So what's so important with this film you're asking? Well when I came this film on the Sci-Fi Channel two familiar names appeared that got me by surprise which compelled me to watch this film despite how average it is. And those two names are Morena Baccarin and Adam Baldwin; YEP two of the main casts from Firefly are in this film. Considered your mind blown folks.
The film starts off with two flashbacks but they're a bit lengthy so I'm gonna summarize them down. Back in ancient Egypt an evil demi-god Im-La-Ra terrorizes villages and towns. Egyptian mystics use a ritual to imprisoned Im-La-Ra in an Anubis statue and to be sure it remains imprison the amulet of Ra which was use in the ritual was to be bury from the light of day. Continuing the flashback, we cut to the Guadalupe Sand Dunes of central California in 1923 where the filming of The Ten Commandments is finished and Director Cecil B. de Mille orders for the set to be torn down and buried. Because apparently there's been unexplained accidents on the film set and that Mr. de Mille believes that one of the antiquities may have lay a curse and that burying the film set made keep the curse at bay. Everybody got that? While the set is being torn down a young boy John Tevis comes across the amulet of Ra and buries it along with some personal items in a "time capsule". Cut to present day we John Tevis (played by George Kennedy) now as an old man who is with his grandson Mark (played by Victor Webster) at the Guadalupe Sand Dunes searching for his time capsule. We cut to a motel room where Jayne...I MEAN...Jesse Carter (played by Adam Baldwin) gives a private "archaeological tutoring" with a female college student. Oh please, Jayne an archaeologist....well maybe in finding bullets in the people he shot. We cut to a dig site of the de Mille film set where we're introduced to Inara...I MEAN...Alice Carter (played by Morena Baccarin) who is the professor in charge of the dig site and soon to be ex-wife of Jayne...AH...Jesse DAMN IT. Mark and John arrived at the dig site persuades Alice to let them on the site to look for the time capsule. Since John is the last person alive who knows about the film site she agrees. A little bit later Mark and John found the time capsule and right after that the ground beneath John collapse and ends hanging upside down in a chamber. In the chamber we see the statue where Im-La-Ra is imprisoned comes to life and attacks John, his arm gets ripped off before getting pulled out of the hole. Losing too much blood, John slowly dies. After Mark and Alice grief for the loss of his grandfather, she explains that the tides will soon come flooding in washing away the film set in the process. So Alice is brought in to safely move the entire film set within two weeks. This coincidently is right up Marks alley because back when he was a solider in Iraq, he was in charge of moving people and equipment in a short time. This somehow impresses Inara...DAMN IT...Alice so much she hires him as a coordinator. Shortly thereafter....JESSE arrives to the site and he and Alice have what I can describe is a Mal Inara deja-vu scene. Soon after that the digging crew found the film set and I'm not kidding Alice makes a Raiders of the Lost Ark reference with "I was digging in the wrong place after all". As the crew try to dig up the set further the driver of a bulldozer starts seeing scorpions swarming all around him and unknowingly has the bulldozer moving towards the crew. Getting closer and closer, the bulldozer hits one of the crew-members chopping the poor guy's head off.
We cut to nighttime at the dig site where another one of Alice's crew is killed this time by Im-La-Ra. The following day Mark, and Alice, and Jesse go inside the film set to investigate until they're attacked by Im-La-Ra; it goes after Alice but she's protected by the amulet and Im-La-Ra runs off. Later in the film set the trio continues investigating and...hey guys remember that dog-head creature thing you just saw not that long ago. Not gonna question what it was or anything? Anyway they discovered a chamber where the creature was is not part of the film set but a prison to the creature. We cut to Jesse a team reconstruct the prison until he notices one of Alice's crew-member chanting in Egyptian and follows her. He spots her getting killed instantly by Im-La-Ra. Mark and Alice stop at a studio archive to learn more about the film set; they've learned that the film crew shipped some artifacts to the film set via smugglers and grave-robbers. Furthermore these artifacts were discovered at a pyramid which possess negative energy and that the chamber they've unearthed was commissioned by de Mille to contain the negative energy from the artifacts. Everybody got that? Back at the site Jesse spots another crew-member getting killed by Im-La-Ra; instead of going all Jayne and kick its ass he gets choked by it. At a motel Mark and Alice are looking through some old until Jesse now mentally gone bye bye arrives at the motel demanding for the amulet. Apparently Im-La-Ra send him to destroy the amulet and it'll let him live. Im-La-Ra arrives at the motel and three got out; Mark decides to stop by at a war buddy's place and gear up to kick ass. But of course Jesse follows them and takes Alice hostage; oh Jayne what would Mal think of this. Jesse makes his escape with Alice via dune buggy and Mark follows in pursuit. Mark catches up to Jesse and jumps on to the buggy; the two fight until Mark throws him off the buggy. Mark and Alice drive off as Im-La-Ra isn't far behind and kills Jesse; bye Jayne there'll be a service held in Jaynestown. Mark and Alice arrive at the reconstructed chamber but unfortunately Mark dropped the amulet and Im-La-Ra obtains it. They retreat to the chamber and apparently it keeps Im-La-Ra out for now. And here's where things take a turn for the silly; Im-La-Ra summons the wall paintings in the chamber to kill Mark and Alice. Let me repeat that Im-La-Ra summons the wall paintings in the chamber to kill Mark and Alice. So Mark fights the wall paintings as Alice gets the rocket launcher and some grenades from the buggy. The ends with Mark armed with the rocket launcher kills Im-La Ra and he and Alice get together in the end.
My Final Verdict: I'll be honest right now this film is silly, the exposition feels from loopy to meeting half way with the rest of the film. I've watched this film solely to see two familiar cast members from Firefly just playing off each other so well it's crazy. Adam Baldwin appears to be having fun in this film especially when he goes to his crazy Jayne mode in the end. The special effects here are for the most part sub-par that's saying for some films you've seen on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Next time we're looking into The Speed of Thought and trust me it's not as exciting as the title claims to be.
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