In one of the opening scenes, when we are introduced to the new love interest/wife character Evelyn O'Connell (played by Maria Bello) my first impression was "too American, flawed, terribly miscast". The thought that followed was "That hat looks ridiculous." Throughout the movie, however, I thought Bello's acting was solid, she became a more believable member of the group, but in my mind her role represented a softening of the character from the previous movies.
The one casting I can say I definitely feel they got wrong was Luke Ford as Alex O'Connell. His accent was all wrong for the culture and background of the movie, his frat boy attitude did not mesh well with his level of success in his field, and I found him to be absolutely one-dimensional.
Aside from that the only real criticism I had for the acting was how the script did not seem to emphasize the star power of Jet Li, and we actually only see him as himself for a few moments in the opening scenes of the movie. Another disappointing facet of Li's presence is the lack of the director to exploit his outstanding martial arts repertoire. In my mind, putting Li in this role and not allowing him his usual flair is like putting Madonna in a sexy 1980's drama and not allowing her to show any cleavage.
I was pleasantly surprised with the story, I felt the picture was drastically improved by highlighting some of the features of Shanghai, and I immensely enjoyed the way the Yeti was portrayed in the Himalayan scenes. Car chase scenes through Shanghai with exploding fireworks, a massive avalanche, some campy humor, a beautiful young heroin, Zi Juan played by Michelle Yeoh, and a smooth departure from the typical Egyptian mummy adventure make me give this one a B+.
And one final question I feel I should ask; Who the heck besides the creators of this movie could imagine that a gem like Zi Juan (Micelle Yeoh) could fall in love with a cardboard cut-out slug like Luke Ford? Really!
