'MUMMY' SEQUEL COMES UNDONE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

If ``The Mummy'' was a cut-rate, cornball version of ``Raiders of the Lost Ark,'' then ``The Mummy Returns'' is the series' ``Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom'' - louder, dumber and more wearisome, with a cute kid in peril thrown in for good measure (and good demographics).

Everything about this movie seems to have been constructed with 8- to 14-year-old boys in mind. Start with the battalions of bugs - spiders, beetles, scorpions and the like - move on to a couple of bare-midriffed fighting babes, then blow up lots of stuff and toss in the WWF's biggest cartoon superhero, the Rock, and you've got a movie formulated to get every boy's heart and hormones pumping.

For anyone else who likes action-adventure stories told with a measure of wit, style and (God help us) restraint, ``The Mummy Returns'' is likely to leave a pounding sensation - not in the heart, but in the head. The movie suffers from an ailment common to most sequels: In the desire to somehow top the achievements (however slight, in this case) of the first movie, the filmmakers cram in an overabundance of plot and special effects and, in the process, lose the guileless sense of fun that made the original worth watching.

``The Mummy Returns'' is set in 1933, eight years after the action ended in the first film. Anthropological adventurers Rick (Brendan Frasier) and Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) are now married and have a cute little 8-year-old son, Alex (Freddie Boath). Another treasure hunt in the pyramids sets the family on a collision coarse with their old friend Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), the 3,000-year-old mummy intent on ruling the world and exacting revenge for his defeat in the first film.

Imhotep isn't the movie's only villain. (Remember: A sequel isn't a sequel unless it has more of everything.) There's also the Scorpion King (Dwayne ``the Rock'' Johnson), who appears in the movie's action-packed prologue and then vanishes until he returns in mutated form in the final moments. The Scorpion King, like Imhotep, is another ancient warrior banished to the sands, awaiting a second shot at world domination.

There are plenty of other characters from the first movie: the dissipated, wisecracking Jonathan (John Hannah), the mystical desert warrior Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) and Patricia Velazquez's warrior babe, who, in the spirit of ``Charlie's Angels'' and ``Crouching Tiger,'' gets into some past-life cat fights with Weisz. Boath's plucky Indy Jr. character enjoys ample screen time, too, and isn't as cloying as he could have been.

The target audience will probably be wowed by Industrial Light & Magic's special effects show, but there's the sense that ILM either didn't have enough time or enough money to get the job done right. The ancient battle scenes fail to transport you to a different time and place, and the climactic showdown between Rick, Imhotep and the mutant Scorpion King looks like it belongs in a video game, not a movie.

But then, the video game will probably be cross-promoted in stores soon, which, in turn, will herald the next ``Mummy'' movie, a prequel featuring the Rock's Scorpion King character. Undoubtedly, adolescent boys everywhere will be ready to rumble.

``THE MUMMY RETURNS''

(Rated PG-13: for adventure action and violence)

The stars: Brendan Frasier, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Freddie Boath, the Rock, Patricia Velazquez, Oded Fehr.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Stephen Sommers. Released by Universal Pictures.

Running time: Two hours, nine minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two stars

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Ancient warrior Imhotep gets involved in a face-off, so to speak, in ``The Mummy Returns.''