The Mummy Returns was released in 2001 by Universal Studios. Even though the movie was panned quite a bit by reviewers at the time, the movie has become a favorite of mine as it is funny, witty, entertaining, and full of great sets and cool special effects. Brendan Frasier, Rachel Weisz, Oded Fehr, Arnold Vosloo and John Hannah reprise their roles from the 1999 hit “The Mummy”. With this movie being reviewed hundreds of times already, I will not view the movie itself but instead the transition to HD-DVD. The HD-DVD version of The Mummy Returns is encoded in 1080p using the VC-1 codec with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The Supported Audio format is Dolby Digital Plus with no support for DTS or TrueHD (sadly).

Universal Studios has done an excellent job with supporting HD-DVD. Of my 3 benchmark titles (Visual Quality), two of them belong to Universal (Riddick and Serenity) with the 3rd movie belonging (Batman Begins) to Warner Bros. It appears that I can now add another title to the list…Mummy Returns. Mummy Returns HD-DVD is Visually Spectacular! The movie possesses some of the absolute best hues I have seen in an HD-DVD thus far. Facial tones are soft and remarkably accurate with color saturation balanced perfectly. The colors in the Mummy Returns are bright and vivid with good separation. Textures in this movie are “excellent” and I mean “excellent” (on par with Riddick and in some cases better). The walls in the Tomb look gritty and dirty, radiating under the light provided by the torches. I actually walked thru the set at Universal Studios Hollywood in 2001 (summer) and it is amazing how much of the actual detail from the set is captured on camera and is visible in the final movie and in this case HD-DVD movie. Once Imhotep is resurrected, you can see the texture of his rotting brain thru his decayed skull. The rotting brain even moves and pulses when he becomes irritated and angry at Rick, Jonathan, Alex and Ardeth (all clearly visible in HD) during their rescue of Evie.

The night scene when they (Rick, Evie and company) are in Izzy’s Flying Carpet under the moonlight with the mountains in the backdrop is absolutely “awesome”. You can actually see all of the details in the mountains as they pass. Details such as holes, uneven terrain and crevices are very visible. In fact, the detail is so sharp it is hard not to become distracted. The moonlight reflects naturally on all surfaces including the Flying Carpet (the level of detail in the Flying Carpet is astounding – an awesome movie prop) and the clouds in the sky are glowing from the moons light. I was truly stunned by this scene and many many others. To be truthful, this whole movie is impressive. Throughout my viewing of the movie, I constantly thought and said, “whoa” and “wow” (over and over).

The movie is void of any noticeable “visual noise” leaving the picture clean and sharp at all times. Never is there a scene that becomes noisy or suffers from artifacts or posterization. Even objects and persons that are out of focus can be easily identified (unlike in some movies). The contrast and brightness levels are extremely good. The lighting in this movie is definitely on par with Riddick, Serenity and Batman Begins (in some scenes exceeding) and is on full display during the Night Scene on the Flying Carpet, scenes in the Tombs and the night scene at the Oasis (as everyone makes there way to the Scorpion Kings Tomb).

The only downside to this movie and it is really not a downside but more of a perception is The Army of Anubis and the Scorpion King (in the end of the movie not opening scene). In High Resolution it is hard to ignore the fact that The Army and the Scorpion King are CG (computer generated) as it has become more evident (in HD-DVD) leaving you with a feeling that The Army and Scorpion King are (a wee bit) out of place as the rest of the movie has a total look and feel of “realism”.

The Dolby Digital Plus Audio in the movie is good and is exactly what one would expect (nothing special). Bass is deep and satisfying (no stumbling) and the center channel volume is acceptable even though I prefer more volume for dialog. The high and mid level sounds are clean and crisp (again nothing special) with no distortion. Only problem with the audio is no TrueHD track.

Last, the disk features extras (480p MPEG2) that are worthy of mentioning. The Feature Commentary is the usual stuff of Director/Producer commentary from Stephen Sommers and Bob Ducsay. Other extras include The Making of The Mummy Returns, Visual and Special Effects Formation and Outtakes. The extras are hit and miss for me. I always enjoy “The Making of” material and anything about Special Effects is a plus for me but the Commentary material did not excite me much at all and the Outtakes were “ok” (at best).

Visually this is one of the best HD-DVD movie releases since Batman Begins in Oct of 2006 and warrants your hard earned cash and then some…..

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"True adaptability involves changing ones self to meet ones environment, not changing ones environment to meet ones needs" - Species8472

I LOVED the mummy movies. They were funny, kindof scary, and action packed. Prefect combination