I actually went out and bought the dvd Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior. What a mistake that was. I should have known, being a direct to DVD film that it wasn’t going to be all that great. And since they made it a prequel, they didn’t have to worry about getting anyone from the Mummy 2 or Scorpion King. The producers of Scorpion King don’t count.
But this is just a bad movie all around. It looks like it got the budget of a Sci-Fi Saturday night movie. So they couldn’t get any good writers, and all the actors were unknowns, including some guy from the cage fighting world. Randy Couture plays Sargon, the big baddy of the film, and he plays him badly. Absolutely wooden, and sounds like he’s reading the lines off a cue card or telepromtor. It was painful to watch this guy sometimes. Of course, he wasn’t cast for his acting, but because he’s big and muscular.
The writers and director seems they couldn’t make up their mind if they wanted this movie to be camp or serious. It certainly came off as camp. The attempts at humor were bad and the drama wasn’t really dramatic. But the actors knew there were in a B-movie. You can always tell this when in the behind the scenes extras, the first thing they say is how proud they are of the production. They seem to have to keep themselves in a state of denial to get through it, because they will say it several times, as Michael Copon did. He reminds me of a young Dean Cain, though he does his best Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson impression at the end of the film.
Save yourself some cash and don’t go buy this movie. If you’re really curious or like unintentionally campy movies, rent it, or wait for it to show on Sci-Fi. You just know it will.
