Amy Reviews: THE SCORPION KING

Mathayus's first goal in halting Memnon's assaults involves assassinating the conqueror's powerful spiritual advisor, a sorceress named Cassandra (Kelley Hu), but instead he kidnaps her and soon wins over the bodacious babe with brains in addition to a beautiful bod. Before the climactic showdown with Memnon, the intrepid heroes must also cope with the traitorous Prince Takmet (Peter Facinelli) and the formidable general Thorak (Ralph Moeller), along with innumerable soldiers and spear carriers. Midway through all this, Matthayus gets hurt by an enemy arrow dipped in scorpion venom, causing a poisonous wound that the recently-recruited Cassandra heals -- hence the protagonist's association with the titular stinging insect.

Connections to The Mummy Returns also merit some tenuous mentions in the final moments of the proceedings.

The Scorpion King comes packed with excellent stunts and fight scenes (of the sanitized, bloodless variety) that show the current commendable and trendy Hong Kong influence and reveal The Rock to be graceful and agile despite his considerable stature. The lead players all get to demonstrate believable martial art skill including, thankfully, Kelley Hu. The Rock also proves that he can act, emoting effectively when tragic events help precipitate his quest against Memnon and when he experiences happiness and love with Cassandra. The other performers all ably pass muster, helping contribute to the film's blend of action and humor with many laugh-out-loud moments.

A real dazzler, The Scorpion King, delightfully absurd romp that it is, offers an eyeful of lovely sets, costumes, scenery, judicious use of SPFX, action sequences, a refreshing and fascinating ethnic mix of hunky guys (I love the way The Rock looked with his long, flowing hair) and gorgeous gals, a lush, atmospheric score that successfully blends its mostly symphonic sounds with a rock-beat at carefully chosen minimal moments plus plenty of excitement and thrills and plain old-fashioned FUN. See it, enjoy -- but don't expect any history lessons or Oscar nominations.

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