John Berton Jr., the visual effects supervisor on The Mummy Returns has spoken about the notoriously bad CGI used to create the computer-generated version of Dwayne Johnson’s Scorpion King. The sequel to the 1999 hit starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, The Mummy Returns reunited the original cast for a new adventure which saw them embark on a quest to Ahm Shere to locate the army of the Scorpion King and defeat the resurrected mummy Imhotep. Despite receiving mixed reviews, the film grossed over $435 million in worldwide box office and its impressive opening weekend is recorded as the second highest opening weekend of the time.
The Mummy Returns would also serve as the theatrical debut of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, effectively kickstarting his impressive acting career and helping to launch him as one of the most popular actors of the modern era. The film would also serve to set up a prequel, 2002’s The Scorpion King, in which Johnson was able to return to the role of Mathayus of Akkad and headline his own feature film. Unfortunately, however, the special effects used in The Mummy Returns to create Johnson’s monstrous character would not stand the test of time and have since been the source of much ridicule from fans.
In a recent episode of VFX Artists React to Bad & Great CGI from Corridor Crew on YouTube, Berton Jr. was quizzed about his work on the film and what he jokingly refers to as “the worst visual FX shot in the history of ever”. Suggesting that the VFX team did not have the benefit of working with accurate references of Johnson’s face, he willingly admits “there are a bunch of shots that are not looking great”. Check out Berton Jr.’s comments below:
It was a dark day in my life, when I went on the internet Google said ‘Hey check this out, here’s an interesting thing you might be interested in: the worst visual FX shot in the history of ever. And I’m like ‘But wait, that’s the Scorpion King, should I watch that video?’. But I watched it and I felt bad…
The biggest thing about the Scorpion King in this movie is that we didn’t have the reference that we needed. This isn’t really an excuse, but it’s an explanation of the way things work in movies sometimes. We asked for that of course, we needed a day with Dwayne Johnson to photograph his face and eye detail and all the stuff you would do. Because he was busy with his incredible WWE career that was not possible. We had him for like 3 days maybe in Morocco to shoot his scenes…
I think if you had all that stuff, the animation would work better because it’s meant to be a little cartoony here and I think that informed our decisions about whether or not the shots were done and ready for the movie was that there was an expectation at the time of this needing to reach a certain level. The thing is with this sequence is there are a bunch of shots that are not looking great, but there are a bunch of shots that are looking great…
When you have something like this, you always have to get past the butthurtedness of it and think about what you learned, and I knew we needed reference but we couldn’t get it.
Knowing that The Mummy Returns visual effects team was working without the benefit of more detailed references for Johnson’s face goes a long way to helping put the finished product in perspective. Ultimately, however, the CGI’s less than stellar attempts to recreate Johnson’s face did not seem to have a detrimental effect on the film’s box office performance at the time. It also did not prevent Johnson from moving on to bigger and better things or the franchise from returning for a third outing in 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.
As for Johnson, he is undoubtedly becoming far more familiar with the labor-intensive processes behind creating photorealistic CGI, with the actor having recently shared many behind-the-scenes looks at his VFX preparations for his role in DC’s Black Adam. Without the benefit of the film industry’s earlier forays into creating CGI characters like the Scorpion King in The Mummy Returns, those kinds of processes would not have had those necessary first mistakes to learn from. With any luck, this knowledge may also prompt fans and detractors to consider Johnson’s first film in a new light.
Source: Corridor Crew