10 Movie Sequels That Pointlessly Took Away Things Fans Loved

1. Rachel Weisz As Evelyn - The Mummy: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor

The failure of the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy reboot merely reminded everyone how much breezy fun the first two Brendan Fraser-starring Mummy movies were.

They weren't high-art by any means, and The Mummy Returns foisted that unforgettable CGI abomination of The Scorpion King (Dwayne Johnson) upon audiences, but they knew exactly what they were and delivered accordingly.

The films were also defined by their supporting cast, especially Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep and Rachel Weisz as Rick O'Connell's (Fraser) love interest Evelyn Carnahan.

Weisz brought some much-needed feminine charm to the first two films through her remarkable chemistry with Fraser in particular, so fans were hugely disappointed when it was revealed that she wouldn't be returning for 2008's threequel, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor.

Given that Weisz won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2006, this could've simply been down to the actress wanting to distance herself from a hokey blockbuster role, except it later emerged that the production made it rather unappealing for Weisz to return.

Weisz was ultimately replaced by Maria Bello - a great actress, but a bad fit for Evelyn - and it was eventually confirmed by director Rob Cohen that the 37-year-old (at the time) Weisz wasn't thrilled about the idea of playing mother to a 21-year-old.

Rick and Evelyn's son Alex did of course appear previously in The Mummy Returns, though the character was significantly aged-up for the threequel, seeming to imply that Evelyn had given birth to him when she was incredibly young.

Considering that Alex's age had virtually no bearing on the film's plot, would it have killed the production to just...age Alex down a bit and keep their star happy? Instead, they pressed forward, and the world was deprived of another Fraser-Weisz re-pairing. Boo.