As far as the fourth DTV sequel to a spin-off to a sequel of a remake goes, The Scorpion King: Book of Souls is surprisingly sturdy. It’s really nothing more than a semi-competent assemblage of sword and sorcery characters and cliches. We have the reluctant barbarian hero, the sexy badass princess, the villain who wields a weapon of untold power and has a core team of badass henchmen, mythic quests, a sexy sorceress, and a gruff but endearing golem. For some, that will be enough.
At one-hundred-and-one minutes, is it a tad too long for its own good? Absolutely. Does the final act lack the cheeseball fun of the first two acts? Frankly, yes. Do some of the fights and action sequences suffer from shaky-cam and quick-cut editing? Uh-huh. However, as a fan of this sort of shit, and seeing how they don’t make too many of these throwback kinds of things anymore, it went down smooth enough for me. Now I will admit, I haven’t seen The Scorpion King Part 3 or 4, and I have no idea how this ties into the first movie (other than the hero is playing the role The Rock originated), but taken on its own merits, Book of Souls is mostly entertaining and moderately enjoyable.
It’s always a little bit better than it has to be, which helps, and it was certainly more fun than I expected. It’s nice to find a sequel (and a fifth installment at that) that can competently hit its marks and fulfill the requirements of the genre. Zach McGowan is a bit stiff in the lead (he resembles the love child of Dave Bautista and Luke Goss), but the ladies in the cast are all fun to watch.
Director Don Michael Paul’s DTV sequel output is spotty at best. For every decent flick like Kindergarten Cop 2 there are plenty of Tremors 7s and Lake Placid 4s. This is easily one of his better efforts. I’m not saying it’s great or anything, but where else are you going to see a turd-shaped golem reenact the famous horse-punching scene from Blazing Saddles?
Tremors 7 and Lake Placid 4 were both pretty solid.
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