DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Recent DVD/Video Releases
65
Adoration
42
Aliens in the Attic
56
American Violet
44
Answer Man, The
82
Anvil! The Story of Anvil![]()
54
Bruno
55
Casi Divas
63
Cheri
83
Drag Me to Hell![]()
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
76
Every Little Step
70
Fados
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
74
Humpday
32
I Love You, Beth Cooper
50
Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
81
Il Divo![]()
54
Is Anybody There?
32
Land of the Lost
74
Lemon Tree
40
Limits of Control, The
43
Love 'N Dancing
63
Medicine for Melancholy
34
My Life in Ruins
51
My Sister's Keeper
48
Not Forgotten
76
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
50
Nothing Like the Holidays
26
Objective, The
42
Orphan
78
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
48
Proposal, The
39
Spread
83
Star Trek![]()
55
Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, The
72
Thirst
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
66
Unmistaken Child
88
Up![]()
45
Whatever Works
34
Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Scorpion King, The
EMAILPRINTMCA/Universal Pictures

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 30 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 32 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
David Hayter
William Osborne
Stephen Sommers (also story)
Jonathan Hales (story)
Directed by: Chuck Russell
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 19, 2002
DVD: October 1, 2002
Running Time: 85 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence and some sensuality
Starring Dwayne Johnson (The Rock), Steven Brand, Kelly Hu, Michael Clarke Duncan, Grant Heslov, Peter Facinelli, Ralph Moeller, and Sherri Howard
Inspired by the legendary Egyptian warrior this prequel to the opening sequence of "The Mummy Returns" is set 5,000 years ago in the notorious city of Gomorrah.
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Like every other action movie, it's designed for a 14-year-old boy's mentality, but it's enjoyable enough to turn most people into 14-year-old boys.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
The Scorpion King, so far from perfect it isn't funny, is nevertheless one of those movies that catches you up in something bigger than yourself, namely, an archetypal desire to enjoy good trash every now and then.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
Rouses excitement mostly from stuntwork and thesp agility rather than CGI excess.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
Director Chuck Russell ("The Mask") keeps the computer effects to a minimum, emphasizing instead the essential ingredients of a Saturday-afternoon serial, namely, venom-tipped arrows, pissed-off cobras and a buxom babe.
Read Full Review >New Times (L.A.) Luke Y. Thompson
Chuck Russell doesn't make masterpieces -- he makes good B movies ("The Mask," "The Blob"), and The Scorpion King more than ably meets those standards.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Has been fine-tuned for adolescent boys, from the hectic pace right down to the way Cassandra's breasts are always barely draped.
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Here is a movie that embraces its goofiness like a Get Out of Jail Free card.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Ted Shen
Within the limitations of the genre, the film succeeds fairly well, with enough giddy sophomoric humor, stunning fights, titillating sex, and exotic sets and costumes to keep an audience entertained.
Read Full Review >Film Threat David Grove
The film is dumb, formulaic, the other actors are scarcely worth mentioning, and the plot is merely an excuse to set up the action scenes. But it didnt bore me; The Rock is ceaselessly entertaining.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
The movie itself is a live-action cartoon, a fast-moving and cheerfully simplistic 88 minutes of exaggerated action put together with the preteen boy in mind.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
The Rock manages to play both with a crude candor more genuine than the entertaining if contrived spectacle around him, and a surprising big-screen charisma and ease that makes him a natural-born screen hero.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
Isn't incompetent; it's just plodding and obvious. If anything holds it together, it's The Rock's ironic ability to tread lightly, which the movie is neither fast nor inventive enough to recognize as different from the spirit of Arnold.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
For a movie with such a misplaced sense of history, The Scorpion King seems afraid to have more fun with its own stupidity.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
The good news about The Scorpion King is that The Rock turns out to be a charismatic, ingratiating screen presence.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
It is possible to make an engaging action/adventure picture of this sort, but The Scorpion King isn't it. The movie isn't godawful, but it's far from inspired, and, as I sat through its 90 minute running length, I found my mind wandering.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
Prototypical summer-movie fare, designed to be consumed, enjoyed, and forgotten all at once.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
It's impossible to overstate how deeply dumb all of this is, but it skims along at a brisk clip and manages not to overdo the nudge-nudge, wink-wink humor.
Read Full Review >USA Today Mike Clark
Of course, The Rock looks the part, though with a headband and buckskin, he'd also look like Tonto on steroids.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
A dumb movie, but it's also a knowing one: a cheap castle of lewd trivia and corny excitement built on The Rock.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The Rock isn't always comfortable delivering dialogue. He's handsome, physically sculpted and farther along dramatically than Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Conan the Barbarian," but he's still learning the simple acting skills an action hero needs.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The style here is much more in the spirit of the smash and slash of the Conan movies than the banter and computer-generated monsters of the Mummy movies.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Predictably dumber than its predecessors, though that shouldn't get in the way of its profitability.
Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
Plays like Abbott and Costello Meet Conan the Barbarian.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Bang-bang, kiss-kiss, yawn-yawn. While dull death metal churns on the soundtrack, Johnson engages in one big brawl after another.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
Ultimately undone by its sheer busyness. The screenwriters never get the story to settle down, and it becomes a case of one damn thing after another.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ed Park
Director Chuck Russell lacks the visual panache, the comic touch, and perhaps the budget of Sommers's title-bout features, which refined a historically grounded B-movie sensibility into pure, gasp-inducing entertainment.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Dan Via
The movie doesn't stink exactly, but it comes dispiritingly close.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Unfortunately, Scorpion King has none of the qualities -- epic sweep, relative originality and heartfelt bloodthirstiness -- that made "Conan" so trashily entertaining.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
For all the swords 'n' sandals hoodoo that makes up the wilting backbone of Jonathan Hale's script, the Rock is, nevertheless, fun to keep an eye on.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
As this chaotic barrage of muscle flexing, swordplay, fireballs, crude digital effects and comic-book quips hurls itself off the screen, it's like having several garbage cans clogged with stale pizza, lukewarm cola, soggy French fries and greasy, ketchup-stained napkins emptied over your head.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.5 (out of 10) based on 32 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Kevin J. gave it a10:
I liked this movie
Jared C. gave it a0:
For me, this is a huge letdown. It didn't give the point nor reason why they call it The Scorpian King. It just is, because it mentions it in The Mummy movies and as a joke one time in this. But really, the writing is fine but things aren't as expected in this movie, the acting by the Rock is horrible, his acting here will give him roles in the future that are almost so bad, that its corny. But the movie is nothing more than a wrestler in a story with cheeze.
[Anonymous] gave it a0:
Whenever someone asks me what the worst film is that I've ever seen my only answer is 'The Scorpion King'. I do not really remember that much (luckily) but I do know that this film was darn boring and I would not recommend this film to anybody. I also think The Rock is one of the worst actors around.
Sam gave it a6:
The real problem with this prequel is in the mummy returns. If it had set a far more interesting and detailed background for the Scorpion King, it would've been really good. Since it didn't you just don't care.
Cassie A. gave it a 9:
Compared to other movies I have seen (and I mean BAD) This one was pretty dang good. The Rock was HOT! The storyline was pretty dang entertaining. Sure it wasn't historcally correct (according to some reviews) but who watches movies to learn someting on a Friday night?! COME ON!!
[Anonymous] gave it a 10:
The rock is sooo fit!!! great movie, cool action scenes. hope they make a sequel.
Le critical gave it a 6:
Now i know that this movie doesent take much grey matter to watch, however, it was very entertaining to me for some reason. it made me feel like a kid again. although the humore was dry, i found the dvd commentary by the rock hillarious. check it out.
