As the world’s eyes turn to China this month for the 2008 Olympic Games, Hollywood offers a distinctly naive and romantic view of the Far East, grafted onto one of its most successful franchises. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor mercifully lets Imhotep - who terrorized Brendan Fraser and Co. twice already - stay buried. Jet Li now stands in his place.

Fans of the franchise, which includes 1999’s The Mummy and 2001’s The Mummy Returns, will notice other significant changes in this belated follow-up. While Brendan Fraser continues to star as Rick O’Connell, some cast members do not return. Rachel Weisz turned down the project after reading the script (a bad omen), and does not reprise her role as swashbuckling librarian Evelyn. Maria Bello fares all right in her place, but Weisz’s spirit is missed. Rick and Evie’s son Alex is now a young man, played by 27-year-old Luke Ford (who seems a bit old for the father/ son timeline to be plausible.)  John Hannah reprises his role as Evie’s brother Jonathan, who now owns a night club in Shanghai.

It’s 1947, and Rick and Evelyn feign fulfillment in retirement: Evie relives her past  adventures through writing Mummy novels, and Rick takes lively approaches to such “relaxing” hobbies as fly-fishing. Their son Alex is supposedly in college abroad, but apple not falling far from tree, he’s actually leading an archaeological dig in China.

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Starring: Brendan Fraiser, Maria Bello, Jet Li, Michelle Yeoh

Directed by: Rob Cohen

Written by: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar

The couple are soon rescued from their ennui by the British government, requesting they go on one last adventure and return the Eye of Shangri-La to China. Inevitably they meet up with Jonathan and Alex in Shanghai, and through a hasty, convoluted series of events, end up awakening a new mummy: Emperor Han.

As a back story/ prologue has already told the viewer, the Emperor has mastered the five elements and shape-shifting, so putting him to rest should provide a true challenge. Even after a high-spirited chance through Shanghai, with fireworks exploding round every turn, the mummy escapes. His quest is to gain immortality and then awaken his Terracotta Army. His ultimate goal is to enslave the world, and present-day general Yang shares this lust. No references are made to China’s post-WWII strife or continuing civil war, to  how those suddenly gaining power could position themselves in this society. (One can speculate that filming on location in China meant keeping tight lips, but a less authentic location would have been a fine trade-off for a story with more bite.)

Helping the O’Connells to stop Han are two wanderers in time, Zi Yuan (Michelle Yeoh), the witch who originally cursed the Emperor, and her daughter Lin (Isabella Leong). The two live in Shangri-La, which has been imported with few adjustments from its original source, 1937’s Lost Horizon. The O’Connells rest here before confronting Han and his general in a frenzied battle involving yetis, avalanches, and plenty of firearms.

This snow-dusted middle third of the film is the most breezy and inspired by classic Hollywood, with some family bonding scenes and pretty matte paintings preceding the action. Pilot Mad Dog Maguire (Liam Cunningham) is a rousing companion here.

Expectations run high for the film’s finale, but as one might suspect from the trailer, this involves two CGI armies running at one another and generating no tension. The filmmakers also miss a great opportunity in not allowing martial arts masters Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li an extended fight scene. The Forbidden Kingdom, released earlier this year, knew to introduce its stars Jackie Chan and Jet Li with a thoughtfully choreographed sequence - but no such notion occurred to the Mummy team, one supposes.

The film’s “here we go again” self-awareness also becomes wearing by its end. Early jokes and banter about the characters being “mummy magnets” receive chuckles, but Rick’s quip ” These are the good undead guys, right?” leaves the viewer not much caring which side is which.

The Mummy Returns and 2002’s The Scorpion King (a prequel of sorts) suffered the same problems in not generating sufficient excitement through CGI armies. Yet these maintained their energy in their last  moments through the out-sized performances of Oded Fehr in the former film and Dwayne Johnson in the latter. Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh are too restrained to generate a similar effect.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is certainly a pulpy mess, but not as endearing as the earlier Mummy outings. Existing out of time, the story grasps onto fragments of Chinese mythology but doesn’t exploit its rapidly modernizing and chaotic historical setting. Unable to become faster or stronger within its flimsy conceits, the film simply limps to the finish line.