The Back To The Future Trilogy DVD releases.
A Universal Showcase area in the Bonus Materials
area has trailers for The Hulk and Taken.
Not certain what this is all about, but there's a
list of names of persons that made The Scorpion
King MovieClub. It looks as if these are the
ultimate collectors -- but of what, I don't know.
Finally, DVD-ROM content gives you access
to exclusive on-line features (via Total Axess) such
as behind-the-scenes footage and never-before-seen
material that changes weekly.
The DVD features English and Spanish subtitles.
Special Thought: It's so nice to see that
a decision has been made to remove Colleen Benn's
name from every damn Universal featurette as of
late. It was just plain overkill that her name had
to appear in supplement after supplement when the
real credit goes to others.
Final Thoughts
After all the initial negative reviews, including
one from my friend Steve Simon who felt sorry I
had to actually review the film (he saw it), I was
fully prepared to hate The Scorpion King.
What one needs to do before watching this film is
to accept the fact that this vehicle was created for
WWF wrestling star The Rock. It's a mindless piece
of entertainment that delivers exactly what it
promises. Go in for a popcorn flick and you won't
disappointed. In fact, low expectations actually
made me enjoy this film.
I am going to recommend this DVD for three simple
reasons. First, it's actually not as bad of a film
as you may have heard. It's mindless entertainment
but it's a good way to spend an evening. Second,
I had more fun watching the added supplemental
material than the film itself. Third, you can
actually own this feature-packed DVD at an on-line
price of just $20.
Yeah, go ahead and pick this DVD up. Be sure,
however, to buy the widescreen version
as the full-frame version packaging is very similar.
Release Date: October 1st
