Say what you will about The Scorpion King, but you can’t deny The Rock’s charm. He’s just oozing with it from head to toe, or, from eyebrow to (rock) bottom.

For a better actor, this movie would have been an embarrassment. And if the movie took itself seriously, it would have been painful to watch. But, it’s self-aware enough to know it’s bad, and so eschews any attempt at being profound or genuine.

The whole thing is a wink, a nudge and a raised eyebrow to the audience. The Rock delivers his first line – “Boo!” – with a smile on his face, staring right at the camera.

From that moment on, Rock plays the omnicompetent good guy – it’s what he’s best at, and just what the audience expects him to do. And if you weren’t beaten over the head with it already, in one scene, he chooses to save a kid instead of killing the bad guy.

The Scorpion King never lets you forget that you’re watching The Rock and not really the Scorpion King (by way of absurd explanation they have him hit by venom-tipped arrow). That’s why he can flash a wry smile at the camera; that’s why he doesn’t need to be a great – or even good – actor; that’s why he can give the “people’s eyebrow”; and that’s why he could’ve been anything – a lion king, an ostrich king, a dragon king – because the character was just a long-haired, thinly veiled caricature of The Rock himself.

By far the most entertaining wink to the audience was when Kelly Hu stumbled upon The Rock suggestively polishing his large, large sword. Throughout, this brand of super-masculinity is too ridiculous to ever be taken seriously. At one point, he enters an enemy tent proclaiming, “I’ve come for the woman…and your head.” Lady killer and bad guy killer, The Rock is one of those protagonists who can magically fight off 43 attackers with a few strategic kicks.

The movie’s liberally sprinkled with humorous self-reflexivity. And yes, it’s awful, but that’s what makes it entertaining.