The Mummy is set in 1935, 10 years after the first film.

Rick O'Connell (Fraser) is now married to Evelyn (Weisz), and the couple has settled in London, where they are raising their nine-year-old son Alex.

The remains of Imhotep and Anck-su-Numam are shipped to a museum in London, where they once again wake and begin a campaign of rage and terror.

They are after their son because he's believed to be the key to the reincarnation of the Scorpion King who is even more powerful than Imhotep.

When these two forces clash, the fate of the world will hang in the balance, sending the O'Connells on a desperate race to save the world from unspeakable evil, and rescue their son before it is too late.

Following the script for most Hollywood sequels, Returns revisits quite a few scenes from the first film - from scarabs crawling under the skins of victims to a river transformed into a mummy-faced tsunami raging through Petra-like canyons.

There are numerous explosions, a lot of action and mayhem.

The film has an Indiana Jones-style adventure to it and is packed with up-to-date computer-generated special effects.

More money, more sand, more scorpions, more cavalry, more crumbling temples, more gold, more special effects, more everything, except perhaps originality.

If you liked the earlier Mummy, you will definitely enjoy this one.

Dominic Bloch