'The Mummy Returns' feels to me to be a downgrade on the original, though I still gained the desired entertainment from it. There is an absolute barrage of special effects used in this though, I said in my previous review about it aging badly - it's worse here.
I still wouldn't say that the below par effects affected my enjoyment terribly much, like last time, but due to the (what felt like) increase of its usage it definitely becomes a bit of an eyesore this time out. The Scorpion King towards the conclusion looks particularly poor, I gotta say.
Cast-wise, I could copy and paste what I said about the 1999 flick. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz are good together, I like the addition of their son (played well by Freddie Boath) into the mix. Also in my review of 'The Mummy', I noted that I wanted more of Oded Fehr, well I got that wish delivered here.
Quite interesting to see Dwayne Johnson appear as The Scorpion King, a character (and therefore franchise; five of them!) that I never knew existed until very recently. Given Johnson's upward acting trajectory since these films, I assume he didn't appear in all of those other spin-offs; I'll soon find out, intrigued to watch 'em either way.