The story of the second film introduces a new significant character - The Scorpion King,(Andreas Johnson, aka. The Rock) the protagonist of the whole film. Having given up his soul to Anubis, the God of the Dead, the Scorpion King lies asleep in the Pyramid. If awakened, the boundless army of Anubis rises with him, and whosoever manages to defeat the Scorpion King also gains command of the Anubis army, powerful enough to 'take over the world'...well, this is what the curator of the London British Museum reckons anyway...

The second instalment propels us forward several years since the first film. By now Evie and Rick also have an eight year old son, Alex. Evelyn has been having recurring vivid dreams - an unsatiable sense of déjà vu calls her back to investigate the archaeological remains in Egypt, and having, of course, persuaded a reluctant Rick and their ever curious son to accompany her.

Sommers, with his vivid and animated imagination, is a very good story teller. Having created such a diverse and complex plot, almost everything is accounted for - laying down the foundations, gradually introducing the facts at appropriate times. The film also cleverly vibrates the motifs from the previous film, linking the continuity between the first and second films.

In this film, Weiss appears to portray a very different woman - emotionally stronger and assertive than the suppressed little vulnerable Evie that we saw in the first film. I think this was to correspond to the new facts that are discovered in the film - that Evie, in her past life, is actually the Pharoah's daughter Nefertiri - a strong spirited warrior. It would be interesting to have seen a gradual change in character as the facts are discovered. Instead, we see a character that doesn't appear to correlate to the others, I don't know why this is, but somehow I personally felt a lack of chemistry between Weiss and all the other actors.

This is a very well-thought-out film, the only thing that ruins it a little is the computer generated images of the Scorpion King towards the end of the film. Not sure if it there were technological restrictions, but really, after such great performances all around - to have such lame special effects is just disappointing.

The film comes as a two-disc DVD set. Besides the feature film, the two discs also contain bonus features such as an interview with Andreas Johnson, aka. The Rock, a commentary from the director, Stephen Sommers and the cast, several trailers, a music video, some production scenes and a screen saver, of you're into that sort of thing.

There is some footage of their special effects formation process - I am surprised that they included this. Everything was fine in the film, all except for the part of the computer-generated image of the Scorpion King towards the end of the film, I'm really not sure what happened there. The bonus features section also includes some production clips of the film, but again, it felt that too much was being focused on the special effects. Personally, I would have preferred it if they included more of the rehearsal scenes between the actors, but they do include some clips of the outtakes, so I guess this compensates for it.

Obviously, the film has been out for a good few years, so it's possible to buy this at quite a low price. I managed to get mine for £6.99 from amazon, which, at the time, seemed quite reasonable double DVD set. But since the bonus features are virtually useless to me, I feel that I might have paid just a little too much for the film itself.