Well, it's December, and the best I can do now is a movie with snow. Having snow is one of the few things the 3rd installment in this series has going for it. Yes, this week's review is a film that should have been subtitled When A Series Overstays its Welcome, but they went with Tomb of the Dragon Emperor instead.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor – The Film
Return to the world of the dashing O'Connell family… or something vaguely similar to the fun one you remember from the first two Mummy films. The somewhat different team of Rick and Evelyn join up with their adult son to stop an ancient Chinese warlord who wants to lead a resurrected Terracotta Army to take over the world. In fairness, this is pretty par for the course in this series.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor – The Furs
It's 1946, and I'll float the costume designers some credit. If there was fox fur fashion in the ‘40s, it was confined to stoles and wraps. Thus we first get a very brief glimpse of Lin (Isabella Leong) in a white fox wrap.
The white fox is exceptionally brief, and this is almost all of it you'll see in the film.
Next, we see Evelyn 2.0 (Maria Bello) visiting a swinging club in Shanghai, where they meet up with their adult son. She is wearing a fairly conservative fox stole. Due to the lighting, I'm only willing to guess that it is crystal fox fur, but I could be wrong.
The lighting and framing don't improve when they move to the roof. This is one of those you could easily miss entirely despite being on screen for a good minute.
The fashion choices improve shortly after when Evelyn and her family visit a museum while hunting for clues. She is wearing a lovely blue fox fur wrap.
The blue fox wrap gets a decent amount of screen time, though it is still a little weak overall. I would have flipped the parka screen time for this in a second.
Act two of the film is set in the chilly Himalayas, where team O'Connell tries to prevent the bad guys from getting the MacGuffin. Evelyn and Lin bundle up in fox fur-trimmed parkas.
These are the marquee furs by the runtime. They show up during the extended mountaineering segment and then in the even longer action sequence that follows. Evelyn wears a silver or frost fox trim.
Lin gets a red fox hood with a lambskin trim.
If you are a fan of parkas, this movie will probably be a top-five contender. I am… not. But I can appreciate these, at least.
Plus, getting any action sequence with some fur fashion is always fun.
Mixed feelings on this one. I appreciate the effort, but most of the good stuff isn't on screen long enough. The parkas are okay, but I would have preferred they be all fur, not just trimmed. Finally, there's the meta-annoyance that the worst film of the Mummy series is the one that finally got real fur. Feel free to stand up for parka trim, I know there are a bunch of you, but you're talking to someone who will always pick the huge collar over a hood.
Fur Runtime: approx 5.5 minutes
Film Runtime: 112 minutes
On-Screen Fur Ratio: 5%
Find-a-Fur: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, 2008
(all times are approximate and are affected by the cut of the film)
- 27:30 – 31:00 – white fox wrap + crystal? fox stole
- 33:00 – blue fox wrap
- 54:10 – 58:24 – 2x parka hood + cuffs
- 1:00:00 – 1:13:00 – ” approx
Fur Fashion Gallery: The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, 2008
