I enjoyed the first two Mummy movies, they were pretty mindless but very likable. But this one was a big disappointment, and by far the worst of the series. Granted, the scenery and cinematography are very good, the music is good enough(no Jerry Goldsmith and Alan Silvestri though) and Jet Li does try hard in his role. But the direction is uninspired, the story is clichéd(as are the characters),the pacing is uneven, the CGI is superficial and distracting, the script is awful and with the exception of Li(the only actor who tries) the acting is dreadful. Maria Bello is alluring but forgets her acting skills, Brendan Fraser is disappointingly bland and John Hannah's Jonathan is rather tiresome. The comedy and adventure this time around seems rather tired too. Overall, a big disappointment. 3/10 Bethany Cox

For the third Mummy film, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, the location and time and place have now shifted to China in the post World War II years. For those of you historically minded, this was the years of struggle between the Chinese Communists and the Kuomintang government of Chiang Kai-Shek. But there's another guy with bigger ideas than all of them. Someone of course we don't hear about in the history books.

That would be Anthony Wong Chau-Sang playing one General Yang. He's got a plan all his own to take over China and maybe the rest of the world. He's been dabbling in the Chinese occult and he's on to a way to raise the legendary Dragon Emperor and his entire army. The Dragon Emperor discovered the secret of immortality, but a girl who was two timing him for his chief general and was also a Chinese witch, puts a curse on him.

First things first and that is raise the Mummy. For that we get the son of that famous archaeologist Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello from the twenties and that would be Luke Ford. Then get the magic jewel needed to raise him. After that it's a merry chase through war torn China to, and I kid you not, Shangri-La.

Tomb of the Dragon Emperor moves at the pace of an Indiana Jones flick and this one bares no small resemblance to Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade. Imagine that one set in Tibet and you've got some idea of what this one is like. Tomb of the Dragon Emperor also makes Indiana Jones look like a Shakespearean classic.

The computer graphics are nice and the trick is not to take this kind of film too seriously. The actors sure didn't I can tell you. Then you can enjoy it.

And if you don't break into convulsions when the Abominable Snowmen are called in to aide Fraser and company, you have no sense of humor. Or when Emperor Jet Li turns into a three headed dragon. This film is an absolute hoot.

Hearing that the third in this kiddie-friendly family series was to involve an ancient Chinese mummy rather than the usual Egyptian Pharaoh, I decided to give it a chance. After all, I love China and both Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh, who star, are favourites of mine. Sadly, about halfway through the production I realised that the filmmakers were happy to carry on making the same kind of nonsense as in the first two movies. The Chinese setting doesn't even come into it, except for the presence of a few familiar Chinese actors (such as Anthony Wong).

The story is thin and overpowered with all manner of special effects that leave nothing to the imagination. I'll admit, I loved the look of Jet Li's mummy in this one, even if the actor hardly got the opportunity to actually appear on film (and Michelle Yeoh, as an ancient sorceress, gets even less screen time). The stuff involving the terracotta army, fine. But who on earth decided to include the stupid yetis in this film, and turn it into a ridiculous I'd-laugh-at-it-even-if-I-was-a-kid movie? Chase builds upon chase, there's a massive CGI battle at the climax and the humour comes thick, fast and stupid. John Hannah has by now played one of the most irritating character in film no less than three times, and shows no signs of slowing down. Fraser is wooden, Bello a poor replacement for the poor Weisz (enough of that plummy accent already) and Luke Ford is a meathead, plain and simple. Let's hope they don't make a fourth!