Like the terra-cotta warriors who come to life in "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," the movie is big, noisy, in your face ... and pretty much hollow.

Although it boasts some nifty effects and international names -- Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh -- the third installment of the series again begs comparisons to "Indiana Jones," which was back on screen in May to critical and box office success.

But Indy's Harrison Ford doesn't play second fiddle to the effects, the way stars Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello (taking over from Rachel Weisz, down to the dark hair and London accent), Luke Ford and John Hannah do here.

It's 1946 and former legionnaire Rick O'Connell (Fraser) and his librarian-turned-author wife, Evelyn (Bello), are leading a quiet, mind-numbingly boring life in the English countryside. Rick tries to teach himself fly fishing and Evelyn writes best-sellers that are thinly veiled accounts of the couple's once breathless adventures.

---

'The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'

2 stars = Mediocre
Ratings explained

• Starring: Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, Jet Li.
• Rating: PG-13 for action adventure and violence.
• Web site: themummy.com

---

When the O'Connells are asked to return an artifact to China, they jump at the chance and head for the Shanghai nightclub called Imhotep's, run by Evelyn's brother, Jonathan (Hannah).

That's where they bump into their college-age son, Alex (Ford), a budding archaeologist who has discovered the tomb of the Dragon Emperor along with terra-cotta soldiers and horses. "It's only the greatest find since King Tut," he boasts.

Two thousand years ago, the power-mad emperor (Li) had been turned into a frozen figure after double-crossing a sorceress (Yeoh) who had promised him the secret to immortality.

Before you can say historical hocus-pocus, the emperor is brought back to life and the O'Connells have joined forces with others to stop him and his legions, awakened from their eternal slumber, too.

Rob Cohen takes over the directing chores on this installment, written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, and it bears all the manic marks of his action pictures "The Fast and the Furious" and "XXX."

It's been seven years since the release of "The Mummy Returns" and the effects have improved exponentially, which allows movies to lean on them at the expense of the characters. In this case, the effects mean armies of skeletons and clay-washed warriors expertly come to life.

"The Mummy" isn't the first movie to replace one actress with another; "The Dark Knight" did the same with Katie Holmes and Maggie Gyllenhaal. But it's a little weird to see the O'Connells' son so grown up -- and acting like he just joined the family, despite some father-son jousting about weapon size and strength.

The one-liners, a hallmark of movies such as this, either fall flat or produce smiles rather than actual laughs. As in "I hate mummies, they never play fair," or a gag about a yak that yacks.

"The Mummy" may be the largest production ever to shoot in China but it pales when compared to some of the summer standouts such as "The Dark Knight" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."

Fraser plays Rick as if he were a comic-book character -- wide-eyed, muscled, an all-around good guy -- but he's in a franchise that is trying to take itself more seriously. I miss the shambling mummies of old, but those are as dead and buried as the laborers who built the Great Wall of China.