Bullet Points: The Scorpion King: Book of Souls

The Scorpion King series has now had five films. That’s not something I would have expected having seen the original film starring The Rock. The character always felt like a rip-off of Conan without all the cools fantasy elements. The line of sequels that haven’t exactly done a lot of good for the series. I’m actually surprised that another sequel has been made so soon. I think it’s safe to say that The Scorpion King series could really use a shot in the arm…

Synopsis: The Scorpion King teams up with a female warrior named Tala, who is the sister of The Nubian King. Together they search for a legendary relic known as The Book of Souls, which will allow them to put an end to an evil warlord.

• Meet the players: A really cheesy narration introduces us to Nebserek, played by the always great Peter Mensah. I can accept that he has some sort of magical powers because Mensah hasn’t aged a day in like twenty years. Nebserek is part of a tribe that was once dominated by the Scorpion King’s people and now he’s willing to make a deal with the Underworld to ensure he can rule. Nebserek has gotten his hands on the Fang of Anubis. A sword that captures the souls of those it vanquishes and can only be destroyed by the Book of Souls. Pretty much your average Wednesday…
• A New King: Zach McGowan takes over the role of the Scorpion King from Victor Webster. You will recognize McGowan from the excellent Starz show Black Sails. I always thought that Webster was one of the weakest parts of the previous two Scorpion King sequels so I was glad to see the change. This SK is a simple blacksmith now. Like almost every other warrior in history and fictional history, SK attempts to retire to a live of peace before being dragged back into the fray.

• “I don’t quest”: The lovely Pearl Thusi saves the Scorpion King’s bacon and then fills him in on the emergence of Nebserek as the conqueror. Tala, as she is called, is the daughter of Michael Clare Duncan’s character from the original film and the princess of the Nubians. SK bad mouths questing in general and then agrees to follow her on her quest to find the Book of Souls so that they might stop Nebserek before he takes over the entire world.
• White-painted tribe and the Hunt: Quests always seem to lead you directly into the worst parts of town. Why can’t they quest themselves to a Six Flags or onto a cruise ship? This quest brings them into contact with a desert tribe of people all painted white. Certainly not because they’re played by all sorts of Non-Egyptians, right? Either way, McGowan and Thusi get captured (which happens way too often in this movie) and are force to play a deadly game of hide and seek with the chieftain in order to gain their release. Let’s just say, we’ll meet each other again.

• Welcome to the team: The film feels like it’s really long. It’s runtime was somewhere around 1 hr 41 mins but about halfway through I was struggling to continue. That is when we’re introduced to the cave that holds the Book of Souls. I won’t go into too much detail on the plot twists that come along with these new characters but introducing Katy Louise Saunders and Nathan Jones as Amina and Enkidu was the shot in the arm that this movie needed. Saunders plays a much larger role than just eye candy that you might expect from her scantily clad character and Nathan Jones is hilarious as Enkidu, the protector. I was worried about the Enkidu’s character being too silly since he’s a golem, which is essentially a creature made of clay, but he ended up becoming my favorite character in the entire movie.
• My new favorite book: Amina drops all sorts of knowledge on SK and Tala and ends up joining them on their in progress quest. Everyone knows that you need more than two people for a decent quest.
• Battles for the sake of battles: There are plenty of fight scenes throughout the movie. In fact, there are a couple that seem to happen for no reason at all with no real payoff. A beach throwdown and an attack by the Scorpion King on baddie Mayling Ng’s Khensa gives us more opportunities to see them fight but ultimately does nothing for the progression of the plot. The situation before and after the battles is unchanged. I love a good action sequence, and most of the ones in Book of Souls are fun, but they need to feel more important than just some guys running around on the tops of buildings just too look cool. My recommendation would be to introduce another member of the team so he/she can be sacrificed in one of these fights. All of the major deaths shouldn’t come for the beginning and the end of the film.

• Peter Mensah ain’t so bad: The quest finally ends of the Scorpion King, Tala, and the rest of the crew getting captured (surprise!) and needing rescue from some of the others they’ve met. Tala psyches up Enkidu and they go to town on the nameless henchmen of the Nebserek while McGowan’s SK stands toe to toe with the ageless Mensah. The fight is pretty decent. They incorporate different weapons into the fight and I think that McGowan’s time on Black Sails has really given him some stunt cred. The finale falls a little flat as the bad guys really don’t stand much of a chance but Mensah makes up for their weakness by hamming it up.

Let’s drop some bonus points on this sequel before we go:

• Poison should not work against the Scorpion King. He should never be knocked out with it. Period.
• The chieftain of the white-paint tribe actually tells his men, “On my command, unleash hell”. It was cringeworthy.
• The book girl has been hidden in a cave for years…she is going to get a nasty sunburn if she keeps wearing such revealing clothes in the desert.
• Nathan Jones punches out a horse!

The Verdict: The Scorpion King: Book of Souls is my favorite film in the series to date. Admittedly, I’ve only seen 3 of the previous 4 but I can tell you with 100% certainty that Zach McGowan is an upgrade over Victor Webster in the lead department. The greatest compliment I can give this movie is that it is very similar to Schwarzenegger’s  Conan the Barbarian. I’ve complained that the movie feels about 10 minutes too long but it does give the characters enough time to become a team instead of a loosely thrown together bunch of people. Nathan Jones was the MVP for me. I had low expectations for his character but he ended up being both funny as well as delivering an emotional moment in the end. Peter Mensah wasn’t given the chance to be evil enough, in my opinion, but ultimate power is enough to root against the guy. All in all, Book of Souls was far better than I had anticipated. Let’s hope for more like this.