Awesome Music: While this film is the least liked in the trilogy, everyone can agree that Randy Edelman's score was amazing, especially"A Call to Adventure".
Cliché Storm: Rick delivers cliché one-liners every few seconds.
"I really hate mummies!"
"Time to go!"
"Here we go again!"
Complete Monster: Qin Shi Huang, the titular Dragon Emperor, ferociously conquered China two millennia ago. Forcing his defeated enemies to build The Great Wall of China, burying thousands of the dead and exhausted within the foundation, the Emperor cursed their souls to hold up the Wall for eternity. Seeking immortality, the Emperor enlisted the help of sorceress Zi Yuan but became enraged with her for sleeping with one of his Generals and tried to kill them both before Zi Yuan's curse turned the Emperor and his armies to clay. After his resurrection, the Emperor uses Shangri-La to become immortal and announces to his terracotta warriors his intent to put the planet under his totalitarian regime.
Hilarious in Hindsight: In Hero (2002), Jet Liis trying to kill the first Emperor of China, but ultimately spares him and permits him to unite the country and create peace through conquest. In this film, he is the first Emperor of China, a Green-Eyed Monster, and said conquest is depicted as an act of great evil - and merely the first step in conquering the entire world. As an added bonus, he even sports a similar look to his character in Hero (2002).
Then he got to play the Emperor of China again in Mulan (2020), albeit a more benevolent depiction.
Questionable Casting: The adult Alex is played by Luke Ford who was 26 during filming whereas Brendan Fraser was only 39. This makes for some awkward scenes since they look more like brothers than father and son, especially because Ford looks his age while Fraser doesn't (the film takes place in 1946, 13 years after the second. Alex is thus 21 since he was 8 in the second film).
They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Some fans were quite disappointed at Rachel Weisz being replaced by Maria Bello as Evelyn O'Connell. Justified in that Weisz was just recovering from her pregnancy at the time, plus she reportedly turned down the film after a brief look through the script.
They Copied It, So It Sucks!: While trilogy never tried to hide its taking some very clear inspiration from the Indiana Jones series, the subplot where Alex needs water from the Fountain of Youth to heal a mortally-wounded Rick was felt by many to be copied just a bit too directly from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where Jones has to do much the same thing (albeit with the Holy Grail rather than the Fountain of Youth) for his own father.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: The meta-humor bit about Evy having written popular novels based on the events of the first two movies isn't carried over much to the adventure they're currently having. As this review suggested, she could have been shown preparing to write her third book on the fly, like writing down and "improving" dialogue/events.
Took the Bad Film Seriously: While Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, John Hannah and Jet Li camp it up, Michelle Yeoh plays her role with the most utmost seriousness.
Vindicated by History: A very downplayed example. While this still is the weakest of the trilogy, it did at least attempt to try something different than its predecessors, unlike the reboot which was unoriginal in every aspect.
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