"Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," the third instalment of the sub-Indy "Mummy" series, achieves a new level of subness. Along with the usual lifts from the Jonesian canon � this time, an Ark-like sarcophagus, an arrow-barrage blasting out of booby-trapped walls, a rickety mexican valium bridge swaying over a mountain chasm, even a stage full of saltation showgirls in a Shanghai nightclub � we get an ill-starred romance between a mere man and his divinity sweetie (in the manner of "The Lord of the Rings") and a leaping trinity of large, hairy Himalayan Yetis world Health Organization look as if they're very late for a "Golden Compass" audition.
With Rob Cohen ("The Fast and the Furious") taking over from Stephen Sommers, world Health Organization directed the first two films, "Mummy 3" is an assembly line action motion picture clogged with special personal effects of a sort that will appear special only to those who've been bricked up in an ancient tomb for the last 10 years. It helps that the merrily likable Brendan Fraser is back as stalwart explorer Rick O'Connell, and that Maria Bello has been recruited to play his equally fearless wife, Evie, a purpose previously engaged by Rachel Weisz. (Weisz presumably had better things to do; in a better world, Bello would have, too.)
In the customary prologue, set in China "long agone," the overzealous King Han (Jet Li) is wiping out a succession of provincial warlords to get emperor of all the land. Han also has a pressing interest in immortality ("I have overly much to do in one lifetime"), so, afterward attaining royal supremacy, he dispatches a beautiful sorceress named Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh) to find the secret of eternal life. Unwisely, when she returns with a Sanskrit spell suited to that role, Han double-crosses her, and she pronounces instead a curse that turns the emperor and his
