How ‘The Mummy Returns’ was cursed with Dwayne Johnson’s CGI monstrosity
Kicking off with a record that would soon go on to define his career as a Hollywood A-lister, Dwayne Johnson was awarded the highest-ever salary for a first-time actor when he made his big screen bow in The Mummy Returns.
The man professionally known as ‘The Rock’ netted a cool $5million for what was ostensibly a prologue and nothing else, with his final contributions to the sequel coming in the form of a laughable CGI creation that wouldn’t have passed muster as a video game cutscene, never mind the climactic showdown of a blockbuster adventure movie.
There was a silver lining, though, after Stephen Sommers’ return to Egypt with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz in tow proved such a big hit that Johnson was awarded his own standalone spinoff, aptly titled The Scorpion King. From there, he proved that he could headline a theatrical hit without being mutated into an unconvincingly rendered eyesore, which worked out very well for the star in the long run.
In fact, it was announced in late 2020 that Johnson will be producing a reboot of The Scorpion King, which stands out as a galling example of what can happen when IP runs amok. For those completely unaware, prepare to be blindsided by the revelation that there are no less than four sequels to the original, none of which stood a chance in hell of being sent anywhere other than the nearest straight-to-video bargain bucket.
By extension, that means the next iteration of The Scorpion King will be the reboot of the spinoff from the sequel to a remake that already gave rise to four sequels of its own, a damning indictment on Hollywood’s cyclical obsession with repurposing the same properties over and over again if there ever was one.
When it came to shooting the unintentionally hilarious showdown in The Mummy Returns, though, Johnson was nowhere to be found. Motion capture was only in its infancy at the time and not considered a viable option, with the creature not even requiring him to step into the recording booth, either, leading to Sepultura and Soulfly frontman Max Cavalera being drafted in to provide a series of guttural growls.
Having done his part in the flesh, Johnson was backed off to the bright lights and sold-out arenas of pro wrestling, leaving the VFX team without a reference point from which to work. Artist John Berton Jr admitted that there was no scan of the actor to recreate digitally, barely any reference points to work with, and a limited amount of time to complete the required shots. As a result, they had to basically make it up as they went along and do the best they could with what they had, which did not turn out very well.
Unsurprisingly, wholesome hero Fraser shared with GQ that not only did he not have the privilege of meeting Johnson in person until The Mummy Returns premiere after working exclusively with “a piece of tape on a stick that we referred to,” but the VFX team apologised for the terrible effects by telling the leading man “we needed a little more time.”
He defended them to the hilt by declaring he has a soft spot for the “janky video game character of Dwayne,” which does put him firmly in the minority when it’s easily one of the worst uses of CGI in the history of on-screen pixelation. The Mummy Returns was a downgrade from its predecessor in almost every way, but at least it managed to secure a legacy of its own, based entirely on how remarkably shitty the Scorpion King looks in a feature that cost almost $100m to produce.
