YMMV / The Scorpion King

• And You Thought It Would Fail: Many expected a film featuring the Rock would fail. When the first film came out, it became a financial success and kickstarted Dwayne Johnson's acting career.
• Awesome Music: Godsmack's I Stand Alone and Mushroomhead's Along The Way
  • John Debney's score is a delightful blend of good old adventure symphonics with adrenaline-pumping rock guitars and drums.
• Cliché Storm: The first film in particular is an unapologetic barbarian film pastiche, likely in order to better serve as a vehicle to the ex-pro wrestler Johnson and his physical traits.
• Complete Monster:
  • First film: Memnon is the king of an invading horde of warriors from the east who kidnapped the sorceress, Cassandra, to use her foreseeing ability to enact a brutal campaign across the land. Leaving countless settlements in flames, Memnon would have all within slaughtered, even if they surrendered. Developing an unhealthy obsession with Cassandra, Memnon intends to take her for himself when his acts of conquest are complete. When Mathayus attempts to assassinate him, Memnon forces him to watch as he slits Mathayus's brother's throat and leaves him to be devoured by killer ants. With Mathayus escaping with Cassandra, Memnon intends on having his armies wipe out the remaining tribes to claim Cassandra for himself and impose the "order" he craves.
  • Rise of a Warrior: Sargon, king of Akkad, uses black magic to kill Mathayus's father with scorpions, and then runs a horrific regime where people are killed just for speech he dislikes. When Mathayus infiltrates his guard to kill him, Sargon tries to force Mathayus to kill his own brother Noah to test his loyalty and uses Black Magic to kill Noah when Mathayus refuses. Seeking more dark power from the goddess Astarte, Sargon attempts to massacre all of Akkad by burning the people alive while he attempts to kill Mathayus personally.
  • Battle for Redemption: Talus is the wicked, cruel brother of King Horus who seeks the Book of the Dead to make an army big enough to invade his brother's kingdom. He invades the East, killing and pillaging along the way, burning down a village during his conquest which forces the bystanders to take refuge in the jungles. Talus rips off the ear of an officer, then kills a messenger for bringing him bad news. During his invasion of King Remusan's castle, Talus uses a catapult to burn enemy soldiers alive on the battlefield then badly injuries the king himself to the point of him dying of his wounds. Talus would summon undead warriors with the Book of the Dead and has them kill his own soldiers to demonstrate their powers before ordering them to mercilessly kill all of the refugees and Silda's clan. During his escape from Mathayus, Talus causes an explosion, not caring if his men get caught in it as a result.
  • The Book of Souls: Nebserek, fancying himself a new God-King, finds the Fang of Anubis and sweeps a cleansing fire over the world. Killing countless people, Nebserek reaps their souls with the Fang to consign to eternal, screaming agony while growing stronger with the souls he claims. Intending on finding Mathayus to wipe out the last Akkadian, Nebserek orders Amina, the Book of Souls, burnt alive while he intends to make sport of Mathayus before claiming his soul as well, all in revenge for the Akkadians having forced the God-King to have once "lived as a jackal".
  • Rise of the Akkadian: Magus is an Evil Sorcerer who infiltrates Khemet, murdering its lord and an innocent concubine to draw in Mathayus so he may use the Akkadian to find the Sword of Osiris. Magus attempts to exterminate the Akkadian people with his armies, manipulating Mathayus the entire time until he reveals himself after kidnapping Mathayus's brothers for sacrifices. Upon summoning Set, Magus plans to annihilate the world of the living itself to reign over the land of the dead.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Balthazar and Cassandra from the first film.
  • Magus from Rise of the Akkadian, thanks to the fact that Billy West voiced him.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The first movie works fine on its own without The Mummy movies or the sequels/prequels being considered, which the creators themselves believe.
• First Installment Wins: The first installment is the most well-known and regarded of the series.
• Fridge Brilliance: The reason why the barbarian chieftain said all these different nationalities of Mesopotamia and Mesopotamians is that he isn't bright.
• Older Than They Think: The first film is a giant throwback to Conan the Barbarian, 1982 movie in particular. Bare-chested, manly, ripped hero? Check. Thief sidekick? Check. A villain that murdered the hero's people? Check. A hero who's dying of poison and must be saved by a dangerous magic ritual? Check.
• Signature Song: I Stand Alone.
• Special Effects Failure: In Rise of the Akkadian, Apep's mouth doesn't move when he talks.
  • Michael Clarke Duncan's facial scars are so poorly attached you can actually see the glue.
  • When Memnon's men chase Mathyus into the cave during a sandstorm, they enter completely clean. Shown walking in the storm, Thorak isn't even squinting from the flying sand.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: Two video game tie-ins were released; Rise of the Akkadian for the GameCube and PlayStation 2 (which acts as a prequel to the film) and Sword of Osiris for the Game Boy Advance (which acts as a sequel to it). While Rise of the Akkadian was panned for being a bland and repetitive beat 'em up, Sword of Osiris actually got some praise for being a pretty solid little side-scrolling action/platformer. Considering it was developed by WayForward Technologies, who are well known for putting serious effort into even their licensed output, this isn't too surprising.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • So Rise of a Warrior gets Randy Couture as the Big Bad for an entry in a series that is known for having some pretty awesome melee fight scenes. The final battle should be pretty cool, with him being a hell of a UFC fighter and all. So what do they do? Have his character transform into an animated giant invisible CG scorpion.
  • The third film has perennial badass Ron Perlman as the heroic king who has hired Mathyus to help him, but has a grand total of three scenes, only one of which shows him kicking any ass. Similarly, Mathyus and the film's Big Bad—who admittedly has been pretty non-action-y for most of the movie—have a climactic chariot race instead of any kind of sword fight.

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