Scorpion King/Brotherhood of the Wolf 2PK

Customer Reviews:

One film worth checking out but not a good double-feature.......2005-03-02

What we have here is another unfortunate pairing of films that could have found better mates, because nobody who has seen these films would suggest this as a double feature. "The Scorpion King" is the lesser of the two. We know the Rock played a character called the Scorpion King in "The Mummy Returns," which was supposed to set up this film. But the character goes from being a silent, brooding warrior of great strength and skill to a wisecracking, snarling warrior of great strength and skill. Did I miss something? At least in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" they explained how the character went from being the villain to the hero. No such explanation is offered here for what I thought was a similar transition. Then again, maybe I am guilty of thinking, which is not a prerequisite skill for watching this film.

Ironically, you may well enjoy this film a whole lot more if you have not seen "The Mummy Returns," especially if you are a devotee of WWF wrestling, the arena in which the Rock originally perfected his eyebrow arching technique. The story is set way before the pyramids were build, when the original Scorpion King, Memnon (Steven Brand) was the best swordsman on the planet and used the prophetic talents of a sorceress (Kelly Hu) to rule the known desert. Going up against him are the Arkadians, a group of professional assassins, of which Mathayus (the Rock) is the best and the brightest. He is aided by a giant Nubian (Michael Clarke Duncan) is what is certainly an homage to the legendary friendship between Gilgamesh and Enkidu (sorry, I was thinking again). Anyhow, "The Scorpion King" is clearly a standard action adventure in which the hero has to kill the bad guy, win the woman, and rule happily ever after.

It dawns on me that this film is similar to "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." That film made Hong Kong wire work a part of the Hollywood cinematic repertoire, where as this film does the same for WWF Wrestling techniques. This film is not happy unless it is going over the top. When our hero shoots somebody with an arrow in this film the result is comparable to having used a small tactical missile: they are sent flying through the wall. The film certainly delivers exactly what you would expect, high energy heroics at breakneck speed, but a bit more creativity would have been nice. At least the dialogue knows it is supposed to be either tongue in cheek or painfully bad, so you cannot hold that against the film. The Rock delivers the performance demanded by his fans, so that is not going to be grounds for big complaints either. I did enjoy the film, more than I thought I would, but the ultimate standard for an action film is your desire to watch it again and again, and on that critical score "The Scorpion King" falls short (3 stars).

Then we have a film that tosses just about everything into the pot, including the French Revolution. "The Brotherhood of the Wolf" ("Le Pacte des Loups") starts off as a exquisitely photographed costume drama/horror flick set in 18th century France with a poor peasant girl being hunted down by an unseen beast. My first thought that this was a beautiful film, more reminiscent of a Jane Austen period piece than a horror flick from Hammer Studio. But then our hero, Grégoire de Fronsac (Samuel Le Bihan) and his faithful Indian companion, Mani (Mark Dacasos), show up and we suddenly discover the film is also a cross between "The Last of the Mohicans" and "Couching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." However, since this is movie based on a legend regarding a huge wolf ravaging the French countryside, this hardly seems the time to insist upon a standard of realism.

The collaboration between director Christophe Gans and cinematographer Dan Laustsen results in some beautiful and memorable camera shots (most notably, as the camera tracks up a woman's nude body it morphs into snow covered terrain), often playing with time and movement to great effect. In the deleted scenes Gans provides a sort of mini-commentary on the film that is quite interesting in terms of setting up the film's dynamic, especially regarding the opening sequence originally conceived for the film and the scene that replace it. Laustsen is the cinematographer on upcoming "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen," and my assumption is that when I see that film I will have a better sense of who contributed the most to "Brotherhood of the Wolf."

The film was edited Xavier Loutreuil and Sébastien Prangère, with David Wu doing the Hong Kong kung fu fight sequences, which are impresive because they do not, for the most part, violate the realism of the time, which is a way of saying the wire work is extremely limited and understated. I also like the way Fronsac's love triangle is color coded: Marianne de Morangias (Émilie Dequenne) is a redhead often dressed in a red uniform while the raven haired Sylvia (Monica Bellucci) always wears black. The rouge/noir opposition works well in contrast to the blues, browns and yellows which serve as the palatte for most of the film.

My only real complaint is actually the traditional complaint one has after watching a Hammer horror film: the beast, when we finally get to see it, is something of a disappointment. However, I will allow that this is probably due as much to my heightened expectations given the quality level of the rest of the film more than to the limitations of CIG technology. The second time I watched the film this aspects was less bothersome to me, but still something of a disappointment. An action/horror/fantasy/thriller/romance like "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is not going to be embraced by everyone, but certainly fans of those genres will admire the ambition of this film, the most beautiful of its type we have ever seen (4 stars). This is the film to check out, but since this pairing makes no sense, we round down once we split the difference.

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