“The Mummy” movies have always been something of a poor man’s “Indiana Jones” flick, and while they don’t stack up in terms of charm or execution, these knock-offs have generally been enjoyable summer diversions. A lot of the credit went to the special effects team and star Brendan Fraser, who has made his career out of mixing winning comedy performances with more straightforward heroics.

Fraser’s still a lot of fun in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor,” but the charm seems to be evaporating for the franchise this third time out. The adventure starts out slowly, with a tedious backstory that explains how an ancient Chinese Emperor (Jet Li) tricked a witch into giving him immortality. The witch (Michelle Yeoh) retaliates by turning his whole army into mud statues.

Fast forward several thousand years where we catch up with Rick and Evelyn, our heroic couple from the previous films (Fraser and Maria Bello subbing for Rachel Weisz). They are living a comfortable, mummy-free existence that seems idyllic, but peace and quiet really bores them both to tears.

The plot finally kicks into high gear when their now-grown son (Luke Ford) digs up the mummified emperor and his terra cotta army and mom and pop just happen to be in China delivering an artifact that can reanimate the dead. As if disturbing a mummy’s grave isn’t enough to keep the movie going, the filmmakers throw in everything from a duplicitous Chinese general, an immortal witch sworn to keeping the mummy in his tomb and even a herd of abominable snowmen. It all adds up to an adventure that’s big on action and jam packed with plot, but lacking in execution.

So much going on, so little worth seeing.

The cast seems to just be going through the motions, although thanks to Fraser, there are a few funny moments here and there. There are also some very cheesy moments, such as having an abominable snowman lift his arms into the air like an NFL referee after punting a bad guy between two upright towers.

The audience literally groaned.

A lot of the action sequences are shot with a hand held camera, which is a cheap trick to add energy (but also confusion) to scenes that might seem a bit lackluster. The acting is hammed up a lot more than in previous outings, and even the special effects seem somewhat diminished. The bottom line is that “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor” isn’t a completely bad adventure; it just doesn’t live up to the already mediocre standards of the previous films.

 Movie reviews by Sean, “The Movie Guy,” are published bi-weekly in The Port Arthur News. Sean welcomes your comments via email at smcbride@kavutv.com.