100 episodes ago, I covered The Mummy (1999). It's still the greatest movie ever made. The Mummy Returns, the 2001 sequel to The Mummy, was always going to struggle to live up to the fun, charismatic original (especially in my eyes)
Nowadays, The Mummy is revered as a modern classic that reinvigorated pulp action adventure movies, but The Mummy Returns languishes in the sand dunes of Hamunaptra for its visual effects; which are often labelled on the internet as "the worst VFX shot(s) ever".
But The Mummy Returns was always planned to be bigger in scale and scope, and that included visually. Writer/director Stephen Sommers wanted to eclipse the original with more monsters. In many ways, The Mummy Returns achieves that desired upgrade, in others it doesn't. It has grand ambitions, even though it doesn't quite meet them.
20-year-old visual effects are never going to look great against modern standards, especially when the visual effects team were struggling with time and budget constraints. Maybe it's about time we cut The Mummy Returns some slack, and appreciate what it does do well? It may not reach the high heights of its predecessor, but it's a fun sequel that deserves your appreciation.
Corridor Crew's fix for the "worst VFX shot ever" is available to watch https://youtu.be/KH1V6CHO1Jk (here).
I would love to hear your thoughts on The Mummy Returns! The previous episode on The Mummy can be found at https://www.verbaldiorama.com/episode/the-mummy-1999 (https://www.verbaldiorama.com/episode/the-mummy-1999)
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