'The Mummy Returns' Real Nightmare Was the Scorpion King CGI

The Big Picture

• The CGI of the Scorpion King in 'The Mummy Returns' is widely criticized, with its awkward facial features and uncanny valley appearance.
• Despite the limitations in capturing Dwayne Johnson's likeness, the VFX artists did their best with the available reference material.
• 'The Scorpion King' is a prequel to 'The Mummy' series and is considered a fun action film with improved CGI effects compared to its predecessor.

Do you know what's a fun action film? The Mummy. Far better than it has any right to be, it's an Indiana Jones-lite, with Brendan Fraser as the adventurous Rick O'Connell and Rachel Weisz as Evelyn Carnahan. In 1926, Evelyn inadvertently awakens the mummified high priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) by reading through the Book of the Dead aloud. Imhotep wreaks havoc on Egypt and wants to sacrifice Evelyn in order to bring back his secret lover, Anck-su-namun (Patricia Velásquez), but he is ultimately defeated. Nowadays, The Evil Dead would have been a warning to Evelyn not to read any of the 'Book of the Dead' series, and all Imhotep really had to do was set up an email account, and his inbox would be flooded with single Russian women looking for men, so the 1926 setting works in its favor. While The Mummy received mixed reviews, the effects were praised —this is important— and it went on to be a highly successful release. Do you know what's a fun action sequel? The Mummy Returns. This one has a slightly more convoluted plot but is still a fun ride with amazing special effects. Err, for the most part. See, in the climactic ending of The Mummy Returns, we meet Dwayne Johnson's —sorry, "The Rock's"— Scorpion King, who is a godawful, CGI nightmare of gigantic proportions. To say otherwise is to be in utter de-Nile.

The Mummy Returns (2001)

The mummified body of Imhotep is shipped to a museum in London, where he once again wakes and begins his campaign of rage and terror.

What Looks Worse Than the Scorpion King CGI in 'The Mummy Returns'? Not Much.

Now, I could give you the background on the Scorpion King's story as told in The Mummy Returns, about how he was a warrior, got defeated, made a soul-for-power trade with Anubis, blah blah blah. None of this, however, would make it justifiable that he looks like he belongs in a Wallace and Gromit short. "Oh, he made a deal with Anubis. That explains why it looks like his face has been rounded out with a gallon of Botox." At least that's how I remembered him from the film, so to be entirely fair I watched the Scorpion King scene again. Dear God in heaven, it somehow even looks worse now, like the CGI artists were forced to use Commodore 64s.

This scene in The Mummy Returns actually starts off looking pretty decent, with O'Connell and Imhotep locked in battle when the doors behind them swing open, revealing a pretty darn cool-looking silhouette as the Scorpion King suspends himself between two walls with his sharp legs and snapping claws. For the next 15 seconds, it holds your attention as you eagerly wait for it to show itself again. Once it does, however, this is immediately followed by a 2-second plea to any deity that's listening that the beast would go into hiding again. Where does one even begin? There's an uncanny valley look in the Scorpion King's eyes, for starters. Maybe if that's all that was wrong, this monstrosity wouldn't stand out among its peers like it does, with many CGI creatures falling victim to the same effect. Alas, there is so much more that is wrong. Remember the uproar over Sonic's (Ben Schwartz) teeth in Sonic the Hedgehog? I think people would have been more understanding had Paramount just said, "Hey, at least it doesn't look this bad" while holding a close-up of the Scorpion King's eerily pearly and perfect teeth (the dentist in Anubis' underworld must be awesome.)

The Scorpion King Looks More Like a Lego Man Than a Warrior in 'The Mummy Returns'

Then there are the issues with the Scorpion King's hair and the tattoos. Or at least I assume they're tattoos. Maybe they're singe marks. Anyway, my first thought? The Lego Movie. With the plastic shell hair and the tattoos/singe marks/permanent marker drawings done for a laugh by Anubis while the Scorpion King slept (how else do you pass the time in the underworld?), he looks less like "The Rock" and more like Lego Aquaman (Jason Momoa). On the upside, the scorpion parts of the Scorpion King (legs, claws, and tail) all look pretty decent, and if you hold your thumb between your eye and the Scorpion King's Lego head, it makes a great improvement —at least for a while. Later in this scene of The Mummy Returns, there's an explosion where the Scorpion King is flung into the air, and it's like a bad Ed Wood edit with stock footage of a fire behind and the Scorpion King on a string in front of it.

After battling with O'Connell, the Scorpion King is finally taken out when O'Connell stabs him with the Spear of Osiris. The spear goes right through the Scorpion King, but somehow, despite being run through a solid creature, it moves around like the king is made out of Jell-O. It should be noted that while the fight is going on, the army of Anubis, which are actually pretty decent CGI characters, are running toward the Medjai. Then the nightmare ends with the best CGI in the whole film —the Scorpion King turns to dust.

The VFX Artists for the Scorpion King Didn't Have Enough Reference Material of Dwayne Johnson

Perhaps the most damning thing about The Mummy Returns's CGI debacle is the fact that it came out the same year as an entire host of films with some amazing, groundbreaking CGI, like Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (if you ignore the troll), Jurassic Park III, and The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. To his credit, veteran VFX artist John Berton Jr. claimed in an episode of Corridor Digital's VGX Artists React that the reason why the Scorpion King CGI looked so bad had to do with the fact that Dwayne Johnson's WWE schedule left little time for the VFX artists to do a proper scan of the actor. With only a limited amount of reference material, they did the best they could with what they had. And what they had available, clearly, was Lego. And maybe some clay. As for the Scorpion King himself, he would come back in The Mummy prequel The Scorpion King in 2002, with Johnson playing a warrior (still then in human form) named Mathayus, a hero that would eventually become the twisted, nightmarish creature sometime down the road. Like The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, The Scorpion King is another fun action film, but with significantly fewer CGI effects, and, thankfully, far better ones at that​​​​​​.

The Scorpion King is now available to watch on Netflix.

Watch on Netflix

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