Stephen Sommers, writer-director of The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, and leading lady Rachel Weisz sensibly bailed on this dull third chapter of the globetrotting adventure series.

The rest of the cast returns for replacement helmsman Rob Cohen, plus a new faces including martial arts superstar Jet Li, as the flimsy storyline gallops from the catacombs of China to the snow-laden peaks of the Himalayas.

The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor may be full of Eastern promises, but it doesn't deliver on any of them.

Action set pieces lack their usual jolt of adrenaline-pumping excitement, banter between the characters is sluggish and leading man Brendan Fraser's familiar line in self-deprecating humour deserts him and the pedestrian script.

Opening in 200 B.C., the film spews a brief history of the rise of the Dragon Emperor (Li) and the construction of the Great Wall of China, and his defeat at the hands of a wily sorceress (Michelle Yeoh), who curses the 10,000-strong army to spend the rest of time as terracotta statues.

Fast-forwarding to 1946, archaeologist Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford) uncovers the Emperor in his burial chamber, thereby unleashing the otherworldly ruler and his minions on an unsuspecting world.

With the fate of mankind hanging in the balance, Alex turns to the only people who can stop the Emperor: gung-ho explorer father Rick (Brendan Fraser), equally feisty mother Evelyn (Maria Bello) and accident-prone uncle Jonathan (John Hannah).

Beautiful tomb guardian Lin (Isabella Leong) aids Alex but the young man is poorly equipped to lead such a perilous mission, setting up the inevitable clash between father and son.

"We're going to do this my way. I've put down more mummies in my time than you," barks Rick.

"You put down one mummy, dad," replies Alex.

"Yeah, same mummy. Twice!" stresses his old man.

The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor borrows heavily from Raiders Of The Lost Ark for the descent into the Emperor's booby-trap laden tomb, then lazily mimics Lord Of The Rings for a final battle between the Emperor's men and an army of resurrected skeleton warriors.

Bello concentrates so hard on affecting a wavering English accent that she has no energy to deliver a credible performance or to generate screen chemistry with Fraser.

Hannah's bumbling comedy sidekick is completely surplus to requirements.
His most memorable scene is a flirtation with the projectile-vomiting bovine; a bizarre interlude, even by the standards of The Mummy films, clumsily orchestrated to feed Jonathan the groan-worthy line: "The yak yakked".

Li is wasted, forced to spend the majority of the film caked in computer-generated clay.

Humour tends to be puns or euphemisms, like when Jonathan dissuades Alex from pursuing one of Shanghai's hussies by whispering, "In archaeological terms, that is a tomb in which many pharaohs have lain".
The same criticism could be leveled at Alfred Gough and Miles Millar's plodding and predictable script.

Film rating 2 out of 5

Watch the trailer here