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The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (Blu-ray Review)

A once-powerful warrior king takes on a new life as an assassin for hire in the DVD Original The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption,  which is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital Download.  The latest chapter in Universal’s enormously popular The Mummy franchise, The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption brings the heroic, larger-than-life saga of the dethroned king Mathayus to face some of his fiercest demons and most vicious rivals—both real and supernatural—ever.  In a dangerous, action-packed battle to regain his glory and reclaim the empire, Mathayus’s journey is steeped in intrigue, sorcery and romance. The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption stars Golden Globe winner Ron Perlman (“Sons of Anarchy,”Hellboy II: The Golden Army) as Horus, the powerful King of Egypt and Billy Zane (The Roommate, Titanic) as the villainous Talus.  Directed by Roel Reiné, the film also stars Victor Webster (“Castle,” Surrogates) as Mathayus and UFC star Kimbo Slice (Locked Down), Bostin Christopher (Unbreakable); six-time WWE World Champion Dave Bautista, and Temeura Morrison (Green Lantern, Stars Wars: Episode 3 — Revenge of the Sith).

Film  

Mathayus’ queen Cassandra has died and his kingdom has fallen.  Mathayus, now played by Victor Webster, is again a hired assassin.  The tyrant King Talus (Billy Zane) has used the book of the dead to reanimate the ghost warriors to defeat his brother Horus (Ron Perlman).  Mathayus is joined by a large, sloppy, and smelly companion Olaf (Bostin Christopher) who amazingly stands by his side to save the beautiful Silda (Krystal Vee) and countless others.  The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption also stars Temuera Morrison, 6-Time WWE Champion Dave Bautista and UFC Star Kimbo Slice to add even more testosterone to the movie.

The plot of the Scorpion King 3 is actually rather complicated, for a Scorpion King movie.  Mathayus is hired by multiple bad guys to complete the same job. The guy he is searching for turns out to be a beautiful girl.  The book of the dead (which previously appeared in The Mummy), now has the ability to summon a team of ghost warriors ready to serve.  The film was supposed to be an epic battle for redemption but they lost me on the epic part.  The film’s low budget was obvious and the plot just wasn’t compelling enough.  The film was also a bit choppy and a lot of elements seemed added in as an afterthought.  Some of the ninja fighting scenes were cool, but I often wondered what the point of it all was.

The Mummy is on my top 20 list of favorite films.  I’m not arguing that it’s one of the top 20 films in existence…it’s just on MY top 20 list.  Many better films have been left off that list because I choose to ignore them, and I don’t want to argue the top 20 best films.  My point is that I really love original Mummy movie.  That said, I have been increasingly, and exponentially disappointed with the other related sequels to it – The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King, The Scorpion King 2 and now The Scorpion King 3.  And once again my love for The Mummy has made me willing to give it another one of its sequels a try.

Unfortunately, The Scorpion King 3 did let me down but not for the reason I expected.  Having a new Scorpion King was what I thought would spell immediate disaster, but Victor Webster did a pretty good job in the role.  He’s got the same physique of The Rock and his acting was just as good although I realize that The Rock didn’t set the bar all that high.  Webster is very believable as the tough guy assassin with a good heart that could rule a nation.  With all that said, I wonder why they keep making these low budget sequels to unpopular sequels?

Video  

The Scorpion King 3 has the overall look of a direct to video (or DVD/Blu ray) release that never saw the big screen.  The colors are very muted and the film has a dingy, faded feel that I assume is not a result of the transfer, but was the actual intent of the director.  Black levels lack a solid darkness and overall this looks like a direct to video movie.

Audio 

The Scorpion King 3’s DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 track is not as consistent and intelligible as I would have liked.   The dialogue falls at random times and I found myself adjusting the volume often in between dialogue and battle sequences.  I didn’t feel as though enough thought went into the epic intent of the film to create an epic soundtrack.

Special Features  

I actually enjoyed the featurettes more than the film, and I think that a lot more could have been done with the actors they had.

• Deleted/Extended Scenes – Six deleted or extended scenes can be played individually or at once with the play all feature.  Most of the scenes wouldn’t add much to the film had they been left in, but Mathayus’ kiss with the Cobra is awkward and rightfully cut.
• Deleted Shots Montage – Clips from the deleted scenes set to music.
• Gag Reel – A short gag reel, not extremely funny.
• Swords and Scorpions: A Making Of – A featurette with interviews with cast and crew on location in Thailand.  Victor Weber shows off real life battle wounds and the Director talks about his vision and additions he made to the script.
• Preparing for Battle – A featurette about the intensive fight training all the actors received.
• Commentary – Director Roel Rene explains that this is officially a sequel to the first Scorpion King, and that he was given the job because Universal was happy with his work on Death Race 2.

Final Thoughts   

Overall, Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption was disappointing.  A decent replacement for The Rock was found to play Mathayus, and there was a good supporting cast but it’s not enough to save the film.  Maybe the film needed a bigger budget; it definitely needed more script development.  Billy Zane clearly hopes that his character will come back in his own movie and at this point, I hope they just let this franchise die.  People can go make Mummy movies without having them be sequels or prequels or in any way related to The Mummy or The Scorpion King.  Too much damage has been done by mediocre movies and I caution future filmmakers to just make an original film.  For the guys, it may be worth watching simply because Krystal Vee is randomly dressed in skimpy clothing most of the time.  Even if the plot and the battles let you down, there’s always a half naked girl to make it worth your time.

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