User Reviews

I decided to watch this movie when I saw that John Rhys-Davies played in it. He is magnificent as always, the movie on the other hand not that much. To be fair is not that bad either, it could be worse. The whole Egyptian – Alien human race is tasteless and it is a story told too many times. Yeah I know what you'll think. The same thing stands for the mummies. But no it doesn't. Mummies are something classic, like zombies (sorry for that)! You can never have enough mummies, you always want more!

So the story goes like this: an excavation takes place to locate an ancient pyramid. An eerie storm will solve some problems and bad man will play their role…! The problem with this movie is that the story is too long in the beginning, so they probably wanted to finish quickly and the story towards the end is told too fast. My biggest objection with this one is: WHERE ARE MY MUMMIES?????????????

Too predictable, without depth (other than beeing in toombs) pointless ending.

In short: Bad, good and 'other' guys enter a pyramid to unlock it. After it is finally unlocked it with no reason - collapses itself.

The 'other' guys die before unlocking, the bad guys die during unlocking and the good guys escape alive just in time as it colapses. The end.

From the opening scenes, Egypt was started by aliens lead by Osiris. Their intent was to conquer the world, but somehow they got trapped and buried in a pyramid and can reactivate every 5,000 years when certain stars line up. There is a bronze key that is needed to open it, a bad guy, the professor and Mary Ann all go to the tomb at the right time etc.

The plot was boring. The science has horrible. A few things... There are no stellar alignments that take place every 5,000 years. Sirius was never a pole star. And you can't carbon date bronze, it has no organic carbon.

The movie attempts to be a combination of "The Mummy" "Stargate" and "Indian Jones." And not the good Indian Jones film, the one with the Crystal Skull. The film is too short and formulaic. The characters were shallow. The special effects were above Asylum grade, except for that one insect thing.

Might work for the kids.

Parental Guide: No f-bombs, sex, or nudity.

I don't think this movie is worth the time even on DVD! The movie brought us to an interesting concept where the undead can be commanded (not unusual) when there's some planetary alignment (not unusual either). It's an adventure, with a little action that I must say, gets me going to want to watch till the end. However so, the way the actors/actresses acted was not somehow convincing. To add matter worse, the way the story goes, especially towards the end, was nothing good too! I was very disappointed at this production, as this has the potential to make it quite interestingly-good. Unfortunately this movie is definitely-definitely not recommended.

Well this was a nice weekend afternoon sort of movie that was mostly well filmed, and written. The acting is all a bit over the top, but that would meet the style of the film. John Rhys-Davies is really the biggest surprise, I know he was in the Rings movies, but otherwise what we have seen of him in the last 10 years has mostly been images of him in rapid decline. However to my great surprise, the man looks as spry as he did in the long ago days of Sliders, and he is just as energetic in his acting as ever. I did Enjoy this movie over all, the plot had holes, and there was a bit to much of a rush to make the ending resolve that the lead up feels like it was almost wasted. The effects are mostly seamless, and for the fact that this does actually almost work is why I would recommend this movie to anyone who has an afternoon to kill. If you have not seen the Mummy movies though go watch them, or some old Allen Quartermain.

"Prisoners of the Sun" starts out with an interesting premise--the idea that elements of Egyptian mythology actually represent extraterrestrial powers who may be brought back to Earth when the signs are right-- but unfortunately fails to develop this idea very well. Admittedly, some of the problems the film has are the result of a low budget, but there are dramatic weaknesses that go beyond that. First and foremost, the script is incredibly tepid, and not much of anything happens for long stretches of time. Even towards the end, when our cast of characters are on the brink of a historic discovery in the haunted catacombs of an ancient pyramid, there is little action or suspense. Naturally, since this is a film about ancient Egyptian mysticism and curses, there is an undead mummy, but despite the mummy's prominent disposition in the film's trailer it actually has only a tiny role in the story and disappears from the proceedings pretty quickly. The screenplay needed a healthy dose of adrenalin to bring the admittedly interesting plot to life, but instead there is simply a lot of unconvincing exposition from one scene to the next. As a result, even the film's relatively short running time seems to go on interminably. One the plus side, the cast is for the most part decent and capable, though regrettably the one exception is the actor playing the part of Dr. Adler, the film's hero, as he is badly miscast as a scholar and is totally unconvincing in the role. Overall, "Prisoners of the Sun" is just too uninvolving and lackluster to recommend. There was the potential to make a respectable movie, but the opportunity is never realized.

We start from an 'ancient astronaut' theory. The 'Osiris' were (plural) a group of space faring aliens who wished to overtake Earth in ancient Egypt. A cunning pharaoh put them down and imprisoned them. He locked them beneath a pyramid. This includes an elusive key. Every 5000 years, the Osiris can contact home and get re-enforcements. That time is about up again.

The key surfaces on the black market. Professors Masterton and Mendella seek to find the key and unlock the secrets. Peter Levitz gets the key first and frames Masterton for murder, so we have a good start in intrigue and conflict. Levitz is looking for treasure, Masterton is looking for knowledge, Adler replaces Mendella and does not seem up to the job at first. The ancient forces in the pyramid have their own motives. Sarah seems to have some destiny to fulfill.

The pyramid is breached by Masterton's team, which is now swollen with local representatives and members of the military. The entrance is marked with a curse, and nearby within there are dangerous insects. That, of course, is not all, and more deaths occur. Even worse, they are soon sealed in the tomb. Adler and Rohit take point on finding the path for the group. They make their way to Princess Amanphur's tomb. At the bottom of this, they apply the key.

Then the path goes on, and the real discoveries start. There is an active mummy 'guardian' in the tomb. Masterton has unannounced plans for his daughter. There are working alien artifacts deep in the tomb as the 5000 year cycle comes to an end.

Will Masterton's intentions come into fruition, or will the masterstroke of the pharaoh 5000 years before hold sway?

-----Scores-----

Cinematography: 5/10 The camera work is rather nice. The related CGI was another matter; some was OK, but other parts were just poor.

Sound: 6/10 Fairly good, but could have added more to the overall feeling of suspense or danger.

Acting: 4/10 David Charvet (Baywatch) as a PhD? Give me a break! Carmen Chaplin was moderately good.

Screenplay: 3/10 This was old, tired, recycled material with a layer of not impressive new CGI. The ending was abrupt, and the exposition of motivations was too slim.

Drawn in by the premise, appetite whetted by the opening sequences promising the possibility of a cool battle between aliens who had been here thousands of years ago and scrappy present-day humans for the domination of earth, I found myself taken ever deeper into a journey of ancient dangers, wondering mostly which character would die next and by what predictable means, although the millions of wasps was a novel idea. Too bad that death also killed any further expectation of something new in this well-traveled genre, as the wasps were duly conquered with flame-throwers that could easily have been used before the young soldier volunteered his life for the greater good of the mission. It was clear this crew of boundless treasure seekers was inept when they went in but this lowered expectations to nil.

I was still waiting for the battle to ensue when eight shots were fired from a six-shooter, ending any such possibility.

Only Emily Holmes as the clairvoyant Claire Becket who declares "I don't have a good feeling about this" (truer words have rarely been spoken) pulls off her role with some aplomb. David Charvet appears never to have left the set of Melrose Place and Carmen Chaplin almost pulls off the role of mistreated daughter descended from ancient princess but misfires, just like the romance between her and Charvet. John Rhys-Davis has, of course, been here before so he knew his lines but introduces nothing new to the role.

This would have been a good sci-fi read as a short novel. Alas, books don't get funded these days, but less than optimal films do. Listen to Emily: don't go there.

A multinational expedition discovers a lost city beneath a pyramid and the reawakened gods of ancient Egypt want to end the world. John Rhys-Davies plays Professor Hayden Masterson, the academic who believes that every 5,000 years a celestial event happens and that it's connected to the pyramids of Egypt. He's also way too driven, so he needs some balance from his co-adventurer Doug Adler (David Charvet). So yes, we have someone known for being on treasure hunts from the Indiana Jones movies and someone known for being around sand from Baywatch.

Joss Ackland also ends up being in this, as well as a psychic named Claire (Emily Holmes), Carmen Chaplin as Masterson's daughter and Michael Higgins as Peter Levitz, who blackmailed his way into this quest. There's also a dude named Adam Prime (Nick Moran) who is not a robot nor made in a lab with a sobriquet like that.

The effects look kind of good, the lasers are cool but this was made in 2006 and sat for seven years, which is never a good thing. What else? Well, Uwe Boll co-produced it. It's directed by Roger Christian, who in addition to making The Sender also directed Arcadia's video for "Election Day." It was written by Peter Atkins (Wishmaster, Hellraiser II: Hellbound) and Anthony Hickox, who directed Waxwork.

That said, this was also known as Dawn of the Mummy and there's a rumor that it was a remake of a more famous movie with that title, the video nasty Dawn of the Mummy. I think that's just wishful thinking, as while both of those movies are kind of boring in parts, at least the 1981 mummy movie has Fulci-like shambling gore driven tomb dwellers.