The Mummy Star Brendan Fraser Defends Scorpion King CGI

Looking back at the evolution of visual effects over the years, it's easy to point out how poor they were in earlier days, but star of The Mummy franchise Brendan Fraser recently pointed out that, while the effects in The Mummy Returns might be disappointing when looking back at them, they serve the spirit of the films. The globe-trotting nature of the entire franchise meant filmmakers often had to aim to capture otherworldly elements, though even at the time of the film's release, audiences were critical of the cartoonish appearance of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as the monstrous villain.

When discussing the disappointing effects with GQ, Fraser joked, "I know, I know, be kind. The guys who did the CGI of the Scorpion King, at the premiere, they were like, 'Hey, how are you, good job. You know, we did the CG for the Scorpion King.' And they kind of went, 'Yeah, we needed a little more time before we...' But it was very last minute, I don't know. But some of the charm of it is that when you watch it now, like it could get remastered I guess, but it kinda wouldn't be as fun if you didn't see this sort of janky video character of Dwayne going, 'Rawwwh.' And somehow, it's just perfect, how things work out."

Luckily, even members of the visual effects team who worked on that sequence, while disappointed with the end result, are aware of exactly why the final product looked the way it did and it was largely based on how Johnson was becoming a major star with a busy schedule.

"The biggest thing about the Scorpion King in this movie is that we didn't have the reference that we needed," John Burton, Jr. shared with the Corridor Crew earlier this year. "This isn't really an excuse, but it's an explanation of the way things work in movies sometimes. We asked for that, of course. We needed a day with Dwayne Johnson to photograph his face in high detail and do all the stuff that you would do. Because he was busy with his incredible WWE career, that was not possible. We had him for three days, I think, in Morocco to shoot his scenes."  

It's unknown what the future holds for The Mummy franchise, but Fraser previously expressed that he would be open to a possible return.

What do you think of the actor's remarks? Let us know in the comments!