CINEMA VIEWS by Kevin J. Walker, Film Critic

The Rock Gives "Scorpion King" Its Sting

The first successful spin-off of the wildly popular "The Mummy" franchise film series was launched with the premier of The Rock as "The Scorpion King." Last year’s "The Mummy’s Return" actually introduced the character who conquered large swaths of the ancient world as sort of a Kemetic Conan the Barbarian, although he was presented as a tragic figure who eventually gave in to the Dark Side.

In fact "The Mummy’s Return" was notable because it had more than a couple of African descended men in substantial roles. There was The Rock, who is of Polynesian/African heritage; the henchman for the villain, and himself an African wrestler of renown, as was The Rock’s own Daddy; and the comic relief inventor tinkerer and owner of the turbocharged balloon that transported the intrepid band to the Scorpion King’s ancient lair in a hidden valley in Northeast Africa. Also sometimes called Egypt, or Kemet.

"The Scorpion King" is positively populated with Melanin-blessed people. There is the lovely Queen Isis, and her multi-ethnic band of fearsome female warriors; The Rock; and co-star Michael Clarke Duncan of "Green Mile" and "Planet of the apes Fame. (He was the general who commanded the servant humans to "Bow your heads!!").

The plot of "The Scorpion King" is Lite, as they almost always are in these Sword and Sandals epics, and there is a thread that runs through from the Conan and Sinbad series, back to the old Roman and Biblical epics with Victor Mature. In this case the hero is on a quest to destroy the source of power of the oppression of a people or village. ("The Magnificent Seven," and its film forebear the late Akiro Kurosawa’s "The Seven Samurai.") The hero is at first only out for himself, but his heart is turned and he takes on their cause as his own. Think of the cynical Han Solo in the first "Star Wars" film "A New Hope."

Since The Rock’s claim to fame is the World Wrestling Federation there has to be some hand to hand combat. Surprisingly "Blade 2" had more wrestling inspired moves than those seen here. Memnon is a regional warlord who uses the prophetic visions of a sorcerer to decide which battles to engage in. Matthias and his Arcadian band of brother assassins are hired to kill the wizard, so the rag tag band of dwindling free people will at least have a fighting chance against his armies. Matthias hesitates when he sees the sorcerer is a beautiful Asian woman who is being held against her will, and has shielded him from Memnon’s wrath by misrepresenting one of her visions.

"The Scorpion King" is appropriate for youngsters to see but is a movie with some hard edges, though. The comic relief horse thief and con man, played by the pop-eyed nerdy tech head from "True Lies," is told by his torturers they were going to make him "scream in five different languages." After negotiating a price with the king of the refugees to take the wizard’s head, Balthazar, played by Chicagoan Michael Clarke Duncan, objects and throws a blade at Matthia’s back, which he turns and catches neatly. "Him we’ll kill for free," he says to the king.

"After a hard day of pillaging there’s no better town than Gomorrah. Or maybe Sodom," says the horse thief. Modern anachronisms were sprinkled about, although not with the abandon of a "Xena Warrior Princess" or "Hercules." This was part of their appeal.

This movie is loaded with much swordplay and stunt work, and some pretty good camera work for an action adventure film. The framing was different than what you’d see in many of them. For example, it’s a staple of artsy films to have what we camera people call Foreground Interest, or simply things in front of the subject you’re filming. This is how it is in real life, and has been used in films as disparate as "Return Of The Jedi," in the Light Sabre battle in the throne room; to this season’s "Monster’s Ball," with the camera almost voyeuristically looking past the kitchen into the living room at the late-night couch gymnastics between Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry.

"The Scorpion King" version that Smoochie and I saw the other night wasn’t yet rated, but it’s almost certain to have a PG-13 for battle violence. There’s no modern day cussing, and although the women are skimpily clad —especially the warlord’s harem, which Matthias busts into while escaping and is loathe to leave as they coo and pull on him to stay-- there is no real nakedness. One woman theatregoer observed after the premiere that she noticed "as the movie went on, the sorceress was wearing less and less." Yes, I noticed that, too. She went from ornate head to toe robes to diaphanous gowns, to bustiers and breastplates, to barely-there golden pubic patches. But it was all good.

And the movie thankfully wasn’t populated with those wretched scarecrows that Hollywood tries to pass off as beauties on American audiences. "The Scorpion King" after all is for worldwide release, and overseas they don’t play that mess with those bony, flat-butte women that only a homosexual clothes designer would find attractive.

Smootchie was taken with The Rock’s muscled form. "Oh, yes; um, um um!!" she murmured next to me at the theatre. "Look at that body! That’s what I’m talking about!"

Oh please. I haven’t heard such slavering and goings on since I took Phyllis to the Claude Van Damme movie "Universal Soldier," where she kept expressing "Van Damn!" every time there was the inevitable butte-shot of him flexing his gluteus maximii. My old Marquette University schoolie LeJaynes Harris of Charlotte was similarly taken with Bruce Lee’s physique in "Enter The Dragon." I guess women have to have their cinematic eye-candy as well.

"The Scorpion King" liberally borrows to make a good time for all. The theme of a seer losing her powers after mating with a man was straight out of "Live and Let Die," with Roger Moore deflowering a young Jane Seymour, sorta the Ms. Cleo of Yaphet Kotto’s Mr. Big. An action-oriented, crafty but not too bright rootless warrior aspiring to a kingdom was the underlying cause of "Conan The Barbarian’s" quest. In fact, Arnold Schwarzenegger will make a third installment, expanding on the middle aged king shown at the end of the rather artsy first film, where the narrator ends with "… where he wore his crown upon a troubled brow." This aged countenance appeals to the 54 year old Arnold, now a husband and father who will also be in "Terminator 3," opposite a deadly female Terminator! Oh, yeah, its gonna be on this summer! But I digress.

"The Scorpion King" probably will be rated PG-13 for its extensive battle action, and some Wonder Woman-style female undress accentuating the upper torso that titillates young boys. And others. The loincloths and leather for the men doubtless perform similar functions for their target audience.

"SCORPION KING" CAST

• // -- Memnon
• // -- Sorcerer

Director: //>>

Studio: /+=></ Pictures

--30–