The Scorpion King

Mathayus "The Scorpion King" is a historical legend, discussed by Stephen Sommers in his earlier movie "The Mummy Returns". That movie happens in 3067BC where Mathayus is a power thirsty king who leads his army on a campaign to conquer the known world. Seven years later, his army is defeated while attacking Thebes and exiled to the desert of Ahm Shere, where his men die of heat exhaustion. After vowing to give Anubis his soul for the power to defeat his enemies, an oasis forms to hide the Scorpion King's pyramid and he receives a legion of jackal warriors. The Army of Anubis sweeps across Egypt, but once their task is finished, Anubis claims the Scorpion King's soul and his army. The soul of the Scorpion King gets trapped for eternity in that pyramid. 

Now, this Scorpion King movie is a prequel to "The Mummy Returns" which shows Mathayus, an assassin becoming the ruler of the prehistoric world (Egypt) a.k.a The Scorpion King. The movie starts off with an army from the East led by ruthless ruler Memnon (Steven Brand) conquering the world with the help of a sorceress Cassandra (Kelly Hu), who predicts the outcomes of all the battles making his dream come true as an Emperor. The defeated tribes seeks revenge by forming allies but their acts go futile as sorceress is by his side. Memnon evinces his interest in sharing his bed with her but Cassandra reminds him that she would lose her vision if she does so.   

One of the allies, King Pheron, hires the only remaining three Akkadians, Mathayus (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson), his half brother Jesup and their Rama to kill Sorcerer for twenty blood rubies. King Pheron's son Takmet gets upset with his father's idea and their ally Nubian King Balthazar dislikes the Akkadians. The Akkadians manage to sneak into Memnon's camp but are ambushed by his guards, having been tipped off by Takmet, who killed his own father and defected to Memnon's side. Jesup gets caught and Rama is killed, but Mathayus manages to sneak into the sorcerer's tent, where he sees that the sorcerer is actually a sorceress, Cassandra. Mathayus is ambushed and meets Memnon, who executes Jesup in front of him. Cassandra warns Memnon against killing Mathayus, saying the gods wish him to survive the night and defying them will incur their wrath and cost him his victories. To circumvent this, Memnon has Mathayus buried to his neck in the desert to be devoured by fire ants at dawn. Mathayus manages to escape with help from a horse thief, Arpid (Grant Heslov).    

After his escape, he tries to kill Memnon on his own seeking his dead brother's revenge but fails, as he saves a street urchin form Takmet's axe. On his route to escape he meets Philos, a researcher in the palace who is forced to invent and design weaponry for Memnon. He helps Mathayus to escape through a large catapult, landing him into Cassandra's comfort station. She emerges from the bed of roses like a goddess and Mathayus kidnaps her. He plans to execute her later as he knew Memnon will come for her.

Cassandra tries to escape from Mathayus and tells him that she has been Memnon's prisoner since she was a child. Sympathetic towards her for saving his life from Memnon's sword, Mathayus allows her the choice of leaving, but warns her of worse dangers and that she is likely safer with him. Meanwhile, Memnon sends his right-hand man, Thorak, and a group of guards to kill Mathayus and retrieve Cassandra. Mathayus manages to slay them all under the cover of a sandstorm and in a cave. While dying, Thorak manages to stab Mathayus in the leg with a scorpion blood-laced arrow; Cassandra uses her magic to save Mathayus' life. As an insult, Mathayus sends Thorak's blood-stained pendant to Memnon.    

Mathayus, Arpid and Cassandra run into Philos, who has perfected an explosive powder experiment. However, they are ambushed by the rebels, now under the rule of Balthazar. Though Mathayus defeats Balthazar in a fight and earns his grudging respect and sanctuary, Cassandra has a vision of Memnon and his army slaughtering the entire rebel camp. She informs Mathayus and then prophesies that when the moonlight reaches Memnon's palace, the King on High will become the invincible Scorpion King, and Memnon believes himself to be the one destined to become the Scorpion King. Furthermore, she informs Mathayus that if he faces Memnon, he will likely die, but Mathayus assures her that he will make his own destiny and they sleep together.  

On the same night, Cassandra escapes from Mathayus and returns to Memnon in order to stall and possibly kill him. Mathayus, with help from Balthazar, Arpid, Philos and the army of rebels, launches an all-out assault on Memnon's stronghold, facing Memnon personally before he can kill Cassandra. Balthazar confronts and kills Takmet, avenging Pheron, and takes on the full force of Memnon's forces alone. The battle rages on until Mathayus is shot by a guard, as predicted by Cassandra. As Memnon takes his place in the House of Scorpio to become the Scorpion King, Cassandra kills the guard while Mathayus retrieves his bow, pulls the arrow out of his shoulder and uses it to shoot the exhausted Memnon, sending him off the edge of the roof. At the same time, Philos and Arpid use the explosive powder to destroy the palace's foundation stone, bringing down the bulk of Memnon's forces. Memnon is consumed by the flames as he falls to his death. With the battle over, the remnants of Memnon's army bow before Mathayus, who by their law is their new king, the Scorpion King.

In the aftermath, Mathayus and Balthazar share a good-natured farewell as the latter returns to his own kingdom. Cassandra tells Mathayus that she lied to Memnon about her vision to keep him away from her and she sees a period of peace and prosperity coming but warns him that it will not last forever. Undeterred, Mathayus decides that they will make their own destiny. 

On the whole "The Scorpion King" is a good entertainer. The performances of all the actors are at their best for an 90min action movie. Chuck Russell directed this action movie and Stephen Sommers produced it. This was  the first standalone movie for the WWE wrestler "The Rock" who later starred in numerous blockbusters. He is still received as the Scorpion King by the people. Actress Kelly Hu attained success with this movie and it was one of the milestones of her career. Her beauty makes this film more romantic. She is a perfect cast to the character who blends her beauty with action. Especially, Cassandra erupting from the bed of  roses to save herself from the Akkadian is a visual splendor. She has done a photoshoot with TJ Scott in the bathtub with the bed of roses for breast cancer awareness, which reminded me of this character "Sorceress Cassandra". When I personally met her, I discussed about this role with her and how it influenced me. My favorite single "I stand Alone" by Godsmack from the film's soundtrack reached No. 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart and No. 20 on the Modern Rock chart in the US. The single achieved Gold certification for more than half million copies shipped in the United States, spurring sales of over 1.5 million copies for Faceless and propelling Godsmack to worldwide popularity. It also won a 2002 Metal Edge Readers' Choice Award for "Song of the Year From a Movie Soundtrack". It had two Grammy nominations for 'Best Rock Song' and, 'Best Hard Rock Performance' respectively.

Actually, from what I've read, after the death of the Sorceress Cassandra, Mathayus indulges himself in the battles all the time to erase her from his memories. Power quenched, blood thirsty 'Scorpion' King Mathayus, who lost his Queen Cassandra, sets his path towards the battles with rage. He wishes to conquer the known world by declaring war on every king he confronts. Later, he gets defeated on Thebes and confers his soul to Anubis to win it, which is shown in the movie "The Mummy Returns". I was thrilled to see it first time when it was released in 2002 and also over the years my excitement stayed the same. This is due to the fact, from an hired assassin to the Scorpion King, Mathayus journey is impeccable. As the Sorceress said "Nothing Lasts Forever, My Dear King", the good and evil switch sides with time. He reminds me of ruthless Memnon in the later half of his life, who does everything to conquer the world. So, I feel this film is a right mixture of entertainment and amazement of prehistoric rulers. If you haven't watched the movie yet, do it now.