Some studios go even further with their franchise, as is the case with 1999 hit The Mummy, which has now spawned two sequels, a spin-off and its sequel and a whole animated series.

Unfortunately, continuing box office success never highlights the depreciation in quality and The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is without doubt one of the most stupid and pointless third instalments ever.

Stephen Sommers, the director of the first two instalments, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, has stood back from the lens and taken on a producer role, being replaced by The Fast and The Furious director Rob Cohen.

The change of direction is probably the reason that none of it works. Cohen seems to suck all of the Sunday afternoon fun out of the first two films and instead layers on strained comedy and pointlessly piles on the violence.

The film gets underway in 50BC China when the Dragon Emperor (Jet Li) is seeking immortality but instead winds up being turned to stone.

The audience is then shot forward to 1946 Oxford where Egyptologist Rick O' Connell (Brendan Fraser) has given in on his adventurous lifestyle and settled down with his wife, now played by Maria Bello (who is unfortunately a poor replacement for the lovely Rachel Weisz).

The pair jump at the chance to accompany a friend who is escorting an artefact to Shanghai and soon discover that their son has just found the tomb of the emperor who is waiting to be brought back to life.

Soon the Emperor is back with an army of thousands seeking world domination and it is up to our hero and heroine to save the day.

The premise sounds like a fun Indiana Jones-type adventure and just as much simple pleasure as the first two films, but is actually one of the flattest, dullest, predictable and least exciting blockbusters going.

Cohen seems to be in blockbuster heaven blowing everything up and trying to make everything large-scale but missing out on the basic adventure elements.

Unfortunately, none of the action sequences generate any excitement at all and the acting is not up to par.

Fraser had a kind of silly charm in the first two movies but here he seems half asleep and he does not have the same sort of chemistry with Bello that he had with Weisz.

The biggest disappointment is that the movie re-teams Michelle Yeoh and Jet Li, which is a mouth-watering prospect for martial arts fans, but in reality hardly worthwhile, especially as Li spends most of his time behind a mask and commanding rather than fighting.

Overall The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is badly written, poorly acted and directed and completely lacking any wit or invention –– things that will need vast improvement if they attempt to turn it into a quadrilogy.

1/5