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fandomhigh_ooc2007-02-18 01:55 pm
bookyeve.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh_ooc2007-02-18 01:55 pm
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Spotlight on Fandoms: The Mummy and The Mummy Returns
Woot! Time to explain my fandom's background. It's really pretty simple compared to some-- only two movies so far. But the third is in production! So this will be short but in-progress.
This is not your grandmummy's Mummy. It has better F/X, an amusing plot, and a heroine who does more than just get rescued. Plot spoilers ahead!
The Premise
The Mummy is a remake of the classic 1932 Boris Karloff film, in which an Egyptian mummy is released from his tomb and goes on to kill nearly everyone on the expedition that found him. This movie series has a more thought-out plot to it, but that wouldn't be difficult.
In ancient Egypt, the Pharoah's mistress and her lover, the high priest Imhotep, murder the Pharoah when he discovers their affair. Imhotep escapes the wrath of Pharoah's bodyguards, the Medjai, but Anck-su-namun (the concubine) commits suicide in the expectation that Imhotep will resurrect her at Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, using the Book of Amon-Ra. He almost pulls it off.... but gets caught, then subjected to a horrible fate-worse-than-death at the hands of the Medjai.
Cut to 1923. Richard "Rick" O'Connell (Brendan Fraser), an American serving in the French Foreign Legion, barely survives a battle at the ruins of Hamunaptra, his Arab enemies fleeing from the cursed statue of Anubis. The Medjai's descendants watch him wander off into the desert, certain he's going to die. He doesn't. (That's not Rick's thing.)
Three years later, in Cairo, Rick has his pocket picked by one Jonathan Carnahan (John Hannah), an itinerant semi-dilettante of an Egyptologist, whose sister Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) is a much more serious scholar working as a librarian at the Egyptian Museum. The little doohickey Jonathan swiped has a map to Hamunaptra in it, and after Evelyn gets it open, they rush to save Rick from being hanged (he had a very, very good time in a bar the night before). In return for saving his life, he agrees to take them to Hamunaptra.
The rest of the movie deals with what happens when they get there and another set of archaeologists accidentally release Imhotep from his three-thousand-year rest. It's got sandstorms, aeroplane crashes, plagues, true love, camels, Medjai warriors (and the yummy Ardeth Bey) and collapsing tombs. Plus, funny. Rent it, catch it on TNT, or buy it on Amazon.
The Mummy Returns is set eight years later, after Rick and Evie have gotten married and had a cute and precocious child, Alex. They're still working as archaeologists, still happy, and then, of course, someone has to raise Imhotep from the dead again, invoke the spirit of the evil Anck-su-namun, and kidnap Alex in a quest to defeat the Scorpion King, another mystical king of Egypt who commanded the armies of Anubis. More special effects, more sandstorms, more fights, true love, death, resurrection, and pygmies. It's a blast.
Why should I watch?
It's got a great villain in Imhotep-- Arnold Vosloo is both hot and intelligent, and has true love as his motivation as well as power. And he's shirtless pretty much always. It's got fun heroes in Rick, the typical American tough guy in the mode of Indiana Jones; Evie, who is proud of being a librarian, damnit, and keeps her head when others can't (most of the time), and Jonathan; who is silly and flaily but neither stupid nor cowardly. Not to mention desert warrior Ardeth Bey, played by the terrific Oded Fehr. The second movie gives us Patricia Vasquez doing a slinky and wonderful turn as the villanous Anck-su-namun reincarnated, and while some people may not like cute kids in movies, Freddie Boath is a hoot as Alexander Carnahan O'Connell. Near misses, a lot of humor, and some really gross bits as Imhotep goes after his enemies (I still can't watch the bits with the scarabs) make it a fun-but-not-stupid rollercoaster of a series, a lot like the Indiana Jones movies.
Evie in Fandom
The Evie I'm playing hasn't gone through either of the two movies yet, or met Rick O'Connell. She's from 1917 at this point, grew up in Cairo with an English father and an Egyptian mother (canon), lived in England for the last four years (my invention, but not unlikely), and was sent to Fandom because her parents were worried about her safety in England during World War I. Jonathan is safely in Cairo (for now) working for the British embassy as a translator, and getting into trouble when he gets bored. Therefore Evie does *not* know that the Nefertiri she turned into for AU Weekend is actually a previous incarnation of herself (canon, second movie) or anything about the Book of Amon-Ra except that it's very very cool, very very old, and reputedly able to raise the dead.
Jonathan visited during Parent's Weekend and gets regular letters full of the truth; her parents get soothing letters about how much Evie adores America. Ardeth Bey is in the desert riding horses and training hawks, Rick is either in Chicago or Cairo, depending on which movie's canon you go with, and Imhotep is still beneath the sands. Thankfully.
Where can I get it?
You can rent the movies anywhere, buy them from Amazon.com, or pick up the novelization. And! The third movie is in development and due out in 2008.
Questions? Comments? Anyone care for a mint?
This is not your grandmummy's Mummy. It has better F/X, an amusing plot, and a heroine who does more than just get rescued. Plot spoilers ahead!
The Premise
The Mummy is a remake of the classic 1932 Boris Karloff film, in which an Egyptian mummy is released from his tomb and goes on to kill nearly everyone on the expedition that found him. This movie series has a more thought-out plot to it, but that wouldn't be difficult.
In ancient Egypt, the Pharoah's mistress and her lover, the high priest Imhotep, murder the Pharoah when he discovers their affair. Imhotep escapes the wrath of Pharoah's bodyguards, the Medjai, but Anck-su-namun (the concubine) commits suicide in the expectation that Imhotep will resurrect her at Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, using the Book of Amon-Ra. He almost pulls it off.... but gets caught, then subjected to a horrible fate-worse-than-death at the hands of the Medjai.
Cut to 1923. Richard "Rick" O'Connell (Brendan Fraser), an American serving in the French Foreign Legion, barely survives a battle at the ruins of Hamunaptra, his Arab enemies fleeing from the cursed statue of Anubis. The Medjai's descendants watch him wander off into the desert, certain he's going to die. He doesn't. (That's not Rick's thing.)
Three years later, in Cairo, Rick has his pocket picked by one Jonathan Carnahan (John Hannah), an itinerant semi-dilettante of an Egyptologist, whose sister Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) is a much more serious scholar working as a librarian at the Egyptian Museum. The little doohickey Jonathan swiped has a map to Hamunaptra in it, and after Evelyn gets it open, they rush to save Rick from being hanged (he had a very, very good time in a bar the night before). In return for saving his life, he agrees to take them to Hamunaptra.
The rest of the movie deals with what happens when they get there and another set of archaeologists accidentally release Imhotep from his three-thousand-year rest. It's got sandstorms, aeroplane crashes, plagues, true love, camels, Medjai warriors (and the yummy Ardeth Bey) and collapsing tombs. Plus, funny. Rent it, catch it on TNT, or buy it on Amazon.
The Mummy Returns is set eight years later, after Rick and Evie have gotten married and had a cute and precocious child, Alex. They're still working as archaeologists, still happy, and then, of course, someone has to raise Imhotep from the dead again, invoke the spirit of the evil Anck-su-namun, and kidnap Alex in a quest to defeat the Scorpion King, another mystical king of Egypt who commanded the armies of Anubis. More special effects, more sandstorms, more fights, true love, death, resurrection, and pygmies. It's a blast.
Why should I watch?
It's got a great villain in Imhotep-- Arnold Vosloo is both hot and intelligent, and has true love as his motivation as well as power. And he's shirtless pretty much always. It's got fun heroes in Rick, the typical American tough guy in the mode of Indiana Jones; Evie, who is proud of being a librarian, damnit, and keeps her head when others can't (most of the time), and Jonathan; who is silly and flaily but neither stupid nor cowardly. Not to mention desert warrior Ardeth Bey, played by the terrific Oded Fehr. The second movie gives us Patricia Vasquez doing a slinky and wonderful turn as the villanous Anck-su-namun reincarnated, and while some people may not like cute kids in movies, Freddie Boath is a hoot as Alexander Carnahan O'Connell. Near misses, a lot of humor, and some really gross bits as Imhotep goes after his enemies (I still can't watch the bits with the scarabs) make it a fun-but-not-stupid rollercoaster of a series, a lot like the Indiana Jones movies.
Evie in Fandom
The Evie I'm playing hasn't gone through either of the two movies yet, or met Rick O'Connell. She's from 1917 at this point, grew up in Cairo with an English father and an Egyptian mother (canon), lived in England for the last four years (my invention, but not unlikely), and was sent to Fandom because her parents were worried about her safety in England during World War I. Jonathan is safely in Cairo (for now) working for the British embassy as a translator, and getting into trouble when he gets bored. Therefore Evie does *not* know that the Nefertiri she turned into for AU Weekend is actually a previous incarnation of herself (canon, second movie) or anything about the Book of Amon-Ra except that it's very very cool, very very old, and reputedly able to raise the dead.
Jonathan visited during Parent's Weekend and gets regular letters full of the truth; her parents get soothing letters about how much Evie adores America. Ardeth Bey is in the desert riding horses and training hawks, Rick is either in Chicago or Cairo, depending on which movie's canon you go with, and Imhotep is still beneath the sands. Thankfully.
Where can I get it?
You can rent the movies anywhere, buy them from Amazon.com, or pick up the novelization. And! The third movie is in development and due out in 2008.
Questions? Comments? Anyone care for a mint?
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