This Chinese/Australian co-productions is also known as The Nest, Tomb of the Mummy and 7 Guardians of the Tomb. My copy is Guardians of the Tomb so I'm going to run with that.
I saw the trailer for this a couple of years back and thought that looks like a fun romp.
I kept an eye out for it but never found it. Then I tune into FBI:Most Wanted and see Kellan Lutz and remembered he was in this. So I bit the bullet and bought a copy.
The beginning is a little middled with flashbacks and references that don't quite make sense but most thing things were explained/resolved by the end of the film.
The movie opens with a shadow puppet story of a Chinese delegation meeting with Australian Aborgines.
Then we jump to the present day when two researchers discover a tunnel in China. They had been sent on the mission by Mason (Grammer),, a wealthy industrialist.
Mason then seeks out Jai (Li) who is the sister of one of the researchers. We dscover that there is history with Mason and the researchers are now missing. The pair set out to the last known location where they meet the rest of the team including Jack Ridley (Lutz) and Gary (Shane Jacobson). Ridley is a first responder with a tragic history that he won't talk about.
The team heads towards the GPS signal from the missing team but have to take cover from a sandstorm in a deserted house. All the occupants are dead except for a teenage girl and a heap of spiders. The team heads into the basement which is an access point to the tunnels.
The team loses members to spider bites, one of whom takes a swan dive into a lava pool covered in spiders.
We discover that the spiders are funnel web spiders that had been imported to China by the delegation at the start of the movie at the behest of the Emperor. These spiders had been bred to be more aggressive and poisonous - because that's what you do for poisonous spiders - to have them produce a enzyme that prolongs the life of the Emperor.
The spider's eventually escaped and killed the Emperor in his tomb which is in the tunnels that the expedition is in now.
This is a solid B movie, with no real surprises. Mason is the bad guy (because the wealthy industrialist is always the villian) . Ridley reveals his tragic backstory to bolster the troops when all seems lost.
In enjoyed the hell out of this movie it really put me in mind of Congo (another movie/novel I'll have to revisit soon) with a lashing of Arachnaphobia and a pinch of Indiana Jones/The Mummy.
For me Shane Jacobson's Gary stole the movie with his Aussie attiude and comebacks "these are 2017 spiders they follow each other on instagram" were a highlight, I don't know if his lines were scripted or if he improvised them but he stole every scene.
If there was one downside it was the last few seconds - it seemed like they tried introduce a twist/sequel hook in that wasn't needed and really just raised more questions and detracted from the movie.
The intention of this timeline is to work much of the Tomb Raider Franchise into one cohesive timeline. I am limiting this to event in Lara Croft’s life so no expansions on the history of the artefacts she finds. I am working on the assumption that the new “Survivor” game continuity is a prequel to the earlier games and that the “Legend” games are also part of this continuity. Any speculation on my part to explain any discrepancies will be clearly indicated.
There have been three games called Tomb Raider the 1996 original, the 2000 Gameboy game and the 2013 reboot. I will be referring to the games as Tomb Raider followed by their year. The 2018 movie will be referred to as Tomb Raider 2018.
Other adventures will be referred to by their subtitles as we know they are Tomb Raider products. I will also be referring to the source for each entry and the media type (So the novel Tomb Raider: The Lost Cult will be referred to as The Lost Cult (novel))
I won’t be including fan productions as much as I have enjoyed many of them. I also won’t incorporating references to Lara Croft (in Rob Hayes Adventures Rob tells a female friend she is not Lara Croft) or characters dressing as Lara Croft (Ally McBeal, Looney Tunes, Dexter, How I met Your Mother.) The holographic projection of Lara in an episode of Totally Spies is also excluded.
I’m excluding advertisements that treat Tomb Raider as just a game for example one of the later Lucozade commercials has Lara drinking a Lucozade while the game is paused.
What’s new?
Since I did the original back in 2017, Dark Horse released the two four issue miniseries Survivor’s Quest and Inferno, there was a new game Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and a tie-in novel Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Path of the Apocalypse. There was a new movie starring Alicia Vikander as Lara Croft.
This time I've decided just to list the games and not the expansion levels - the timeline is very long and Shadow of the Tomb Raider had seven DLC levels and they are effectively part of the games.
I did a deep dive into the Top Cow Tomb Raider comics including the appearances in other Top Cow titles. I was never happy with the original placement of the comics and I did a bit more moving things around. The biggest move was for Tomb Raider Journeys, the 12 issue series instead of taking place near the time of publication in 2001 was moved to 1994, a year that had very few adventures – which actually worked much better as issue 5 had Lara’s ten year high school reunion which would have been in 1994.
I didn’t realise that there were 3 different Tomb Raider/Witchblade titles only having one in the original timeline, I also had Dark Crossings and Monster War as one shots when there were two and four issues respectively in those miniseries.
To my eternal shame, I realised that I had forgotten U2’s Elevation video clip from the movie soundtrack in the original timeline, that has been fixed. As far as I can tell none of the songs from that soundtrack had a Lara Croft video clip.
Timeline
14 Feb 1968
Lara Croft born to Lord Richard Croft and Amelia Croft (Core Design Bio) (Legend - Game)
1977
Lady Amelia Croft and Lara are in a plane crash. Amelia disappears and Lara walks out (Legend –game)
1979 - 1984
Wimbledon High School for Girls ages 11-16 (Core Bio)
1980
“Pre-Teen Raider” (Re/Visioned animation) (Gail Simone advises that Lara is about 12) Lara is a student at Croft Academy.
Speculationon: It may be that Lara was expelled after this exploit and moved to Wimbledon High School for Girls.
1984
Lara graduates Chesterfield Private Academy (Journeys 5)
Speculation: The book says class of 1992, this must be an error as Lara was 24 at that time. Chesterfield is a co-ed school so it cannot be Wimbledon School for Girls. It seems likely that Lara went to multiple schools and the Core Bio simplified her academic history.
Training with Von Croy in Ankor Wat (The Last Revelation –Game)
“Black Isle” (Chronicles Game)
1985
Lord Richard Croft dies (differing accounts are given in Rise of the Tomb Raider– Game, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – Movie and Legend –Game)
(The 2018 Tomb Raider movie has Lord Richard presumed dead and does not die until the events of that movie)
Speculation Lara is adopted by her uncle Lord Henshingly Croft and his wife. Neither are fans of Lara adventuring and try to mould her into a proper lady. The adoption explains why in 1996 her father is listed as Henshingly Croft in the first game.
1984-1987
Gordonstoun Boarding School ages 16-18
1987-1989
Swiss Finishing School ages 18-21
1989
Plane crash 21 year old Lara is only survivor (Core Bio)
1990
Excavation Massacre (Legend – Game)
The Beginning (Dark Horse Comic)
Tomb Raider 2013 (game)
Speculation: The Tomb Raider 2018 (movie) – could be viewed as a simplified version of this game but I’ve gone with a different interpretation and placed it after Shadow of the Tomb Raider. YMMV. (Basically the movie is too different from the game to be an adaptation of the game but has enough elements from the game to make it hard for it to be its own story and to make it work either way requires a fair amount of damage to the movie))
The Ten Thousand Immortals (novel)
Season of the Witch (Dark Horse Comic 1-6)
1991
Secrets and Lies (Dark Horse Comic 7-12)
Queen of Snakes (Dark Horse Comic 13-18)
1992
Rise of the Tomb Raider (Game)
Spore (Dark Horse Comic 1-6)
Speculation: Spore features a 1996 flashback this must be a 1976 flashback.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Path of Apocalyse (Novel)
This is a novelisation of the early part of the Shadow of the Tomb Raider Game.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Game)
Tomb Raider (2018) (Movie)
Speculation: After the apocalyptic events of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Lara temporarily retires from tomb raiding and becomes a cycle courier before being drawn into a mystery about her father’s death which ends with her buying her trademark weapons. The movie uses some elements of the 2013 game but is a different adventure. (Basically the movie is too different from the game to be an adaptation of the game but has enough elements from the game to make it hard for it to be its own story and to make it work either way requires a fair amount of damage to the movie)
1994
Tomb Raider Journeys 1-7 (comic)
Finds Bigfoot (Tomb Raider 1996 – Game)
Tomb Raider Journeys 8-12
Finds Ark of the Covenant (Tomb Raider 1996 - Game)
1995
Mean Machines (comic)
Philosopher’s Stone (Chronicles – Game)
1996
Tomb Raider 1996 & Anniversary (Games)
1997
Vendetta (Tomb Raider/Witchblade 1 - comic)
Witchblade/Tomb Raider ½ (Comic)
This comic is a sequel to Vendetta.
Tomb Raider II (Game)
Tomb Raider/Witchblade (Top Cow Comic)
Lucozade (commercials) (the last commercial is not counted)
PlayStation Commercial
ZDnet Commercial
“Tibet Air” (Short Story)
1998
Witchblade/Tomb Raider 1 (Comic)
PlayStation Commercial
Tomb Raider III (Game)
Seat Cars (Commercials)
Spear of Destiny (Chronicles –Game)
Die Artze “Manner Sind Schweine” (Music video)
Tomb Raider 2000 (Game)
1999
Dark Aeons (Comic)
The Medusa Mask 1-4 (Comic)
Brigitte Magazine (Commercial)
“Hemos terminado con él” The Companeros (Spanish TV Episode)
The Time’s Exclusive Bonus Level (Game)
The Last Revelation (Game)
Tomb Raider Chronicles (Framing Sequence – Game)
The Amulet of Power (Novel)
Dark Crossings: Dark Clouds Rising (Comic)
Dark Crossings: Dark Clouds Overhead (Comic)
The Merlin Stone 5-6 (Comic)
The Resurrection of Taras (Fathom 12-14, Fathom Crossover Tour Book – Comic)
(The Crossover Tour book seems to be set during the events of issue 13 – and is five page story where Aspen recaps the first issue. The artwork does not appear in the three issues. There is also a three page bit where we see a drawing of each of ladies in the story Aspen Matthews, Lara Croft and Sara Pezzinni and a paragraph from the other two characters about that character.)
Dead Centre 7-10 (comic)
2000
The Tomb Raider Technical Manual (Book)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (Movie + Novelisation)
U2 “Elevation” (Music Video)
Tomb Raider/The Darkness 1 (Comic)
Chasing Shangri-La 11-12 (comic)
Grim Reaper 13-15 (Comic)
Tomb Raider 0 (Comic)
2001
Pieces of Zero 16-17, 19-20 (Comic)
Year of the Cat 18 (Comic)
Curse of the Sword (Game)
The Trap: Path of the Tiger 21-23 (Comic)
Scarface’s Treasure (Comic)
Medusa’s Garden 24 (Comic)
2002
The Prophecy (Game)
The Osiris Codex (Game)
The Quest for Cinnabar (Game)
The Elixir of Life (Game)
Endgame (Tomb Raider 25, Witchblade 60, EVO 1 – Comic)
Abyss 26-28 (comic)
Strange Flesh 29- 30 (Comic)
Tomb Raider: Apocalypse (Game)
2003
Conquista 31 (comic)
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider The Cradle of Life (Movie + Novelisation)
Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness (Game)
(The Action Adventure/The Board Game/Flash Game versions and comic adaptation issues 32-34)
Epiphany (Top Cow comic One Shot)
Black Legion 35-37 (Comic)
G4 – (Commercial)
Visa - Monster Chase (Commercial)
The Lost Cult (novel)
The Man of Bronze (novel)
2004
Sphere of Influence (comic)
Takeover (comic)
Bloodstone 38-39 (Comic)
Risen 40 (Comic)
Spirit Walker 41-42 (Comic)
Arabian Nights (Comic)
Tower of Souls 43-44 (Comic)
Signs and Portents - Witchblade 78 (Comic)
Inner Demons 45 (Comic)
Gathering Storm 46-48 (Comic)
2005
Vendetta 49 (Comic)
Alpha/Omega 50 (Comic)
In this comic Lara finds the Fountain of Youth and is seen adventuring into the far future.
Monster War (comic 1-4)
The Greatest Treasure of All (comic)
2006
Legend (game)
The Reckoning (game)
Puzzle Paradox (Game)
2007
The Keys to the Kingdom (3 Parts) (Re/visioned Animation)
Revenge of the Aztec Mummy (Re/Visioned Animation)
Angel Spit (2 Parts)( Re/Visioned Animation)
Lara Croft Legacy (Re/Visioned Animation)
Raising Thermopolis (Re/Visioned Animation)
A Complicated Woman (Re/Visioned Animation)
2008
Tomb Raider Underworld (Game - also has a board game)
2010
Lara Croft and Guardian of Light (game)
2013
Lara Croft Reflections Card Game (Game)
2014
Lara Croft and Temple of Osiris (Game)
2015
Lara Croft Relic Run (game)
Lara Croft Go (Game)
Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen (comic)
2016
Lara Croft and the Blade of Gwynnever (novel)
TOMB RAIDER MEDIA ITEMS
Games
The Core Series –Original Timeline
Tomb Raider 1996
Tomb Raider II 1997
Tomb Raider III 1998
Tomb Raider: The Times Exclusive 1999
Tomb Raider the Last Revelation 1999
The Tomb Raider Chronicles 2000
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness 2003
(The Action Adventure/The Board Game/Flash Game versions and comic adaptation)
Mobile Phone Games
Tomb Raider: The Osiris Codex 2003
Tomb Raider: The Quest for Cinnabar 2003
Tomb Raider: The Elixir of Life 2003
Tomb Raider: Puzzle Paradox 2006
Lara Croft Reflections 2014
Lara Croft Relic Run 2015
Lara Croft Go 2015
Board Games
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness 2003
Tomb Raider: Underworld 2009
DVD Game
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Action Adventure 2006
(adaptation of Angel of Darkness)
Flash Game
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness 2004
Books
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Tech manual by Michael Jan Friedman 2001
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider Movie Novelisation by Dave Stern 2001
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life Novelisation by Dave Stern 2003
Tomb Raider The Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick 2003
Tomb Raider The Lost Cult by E.E. Knight 2004
Tomb Raider The Man of Bronze by James Alan Gardner 2005
The Ten Thousand Immortals by Dan Abnett & Nik Vincent 2014
The Blade of Gwynnver by Dan Abnett & Nik Vincent 2016
Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Path of the Apocalypse by S.D Perry 2018
(Fun fact S.D. Perry is the daughter of Steve Perry who wrote Indiana Jones and The Army of the Dead)
Short Stories
“Tibet Air” in Lara’s Book: Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider Phenomenon by Douglas Coupland 1998 (reprinted in Tomb Raider Archives Vol 3.
Movies
Lara Croft Tomb Raider 2001
Lara Croft Tomb Raider Cradle of Life 2003
Tomb Raider 2018
TV
The Companeros “Hemos terminado con él” 1999 (tie in for Last Revelation)
Commercials
PlayStation 1997 & 1998
Lucozade 1998 & 2001
Seat Cars 1999
Brigitte Magazine 1999
ZDnet 2000
Visa Monster Chase 2003
G4 2003
Video Clips
Die Artze “Manner Sind Schweine” 1998
U2 “Elevation” 2001
Re/Visioned 2007
The Keys to the Kingdom (3 Parts)
Revenge of the Aztec Mummy (1 part)
Angel Spit (2 Parts)
Lara Croft Legacy (1 part)
Pre Teen Raider (1 part)
Raising Thermopolis (1 part)
A Complicated Woman (1 part)
Comics
Mean Machine Sega #46 (reprinted in Tomb Raider Archives Vol 1)
Untitled story that I called “Mean Machine” predate the release of the first game
Glenat
Dark Aeons 1999
Top Cow Comics
Top Cow
Crossovers
Tomb Raider/ Witchblade 1997
Witchblade Tomb Raider ½ 2000
Witchblade/Tomb Raider 1 1998
(Tales of the Witchblade 9 is a follow up to this story -while Lara appears on the cover she does not appear in the story)
Dark Crossings: Dark Clouds Rising 2000
Dark Crossings: Dark Clouds Overhead 2000
Fathom the Resurrection of Taras 12-14 2000-2002, Fathom The Crossover Tourbook 2000
Tomb Raider The Darkness 2001
Top Cow Book of Revelations 2003
Monster War 2005
1 Magdalena vs Dracula
2 Tomb Raider vs The Wolf-Men
3 Witchblade vs Frankenstein
4 The Darkness vs Mr Hyde
Tomb Raider 25 (Endgame part 1)
Witchblade 60 (Endgame part 2)
EVO 1 (Endgame part 3)
Witchblade 78 (Lara cameo)
Witchblade 84 (Witchblade lists Lara as a friend and an image of Lara appears)
1999-2005 Tomb Raider Series
The Medusa Mask 1-4
Merlin Stone 5-6
Dead Centre 7-10
Chasing Shangri-La 11-12
Grim Reaper 13-15
Pieces of Zero 16-17, 19-20
Year of the Cat 18
The Trap: The Path of The Tiger 21-23
Medusa’s Garden 24
Endgame 25 (Crossover with Witchblade #60/EVO #1)
Abyss 26-28
Strange Flesh 29-30
Conquista 31
The Angel of Darkness 32-34 (Comic Adaptation of Game)
The Black Legion 35-37
Bloodstone 38-39
Risen 40
Spirit Walker 41-42
Tower of Souls 43-44
Inner Demons 45
Gathering Storm 46-48
Vendetta 49
Alpha/Omega 50
Tomb Raider Journeys 1-12 2001-2003
Top Cow One Shots
Tomb Raider Origins 2000
Scarface’s Treasure 2003
Epiphany 2003 (AOD tie-in)
Takeover 2004
Sphere of Influence 2004
Arabian Knights 2004
The Greatest Treasure of All 2005
Dark Horse Comics
The Beginning 2013 (Digital only)
Tomb Raider
Season of the Witch 1-6
Secrets and Lies 7-12
Queen of Serpents 13-18
Lara Croft and the Frozen Omen 1-5
Tomb Raider II
Spore 1-6
Trials and Sacrifice 7-12
It's funny what I know about video games is really small. The family Playstation serves mostly as a glorified blu ray player for me. (with a lot of "what do these blasted buttons do?" if I try to pause.)
Yet there are two video game franchises that I absolutely love - not surprisingly Tomb Raider and Uncharted. I cannot play the games to save my life but I love their expanded universes - not surprisingly they both are "descendants" of Indiana Jones.
This was initially just going to celebrate the catching up with Tomb Raider but I hadn't really talked about Uncharted that much and there wasn't enough Uncharted material to justify it's own post (but I have notes for an Uncharted timeline similar to what I did for Tomb Raider. I'll have to get back to that.)
I've been collecting now for a long time - nearly forty years. Series and franchses went in and out of favour. It's easier to collect things as they come out - I jumped on the extended Uncharted material as it came out. One novel and a six issue miniseries and I'll get the associated material for the Tom Holland/ Mark Walhberg movie assuming they make it before Tom Holland looks old enough to play Sully. (although I hear it or Spiderman 3 are his next films once the virus allows filming to start again)
Tomb Raider pretty much captivated me from 1997 when I first heard about her. I admit we got a PC version of the first game and I could not play it to save myself but the character was interesting.
I saw the first movie in the cinema when we lived in Emerald, a city in the Outback. I got the novelisation, and the technical manual which came out then, the book store could order things for me.
I also got the Tomb Raider Magazine in the newsagents that reprinted the Top Cow Comics from issue 5 and none of the crossovers with other Top Cow characters. By the final couple of issues Lara was sharing her magazine with Aphrodite IX. There were no comic shops in Emerald and buying things on the internet wasn't really a thing then.
I remember trying to get the Tomb Raider action figure from the Emerald Toyworld and they just flatout refused to order it or even aknowledge it was a thing. My wife rang the Toyworld in Rockhampton (three hours east of Emerald and the closest town) and bought it for me over the phone with the credit card and they posted it out to us.
By the time the sequel to the movie came out we had moved back to Ipswich and could get to the comic shops in Brisbane. I saw Lara Croft: Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life in the cinema in Ipswich and bought the novelisation.
Then they brought out the first three novels The Amulet of Power, The Lost Cult and The Man of Bronze. SOOOOO good with references and easter eggs galore.
The Top Cow Tomb Raider comics were a little more elusive and trying to buy the back issues was difficult. I eventually got the bulk of them when Dark Horse did the Archives in 4 volumes that reprinted the issues 1-24, 26-50, the 12 issue Journeys and the various one shots. issue 25 was a crossover with EVO and Witchblade and wasn't included.
I also bought the new comics that Dark Horse printed to tie in with the 2013 reboot game and the 20th anniversary of the original game in 2016.
But I wanted those Top Cow comics - I found a list and started working my way through it. Ebay and comic shops selling on line have been a godsend.
I thought I had most of them only discover that there were two one shots that had not been reprinted in the archives. Top Cow had done two books for Dynamic Forces - Scarface's Treasure and Sphere of Influence. Both were bought fairly soon thereafter. I discovered the French comic Dark Aeons and grabbed it too (sadly there is no English edition but I found a translation on line)
Then last week , it arrived the final two books I needed to finish off the Tomb Raider comics - the two issue event Dark Crossings.
I enjoyed both these series - Uncharted is fun and Tomb Raider is just solid action adventure. It was a fun hunt to chase these books down, discovering new appearances and false leads. I may have to revisist my Tomb Raider timeline to include the books I wasn't aware of at the time I wrote it.
After the Mummy Returns hit cinemas the next Mummy adventures came on the small screen.
The Animated series plays out as a stripped down version of the Mummy Returns. The O'Connells find the Manacle of Osirus and young Alex puts in on his wrist. Lots of running around the world trying to get it off of him.
Imhotep no longer was trying to ressurect his girlfriend, he was trying to steal the manacle. Rick no longer uses guns, instead like another adventuring hero uses a whip. But this is a kids cartoon and I'm willing to over look these changes.
Alex is now about 10 or so here so we are a couple of years after the Mummy Returns and you'd think Alex would know better.
There's no real mention of the earlier films. The pilot "The Summoning" mentions that Evie discovered the Book of the Dead and donated it to the British Museum of Antiquities. But no real mentions of previous battles with Imhotep.
Evie is hired as Chief Archeologist of the Bristish Museum of Antiquities and given a Zepplin to fly around the world. Her first job is the dig at Haminuptra, the city of the dead.
However when Evie got the job, she got it over Colin Weasler who felt the job should have been his. Weasler steals the book of the dead, sneaks to Haminuptra and ressurects Imhotep. Silly man thinks he can control the mummy.
Weasler is a lot like Beni from the first movie.
The series is set all over the world as the family follow the path of the Scroll of Thebes and they encounter a variety of other supernatural creatures such as dragons, sand worms, werewolves, sea monsters, lave monsters, elemental creatures and griffons.
Some historical figures appear in the series as we discover that Rick used to play baseball with Babe Ruth and Evie studied mathmatics with Albert Einstein.
Each episode is about twenty minutes long and are enjoyable enough. They are non essential but they do scratch the mummy itch if you want a little bit more.
I think I’d have to rate this as one of my favourite films, for the longest time this was the go to movie when there was nothing else to watch for my wife and I. Watching this again today, I was reminded why I love it. It’s a pure pulp inspired adventure romp – and is arguably the best of the “Children” of Indiana Jones.
The movie opens in Ancient Egypt and we are told of the forbidden love of Imhotep and Anck Su Namun and how they killed her husband Emperor Seti I. Anck Su Namun kills herself and Imhotep is caught trying to bring her back. His punishment eternal life so scarabs can eat him for all eternity with a host of powers and should he ever get free he will be super powerful and try to take over the world. No I can’t see a flaw in that plan either.
Next we flash to 1923 and a troop of Foreign Legionnaires are fighting some Arabic gents in some ruins. Here we meet Rick O’Connell. He’s the man who take command when his commander runs off, there were a LOT of Arabic gentlemen. Watching are the Madji – descendants of the Pharaoh’s guard determined to stop Imhotep being released on the world. We’re not told who or what or why they were fighting except when the Arabs see the statue of Anubis in the city, they run far away very fast.
The movie then jumps forward to three years later and we meet Evie and Jonathon Carnahan, the serious scholar and the charming scallywag respectively. Jonathon has ... liberated an artefact and that sets off the whole shebang. With our heroes and villains introduced the movie takes off. The Mummy is revived, thinks Evie is his former love Anck Su Namun our heroes race to save her and there’s a big fight. It’s a good solid adventure with rival archaeologists ending up as Mummy fodder their essence powering him up. The whole thing is just slam bang fun. I especially love the character Winston, the British pilot who survived World War I. Twenty years later and the special effects while not perfect still hold up pretty well. If you haven’t seen the Mummy, go check it out.
I've been on a bit of a 1990s Mummy kick lately. Brendan Fraser's The Mummy (1999) was a remaginging of the 1930s Universal movie of the same name bringing back the mummified Im Ho Tep.
The later Universal films all featured a mummy named Kharis, except for Abbot and Costello meet the Mummy which featured Klaris. Hammer films also made several mummy movies but none of theirs featured Im Ho Tep and none connected to each other.
The 1999 movie shfted away from horror and became a slightly more supernatural version of Indiana Jones. There's a joke that the three best Indy fims are Radiers of the Lost Ark, The Mummy, and the Mummy Returns.
It might appear that the 2017 Dark Universe The Mummy starring Tome Cruise put an end to the franchise but 2018 brought a new entry that sparked me off on this search. The Scorpion King 5: The Book of Souls.
So what do we have in this franchise?
Movies
The Mummy 1999
The Mummy Returns 2001
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer 2008
with the spin-off
The Scorpion King (2002)
Which is all the theatrical movies. However Universal made
The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (2008)
The Scorpion King 3: Battle for Redemption (2012)
The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power (2015)
The Scorpion King: Book of Souls (2018)
None of which starred the Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson. 2 was a prequel starring
Michael Copon, the Blue Ranger in Power Rangers: Time Force.
3 and 4 starred Victor Webster (Mutant X, Continuium) 5 starred Zach McGowan (Black Sails).
I've loved all the movies - the Scorpion King series have been fun sword and sandal romps.
There was also a two season animated series set after The Mummy Returns
Then I discovered the books;
All four theatrical movies were novelised by Max Allan Collins.
Dave Wolverton wrote a four book YA series The Mummy Chronicles which featured Alex learning to be a Magi.
There was also a tie-in Annual for the Mummy TV series.
1) Revenge in the Scorpion King
2) Heart of the Pharoh
3) The Curse of the Nile
4) Flight of the Phoenix
Then there were three different comic series
Only one of the three proposed issues of Chaos! Comics The Mummy: Valley of the Gods was released and was set during the O'Connell's honeymoon with prophetic dreams of the Scorpion King. Chaos went out of business before the rest of the series could be released.
Next was Dark Horse's 2 issue The Scorpion King: The Akkadian Prophecy" set just before the Rock's movie (and before Rise of a Warrior)
Just before the third movie IDW released the four issue miniseries The Mummy: The Rise of Xango's Ax set just before that movie.
The whole Scorpion King/Mummy franchise is a lot of fun to read/watch and I do hope that we will see more from this world. The third movie set up a sequel with Jonathon moving to Peru just before the discovery of Mummies there.
I'm still waiting on several of the books to arrive but I'll review them when they arrive. Actually I might do a Mummy March.
For New Year's Eve, the family decided to take a trip to the movies to see Aquaman. What a fun ride of a movie this was.
Jason Momoa is having the time of his life playing Aquaman - intially a surprise casting choise in Batman V Superman and Justice League. While he may not look exactly like the comic book character, he has the spirit of the character down pat.
With a touch of the bad-ass "I have a hook for a hand" version of the nineties with a pinch of the blowhard character seen in Batman Brave and The Bold, Momoa nails the character, a child of two worlds, scared of the destiny to unite them both.
There are a couple of intertwining plots - the movie starts with Aquaman foiling a pirate attack on a Russian submarine and a decision he makes causes the creation of one of his arch enemies.
The second plot involves Arthur trying to claim the throne of Atlantis, there are some gorgeous underwater scenes then a quest arounf the world to find the trident of the last great Atleanean king.
The whole thing ends in a giant underwater battle with sharks with 'friggin' laser beams and giant seahorses and a big ass sea monster.
The search for the trident was a fun Indiana Jones/Tomb Raider/Uncharted style adventure (with a generous side of Disney's Atlantis THe Lost Empire)
[As an aside - this movie has probably ruined the chances of a live action version of Atlantis: The Lost Empire or The Deep, - but damn it made me wish for them]
Then the movie did the most awesome thing the quest for the trident ended in the lost sea in the hollow Earth - they went to Skartaris. And queue the blank looks, for newbies to the worlds of DC Skartaris is the centre of the Hollow Earth created by Mike Grell (also known as the greatest writer on Green Arrow ever) for the comic book known as Warlord. Skartaris has appeared in a couple of episodes of Jusice League Unlimited. Could this be a set up for a Warlord movie? Oh I hope so.
The whole movie was so much fun to watch from start to finish that everyone left with a big grin on our faces.
So the add a video function is being tempermental and not letting me embed the trailer for the new movie In Like Flynn. I saw the trailer and I was so on board for this movie. Thomas Cocqueral certainly looks the part as Errol Flynn.
However what if I was to tell you it was based on Errol Flynn's own travelouge Beam's End ?
(which hopefully means the book comes back in print because prices are crazy high)
But wait there's more Errol's grandson Luke Flynn is co-writer and producer?
Not enough for you? The director is Russell Mulcahy, of Razorback, Highlander, The Shadow and several episodes of the Teen Wolf TV series.
I really enjoyed this movie, the opening sequence in New Guinea brought to mind the opening sequence in Raiders of the Lost Ark which is high praise from me.
Most of the movie is a fun pulp ride, i really really enjoyed what I have taken to calling the Razor dance as Flynn fights off several straight razor weilding gang members whilst charming the pants off the gangster's moll.
Flynn is irresistable to women and it gets him into trouble more than once.
But there is also a heart to this movie as Flynn acquires a yacht The Sirocco (the first of two boats with that name that he owned) and brings in two of his mates Rex and Dook. There is a history between the three men and their friendship is the backbone of this movie.
The trio are joined by Charlie the sailor and owner of the ship. who joins them on the trip to New Guinea. I grew quite fond of the old salt who was at his beams end and knew that this would be his last voyage as he was mourning the death of his wife and daughter. (The end credits replayed one of Charlie's sea shantys which brought a certain sadness to the whole affair.) The quartet have an easy comraderie which can turn from playfulness to arguements in the blink of an eye yet all four are ready to jump in a help each other when they are in trouble.
So after the top 50 New Pulp Movies list a couple posts back, I decided to do a New Pulp TV series list. I've put them in alphabetical order (more so I don't double up) and not to play favourites.
Recently Derrick Ferguson announced that he was doing a list of 50 New Pulp movies. The end result can be found here
When he announced it, it for shits and giggles I thought I'd try and see how well I'd go at predicting what would be on his list.
So here is my list the ones in red weren't on Derrick's list.
50 New Pulp Movies
1. Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins
2. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
3. Sahara
4. Indiana Jones Quartet
5. The Rocketeer
6. Sky Captain
7. Hudson Hawk
8. Our Man Flint/In like Flint
9. High Road to China
10. Darkman
11. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou
12. Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
13. The Fifth Element
14. The Phantom
15. Romancing the Stone
16. Jake Speed
17. Dark Avenger
18. Dark Knight trilogy
19. King Kong 2005
20. Kong Skull Island
21. The Mummy Trilogy
22. The Goonies
23. Cutthroat Island
24. Sunset
25. Shoot em up
26. Captain America: The First Avenger
27. Atlantis the Lost Empire
28. The Punisher 2004
29. Big Trouble in Little China
30. National Treasure
31. Cast a Deadly Spell
32. The Black Mask
33. Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
34. Brotherhood of the Wolf
35. The Black Samurai
36. The Black Scorpion
37. Billy Jack
38. Congo
39. Machete
40. The Man with the Iron Fists
41. Second Hand Lions
42. The Specialist
43. The Transporter
44. Cleopatra Jones
45. Coffy
46. Foxy Brown
47. Black Belt Jones
48. The Equaliser
49. The A Team
50. The President's Man
So with only 14 out of 50, I'm a poor prophet of Derrick's choices but it just shows the wide range of New Pulp movies out there (that is movies from after the 1950s in the pulp style)
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