The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior
Directed by	Russell Mulcahy
Written by	Randall McCormick
Produced by	Patti Jackson Lisa Gooding
Starring	Randy Couture Michael Copon Karen David Pierre Marais
Cinematography	Glynn Speeckaert
Edited by	John Gilbert
Music by	Klaus Badelt
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	August 19 2008
Running time	109 min.
Country	United States
Language	English

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (previously known as The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian) is a 2008 direct-to-video prequel to the 2002 film The Scorpion King, which itself was a prequel to The Mummy Returns, which was a sequel to the 1999 remake of The Mummy. Filming for the movie began on October 1, 2007 in Cape Town, South Africa. The film had a scheduled release date of August 19 2008 in the United States, and was released on Blu-ray Disc and DVD.. When young Mathayus witnesses his father's death at the hands of an evil military commander, his quest for vengeance transforms him into the most feared warrior of the ancient world.

Plot

The story begins with Mathayus' father Ashur explaining to his son that the world is not fun and games and to stay away from the arena. He ignores this and engages in a giant fight with Sargon instructing the children to do battle in order to receive the training of a Black Scorpion, the battle ensues and Mathayus' female friend Layla is found out in the midst by Sargon, being forbidden to join the games, she is forced away by Sargon before Mathayus hits him with a staff and gets caught by the guards trying to escape. His father Ashur protects him and a duel between him and Sargon ensues, in which the Hammurabi states Ashur's son is to be given the training, Sargon's eyes turn black and he states that he will pay.

In the night a large dark mist travels through the city before entering the house of Mathayus and a swarm of scorpions rip apart Ashur's flesh and kill him. Mathayus vows to become the best of the Black Scorpion soldiers to get revenge. Years later, when he has completed his training, he learns that Sargon has become the new king of Akkad. Upon re-uniting with his childhood friend Layla and his mother, he is approached by Sargon who instructs him to see him, upon entering his chamber he sees a group of men guarding the room with scars on their faces to represent the men they have slain in his name, one of them even stabs a shiv through his entire hand as loyalty to Sargon. When Mathayus' brother Noah is caught speaking against the king, Mathayus is tasked by Sargon to kill him. However, he takes this opportunity to attack his guard and eventually Sargon himself using one of the guard's spears'. When he throws the spear, it stops in mid-air in front of Sargon, before reversing direction back toward Mathayus, who narrowly avoids being hit. He and Noah escape through the city on horseback, chased by a magical arrow fired by Sargon.

When Noah is killed by the arrow, Mathayus attempts to board a ship to Egypt before noticing someone is following him, it turns out to be Layla and as he boards the ship a Greek known as Ari informs them that the Spear of Osiris is only meant to kill Egyptian creatures such as scarabs and mummies and thus would be ineffective against him. Layla says Sargon has been granted dark powers by the gods.

Ari tells them of the Sword of Damocles in the underworld which can be used to kill him. Once at Egypt, they go to Greece to attempt to enter the palace in order to get to the labyrinth and into the Underworld on the way they fall into a cell and are surrounded by sacrifices for the Minotaur. After defeating the Minotaur he attempts to enlist the aid of a group of mercenaries who were slaves. Once they enter the Underworld they siphon through a desert until a forest surrounds them.

They are approached by the goddess Astarte who forces them to beg for their lives. However Layla and Mathayus decline and Layla and Astarte fight whilst Mathayus and Ari attempt to find the sword. Ari locates and obtains the sword, whilst Mathayus tries to persuade her to allow them to leave, she declines and sends Layla to hell, but not before Mathayus frees her and they all escape back to the human realm.

Astarte orders Sargon to get her sword back for her, and he requests for more powers, she accepts in exchange for the "Ultimate Sacrifice" and places a drop of blood on his head, in which markings form. They finally reach Akkad and Sargon has organized an event at the arena, which turns out to be a machine that dumps oil into the water supply, the oil and water begins to flow through statues into the city, the city is then set on fire.

Mathayus forces himself through to Sargon and meets his father who turns out to be Sargon in disguise, he disarms Mathayus and begins to fight him to the death. Ari picks up the sword and it turns out that Sargon had been bribing him with riches, Ari tosses the sword to Sargon and exits. More chaos and fighting ensues in the city and the sword that Ari gave Sargon was a fake and easily shatters. Ari gives Mathayus the real sword and Sargon states he owns his loyalty as a black scorpion, Mathayus burns it off with the sword and Sargon's skin begins to flake as he retreats into the shadows.

Sargon turns into a giant scorpion, which Mathayus impales with the sword. Fung and Layla put out the fires in the city and are praised. Astarte tells Mathayus that she will give him no mercy and Mathayus tells her that she will have him one day, and he awakens in a bed after being nursed by Layla. Layla then tells Mathayus that he should be king, but Mathayus decides to live a life of adventure, traveling through the desert on his camel.

Cast

In August 2007, it was reported that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson would not play the lead role, but instead the film would feature Michael Copon (Felix Taggaro from One Tree Hill) as the young Mathayus. Canadian actress/singer Karen David appears as the lead heroine, Layla. Randy Couture appears in the movie as the main villain, Sargon of Akkad Sargon.

Actor	Role
Michael Copon	Mathayus
Karen David	Layla
Simon Quarterman	Ari
Tom Wu	Fong
Andreas Wisniewski	Pollux
Randy Couture	Sargon
Natalie Becker	Astarte
Jeremy Crutchley	Baldo
Shane Manie	Jesup
Chase Agulhas	Noah

Critical reaction

Beyond Hollywood said "the film is not a complete loss, [but] you have to wonder what the filmmakers could have done with a better script, a better cast, and a director who isn’t so hit-and-miss as to be infuriating." Aaron Peck of Blog Critics said, "I really wanted to like this movie. The first Scorpion King is a laugh-fest yes, but it’s fun to watch. This movie is painful."

Keith Uhlich of UGO said the film is "cheap, ugly, deadening, lacking even the common decency to be unintentionally funny, [the] sheer ineptitude increas[ing] with each passing scene." Film Jabber said The Scorpion King 2 "lacks action, excitement and, more importantly, quality," adding: "While the production values are decent enough for a film like this, you can tell from minute one that this movie was made simply to coincide with the theatrical release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor." Mark Pollard of Kung Fu Cinema said that "the lead actors [keep] the movie marginally entertaining long after the predictable plot, generic effects work, and poorly-edited screen fighting grows weary."

Sam Sloan of A Slice of Sci-Fi said the film is "a notch up in quality from what is typically seen on a Saturday night from the Sci-Fi Channel, remarking that director Russell Mulcahy "was able to turn what should have been a totally dreadful movie into a watchable film that didn’t make me feel like I had completely wasted an hour and a half of my time." Kenneth Brown of Hi-Def Digest said The Scorpion King 2 "feels like an aborted TV pilot, [...] painfully overplotted, yet so mind-numbingly simple that it’s impossible to care about its characters or central conflicts."

External links

• Official website
• Official trailer
• The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior at IMDb
• Video Business Article