MovieChat Forums > The Scorpion King (2002) Discussion > I don't get the low ratings. It's a fun ...

I don't get the low ratings. It's a fun film!

posted 5 years ago by PrimeMinisterX (8291)
11 replies | jump to latest

I was just looking on RT and saw that The Scorpion King only had a 41% critic rating. I was like, "Okay fine, critics usually don't like movies like this. Surely the audience score is higher." Nope! It has a 38% audience score.

I don't get that. While the Scorpion King isn't a masterpiece, I enjoyed it and think it was better than any of the mainline Mummy sequels. The Rock is likable as always and the story, while simple and somewhat formulaic, is an enjoyable sword-and-sandals adventure story.

Ancient Egypt is always a fun setting for stories like these, the action is good, the humor usually hits like it should, and the film is overall just a fun movie that is appropriate for all audiences.

Underrated.

[–] HarlemEagle42 (16160) 4 years ago

It's perfectly watchable. It could had used a better villain.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8291) 4 years ago

I agree that the villain was pretty bland. He was kind of a paint-by-numbers bad buy, as if he was spit out by a computer program that had the instructions "create ancient sword-and-sandals villain."

Overall though, I enjoy the movie.

[–] WhereIsRent (1014) 2 years ago

Such an underrated film, it's got action and fun with plenty of funny and cheesy moments throughout to keep you amused between the action scenes. The action scenes are really impressive though and there are lots of them.

I tried watching Conan the Barbarian again recently and it's such a slog to get through by comparison, I'll take this action packed 90 minute cheesefest any day over that snoozefest.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8291) 2 years ago

Having also watched Conan fairly recently, I will totally agree that The Scorpion King was a better film.

I would give Scorpion King a solid 7/10. It's not a great film, but it's an enjoyable and fun adventure movie.

It's too bad we never got a proper sequel to it. It made almost $180 million on a $60 million budget, so that should've been good enough for the studio to greenlight another theatrical film. I wonder if The Rock didn't want to do it.

[–] WhereIsRent (1014) 2 years ago

Agreed with the 7/10, heck I'd probably bump it even higher if the villain wasn't so bland and generic.

I would have loved a proper sequel as well with The Rock, I think The Scorpion King is an interesting character and Dwayne is that role so I never bothered with the direct to DVD sequels. I've rewatched this film quite a bit since it came out in 2003 and it's easily my favourite of his live action films where he's in a lead role. Like you I appreciate fun action adventure films especially with cool settings like this film has. For me, last year's Jungle Cruise had nothing on this, I just found it quite bland and forgettable.

But yes I'll always be baffled by the low ratings of this film, it's Johnson's first step (well technically second after The Mummy Returns) towards building his film career and I don't think I saw a film with him in a lead role that was as good as this until 2017's Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle...and even then I still prefer The Scorpion King haha.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8291) 2 years ago

I did watch a few of the DVD sequels. Most were garbage, but it seems I remember one of them at least being okay for a movie that was made for home video.

I agree that Jungle Cruise was nowhere near as fun as The Scorpion King. I caught it in the theater and was hoping for an enjoyable adventure, but as you say, it was just bland and forgettable. I walked out pretty underwhelmed and disappointed. Probably Emily Blunt was the best thing the film had going for it.

Regarding the Rock's leading roles, the interesting thing is that when you look back over the films where he was the lead most of the films weren't that great. For sure in the vast majority of actual good movies he's been in he was a supporting character. His own movies tend to range from bland and mediocre (stuff like Rampage and Jungle Cruise) to outright bad (Doom and Skyscraper come to mind). The Scorpion King and, I agree, the first Jumanji film, stand out as being particularly enjoyable. I also liked San Andreas and Hercules fairly well.

[–] WhereIsRent (1014) 2 years ago

Completely agree with everything you said. The Scorpion King, Jumanji, San Andreas and Hercules are definitely his most entertaining films with him in the lead role.

Skyscraper was so bad, there is a fine line between homage and rip-off and that film crossed it in my opinion.

[–] April-151-CT (10210) 2 years ago

75% approval rating on Google.

[–] TandyMan (10362) 2 years ago

The main problem with this movie is the first ten minutes are super cheesy and really hard to get through. I think a lot of people write it off before the story even gets going.

[–] Kowalski (57909) 2 years ago

STUPID FUN...THAT'S HOW I SEE IT...WHAT I AM CURIOUS ABOUT ARE THE FOUR SEQUELS...I JUST BOUGHT THE FIVE FILM SET ON BLU RAY AND I WAS UNAWARE THAT THREE OF THOSE FILMS EVEN EXISTED.

[–] PrimeMinisterX (8291) 2 years ago

I'd be interested to hear what you think.

I believe I've seen them all. One of them I remember being completely fucking awful (I think it was the third one, Battle for Redemption). Another I remember being not bad for a direct-to-video adventure movie, and I think that was the last one, Book of Souls. I don't remember a thing about either of the others.