The 2,000-year-old curse placed on the power-hungry Chinese emperor should not have been lifted. The “Dragon Emperor” should have been left in his tomb.

The only thing more dangerous than to awakening a power-hungry emperor with supernatural powers and an army bigger than most cities is placing a curse on the very movie franchise that featured the fictional tyrant.

Drawn out of retirement in England, Jim and Evey O’Connell (played by Brendan Fraser and Maria Bello) take one last adventure to Beijing - this time to deliver a prized artifact to a Chinese museum at the request of the British government.

As it turns out, the O’Connells were set up. The item they possess is the key to unlocking the curse of the Dragon Emperor, played by Jet Li. Coincidentally, the spell-stricken ruler was discovered by Alex O’Connell, played by Luke Ford, and displayed at the very museum that his parents are conned in to visiting.

The emperor, who was laid to rest by witch Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh), is awoken. He sets out to regain his powers – and his face – so he can reclaim his army and his place as ruler of the whole world.

Predictably, the O’Connells are the only line of defense against a ruler who is not even a mummy.

“I hate mummies,” Jonathan Carnahan, Brendan Fraser’s boisterous sidekick, played by John Hannah, said in Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. “They never play fair!”

The only unfair thing about mummies is that they did not exist in this movie. It would be nice to actually see some mummies. How does one make movie about mummies without mummies? There were abominable snowmen, greedy war generals, and powerful witches – everything except mummies.

Fatal flaw number two was the absence of Rachel Weisz, who played Evey in the first two Mummy movies. Her replacement, newly-minted brunette Maria Bello, miserably attempted to speak with a British accent. Further, she looked stiff and uncomfortable playing an “adventurous” archaeologist.

If that was not enough, 26-year-old Ford was cast to play the adult son of the O’Connell’s. Yet, Fraser is 39 and Bello is 41. The father-son duo looks more like a pair of tussling brothers. Not to mention, Bello equally looks out of place with her moderately youthful looks.

However, nothing is worse than the movie’s climax – Brendan Fraser beating up on Jet Li? This may be a movie of suspended belief, but Fraser beating up Li is like Frazier beating up Ali – the only time Frazier won was when Ali was rusty and visibly tired.

In Mummy 3, Li, who played the Dragon Emperor, was unable to awaken this once-popular movie franchise, itself rusty and visibly tired.

Spectacular action sequences and stunning CGI aside, Mummy 3 presents lackluster dialogue, limited chemistry, and none of the magic that the previous two versions possessed. Oh - there were no mummies either.

Tomb of the Dragon Emperor probably placed the Mummy series under an eternal curse; a solid cast of Fraser, Li, Yeoh and Bello is not enough to bring this wrapped franchise to life.

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