The Scorpion King (2002)

Director:

Chuck Russell

Writers (WGA):

Stephen Sommers (story) and
Jonathan Hales (story) ...

Release Date:

19 April 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Warrior. Legend. King.

Plot:

A desert warrior rises up against the evil army that is destroying his homeland. He captures the enemy's key sorcerer, takes her deep into the desert and prepares for a final showdown.

Plot Keywords:

King | Sorceress | Desert | Assassin | Scorpion

Awards:

2 wins & 3 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Dwayne Johnson	...	Mathayus (as The Rock)
Steven Brand	...	Memnon
Michael Clarke Duncan	...	Balthazar
Kelly Hu	...	The Sorceress
Bernard Hill	...	Philos
Grant Heslov	...	Arpid
Peter Facinelli	...	Takmet
Ralf Moeller	...	Thorak
Branscombe Richmond	...	Jesup
Roger Rees	...	King Pheron
Sherri Howard	...	Queen Isis
Conrad Roberts	...	Chieftain
Joseph Ruskin	...	Tribal Leader
Esteban Cueto	...	Third Akkadian
Nils Allen Stewart	...	Torturer

Also Known As:

The Scorpion King (Germany)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence and some sensuality.

Runtime:

92 min

Country:

USA | Germany | Belgium

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG | Iceland:12 | South Korea:12 | New Zealand:M | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Finland:K-11 | France:U | Germany:16 | Hong Kong:IIA | India:A | Netherlands:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Philippines:PG-13 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12 (cut) | USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

Anza-Borrego Desert State Park - 200 Palm Canyon Drive, Borrego Springs, California, USA

Company:

Alphaville Films

Trivia:

Dwayne Johnson has said that he intentionally shied away from using any trademarks of his WWF character The Rock, in order to give the Scorpion King character a life of its own. The only exception was "The People's Eyebrow," which he does in response to another character's reference to a harem. He said he included the People's Eyebrow to acknowledge the "millions and millions" of Rock fans.

Goofs:

Continuity: Mathayus throws a rope from the top of the wall down to his camel. We see the rope hit the camel but after he has climbed down, the rope is a few feet shorter.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[the barbarian chieftain is holding up a skull]
Barbarian Chieftain: We have killed Babylonians!
[the barbarians cheer, he holds up another]
Barbarian Chieftain: We have killed Mesopotamians!
[the barbarians cheer]
Barbarian Chieftain: But we have never had the pleasure of killing... an Akkadian.
Jesup: [Tied up] May the gods have pity on you, for my brother will not.
[Mathayas storms in and kills the Barbarians]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Saturday Night Live: Dwayne Johnson/Ray LaMontagne (#34.17)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

I Stand Alone

Live free

-The Scorpion King character worked amazingly well in "Mummy Returns" and seeing a chance to tell more story and make more money Universal decided to give him his own movie which explains how he became what he is. Only problem is we don't learn a great deal about the guy. All we learn from the movie is how he got his army and that's it. We don't learn how he turned and become the conqueror that he becomes in "Mummy Returns". In this one he's just a sweet guy that inherits an army. It's like we see him at the start of his journey which would have been great if the movie wasn't poorly made.

-The movie suffers from an uninteresting script that pulls every cliché that one can think of. There' the comic relief that has to make a joke out of everything and fails to garner any actual laughs. There's the brother that has to die by the hands of the villain so our hero can have a purpose for what he does in the movie. There's also the one guy that starts out as an enemy then becomes his best friend in the movie, and of course my personal favorite, the hero gets the girl at the end of the movie. If it was a parody of movies like that then it would be fine, but this is suppose to be a fun adventure movie and ends up being anything but.

-Whiles "Mummy Returns" was Rock's first movie, he didn't really get to be in an entire movie till this. There's no question that he gave it his all in this movie and it really shows. He gives 1000% to the action stuff, 1000% to the acting and pretty much everything else. It's just that the script is so god awful that it makes him out to be the same cliché action hero we've seen far too many times. He's tough yet nice, and he can fight and also be sensitive at the same time. It is nice to see that Rock has gone to do bigger and better things since this debacle and his acting skills has greatly improved so I look forward to seeing more of the former wrestler.

-Michael Clark Duncan is in the movie as well as the token black guy and he's all right but the main focus of the movie is The Rock so even if he gave an Oscar worthy performance *which he didn't* then I don't think anyone would notice. Debney writes a pretty decent score but it's not exactly something that will garner any great attention. The action is pretty lame in the movie. It's pretty much the same crap we've seen before and even when they try to infuse it with something different it still makes you yawn. Maybe with more time they could have turned out something special, but this movie did come about pretty quickly so it's no shock to the system that it's not the most intriguing story in the world.

-It's a nice idea and the movie does have it great moments, but ultimately it falls flat due to it's predictable nature and not having a lackluster script.