The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior

The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior follows Mathayus, a young man whose father, a renowned warrior, is killed by the jealous and power-hungry Sargon. Mathayus trains for years with the Order of the Black Scorpion, driven by the goal of avenging his father. Because Sargon commands dark magic and the favour of a death goddess, an ordinary weapon cannot defeat him, so Mathayus sets out to obtain a sword from the underworld. He is joined on the journey by Layla, a would-be warrior, the Greek writer Ari and a freed prisoner named Fong. The story serves as an origin tale for the character later known as the Scorpion King.

Russell Mulcahy directed the film, the eleventh of the fourteen features listed in his directing career in chronological order, coming between Resident Evil: Extinction and Prayers for Bobby. Randall McCormick wrote the screenplay, and Stephen Sommers, Sean Daniel and James Jacks produced. Michael Copon plays Mathayus, with Randy Couture as Sargon, Karen David as Layla, Simon Quarterman as Ari, Tom Wu as Fong and Andreas Wisniewski as Pollux among a credited cast of twenty-one. The production was mounted by Universal Pictures with The Sommers Company, ApolloMovie Beteiligungs and Film Afrika, and shot across Germany, the United States and South Africa.

Released in 2008, the film runs 109 minutes and mixes action and adventure with fantasy and science fiction. Audience response has been weak: on IMDb it holds 3.8 out of 10 from around 15,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 4.7 out of 10 from roughly 640 votes.