I just saw this movie for the first time last night (VHS) and I had a minor question: At the oasis of whatever it was everyone gets attacked by these demonic little beings, and I was wondering what they were supposed to be. I mean, they are clearly supernatural but are they supposed to be pygmy mummies? Mummy pygmys? Mummy monkeys? Or just some type of unpleasant goblin or imp from the underworld? Because they look like they are CGI one doesn’t really get a good look at them, and if they explained what they were at some point I missed it. Brendan Fraser’s character at one point calls them “natives” but he was obviously dissembling somewhat at that point so as not to frighten his brother in law.
I vote for “Poor excuse to add more gratuitous special effects in futile effort to increase tension/suspense in hopelessly inert adventure movie”; I don’t think the movie itself explains beyond the booga booga factor.
Allright, I’ve had my coffee and I am able to state confidently that my OP is a semi-coherent piece of gibberish. How many times can you use “point” in two consecutive sentences, dude? Me write English real goodly, honest.
ArchiveGuy, your description of the movie is quite valid. I didn’t mention that overall the movie was barely enjoyable as fluff. The plot was virtually incomprehensible, the script was full of conflicting mumbo-jumbo. Oded Fehr is less interesting the more he talks. Arnold Vosloo is a straight-up ham…the Mummy is much scarier as CGI than as Vosloo with his shirt off. John Hannah was funny in the first movie, just annoying here, although not as annoying as the kid (how could he possibly be)? Only Fraser and Rachel Weisz seem to be really trying. And Weisz’s martial arts scenes with the Mummy’s girlfriend were unbelievable, in a bad way. But the pygmy monkey mummy creatures really had me thinking I missed something.
Personally I got the feeling that the script was written by a D & D fanatic. After having a member of the party kidnapped, the party must follow all the clues, and run around the world trying to catch up. Finally the reach the edge of the secret forgotten geographical area. and they can see the secret forgotten templem which they just might make in time for some arbitrary event. But of course what happens when they decided to traven through the night, yep thats right a horde of threating, yet not particularly powerful enemies just up as the lost secret forgotten temple seems reachable and forces the team to split up and run like hell.
Whenever I see those pygmy guys I mentally see a D&D discussion.
DM: “Around 3 AM, just when it seems the temple must be right infront of you, suddenly a bunch of Goblins jumps you”
players:“Gobilns? were sick of gobilns, we always fight goblins”
DM "Okay, a group of kobalds…
Players: “We fought kobalds last adventure”
DM: “Okay then, a group of wild halflings…”
Players: “Wild Halflings? come on that’s just stupid, besides who ever heard of a halfling village in the middle of the desert”
DM:(angry) “Fine! they are mummies, you are facing a tribe of mummies, are mummies okay in the desert?”
Players:“You know damn well we can’t bearly beat one mummy, thats the whole plot of this adventure remember? What are we supposed to do against a whole tribe of them?”
DM:(relenting) “Well, they’re not real mummies, They’re um… a short… little… feral…wierdo monkey pygmy mummies”
[Geek Mode] From the Creature Catalog [sub]TSR 1993[/sub] Topi
Topis are undead human or humanoid creatures similiar to zombies. Before these creatures are animated, however, the creatures are shrunk until they are only two feet tall, giving them dark, wrinkled, leathery skin …Terrain:Cavern, Ruins, Jungle [/Geek Mode]
Haven’t seen the movie, but when I saw mini-mummies in the ads, I immediately thought of topis.
Well, you see, they had to fit in all four acts from Diablo II. That was Act 3, from the Spider Forest to the Flayer Jungle. The movie also contained the deserts from Act 2 and the gothically brooding antechamber that’s the Chaos Sanctuary in Act 4. Act 1’s around there somewhere, I’m sure.
Though my gamer geek observations aside, I also found that undead pygmy stuff very reminiscent of parts of the Jurassic Park movies.
Yeah, far’s I can tell they were just there for the hell of it. The effects guys got some bad pizza one night.