Explorer Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) returns to stop a Chinese mummy bent on world domination in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. (Universal Pictures)While no one would mistake The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor for the best movie of summer 2008, it might’ve gone down as a treat in the summer of 1938. Back then, audiences had a great appetite for this adventure movie’s long-gone kin. Unafraid to revel in their own clichés, these tales of derring-do were stuffed silly with ancient curses, exotic locales, exciting chases, lengthy swordfights, imperious villains and characters who invariably shouted things like “Time to open the sarcophagus!” and “Avalanche!”

Steven Spielberg and George Lucas famously reintroduced the genre to modern-day audiences in 1981 with Raiders of the Lost Ark, which became a blockbuster. But the good-humoured nostalgia and spirit of fun that were in scarcer supply in the Raiders sequels — including this summer’s bloated and inert Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — are in far more abundant supply here. Yes, it’s crap, but it’s very enjoyable and very cheeky crap, and its lightness proves especially welcome in a summer that’s otherwise been dominated by downer blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Hancock.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is the latest instalment in the franchise that pits Brendan Fraser and his cohorts against mouldy armies of the undead. The series began nine years ago when Universal Studios retooled The Mummy, one of its most beloved Boris Karloff creature features of the 1930s, as a family-friendly vehicle for the perennially plucky Fraser. Since then, it has enjoyed a modest amount of success compared to the superhero franchises of X-Men and Batman, so viewers may wonder how and why the series spawned a third movie. (Actually, it’s the fourth if you count The Scorpion King, a 2002 spinoff for the character played by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in 2001’s The Mummy Returns, and the fifth if you count that film’s Rock-less straight-to-video sequel.)

The dreaded Han Emperor (Jet Li) makes for a formidable opponent in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. (Universal Pictures)Indeed, the cast members seem just as surprised to be brought out of retirement. As the story begins in 1946, foreign legionnaire turned mummy hunter Rick O’Connell (Fraser) is doing his best to adjust to a quieter sort of life with wife and fellow adventuress Evelyn (Maria Bello, taking over the role from Rachel Weisz). Meanwhile, their son, Alex (Luke Ford), has gone into the family business of discovering mummified remains at archeological digs, only to stir up a heap of trouble instead. The family unit converges in China after Alex makes his first big find: the resting place of a ruthless Chinese emperor (Jet Li) whose quest for immortality was scuppered by one of those old-fashioned curse thingies. When a nationalist general (Anthony Wong) succeeds in reviving the emperor, the O’Connells must act fast to prevent the mummy from fully restoring his own powers and from raising his similarly ancient army.

This new quest takes them to Shangri-La, the mystical place that was famously introduced to movie audiences in Frank Capra’s 1937 hit Lost Horizon. One of the most endearing virtues of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is that it, too, seems aware of its many movie precedents — a smattering that includes not just those '30s adventure serials or the post-Raiders wave of imitations but more recent Asian action hits. The presence of Jet Li is not the only thing the new movie shares with Zhang Yimou’s Hero (2002), which also told of a ruthless emperor who sought to rule over China. Though the now 45-year-old martial arts star doesn’t move as well as he used to, Li still gives his all in the movie’s better set pieces. The same goes for another icon of Asian action cinema, Michelle Yeoh. She appears here as the immortal witch who originally hexed the emperor and who fights to keep him dead.

Rick (Brendan Fraser, centre right) and Evelyn O'Connell (Maria Bello) battle a horde of the undead. (Universal Pictures)One of the few contemporary stars who has the eager physicality and easy charm for this sort of swashbuckler role, Fraser is similarly appealing. He clearly relishes both the many displays of manly prowess and the moments of knowingly corny humour. Also returning to the fray is John Hannah as Jonathan, the sort of sarcastic, scaredy-cat sidekick every hero needs to have around. (As if being chased by mummies for the third time weren’t hassle enough, here he suffers the indignity of being covered in yak vomit.) With her wavering English accent, Bello has more trouble carrying off her role, but she, too, displays the right degree of brio.

The same goes for another newcomer, director Rob Cohen. Besides keeping the pacing brisk, he wisely relies less heavily on the CGI effects that now make the first two Mummy movies look even hokier than many of their 1930s antecedents. There’s little likelihood that viewers will be revisiting The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor seven decades from now, but it succeeds amply as the kind of cheerful, escapist fare that’s become an oddly rare commodity in today’s Hollywood. Really, it had me at the yeti attack.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor opens Aug. 1.

Jason Anderson is a writer based in Toronto.