The Mummy is a bad remake buried under good summer flicks such as Wonder Woman.
Despite Tom Cruise leading the tale, one does not necessarily expect a critically-acclaimed or award-winning film when going in to see The Mummy — simply an entertaining, thrilling monster movie, but The Mummy fails to deliver even this.
Cruise stars in the film, his character a man who goes around searching for ancient artifacts and loot to sell on the Black Market. He then unearths the tomb of an Egyptian princess who was put to death after murdering her father, her stepmother and her baby half-brother. However, once this ancient tomb is unearthed, Princes Ahmanet is awakened, unleashing “fury” and a plan to bring the Egyptian god of death to life through Nick Morton (Cruise).
Nick, of course, isn’t having this, so he meets up with Dr. Henry Jekyll and does a lot of running, yelling and a little bit of fighting. His companion and ancient Egypt expert Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) does all of this right beside him too, except the quality of her lines are reduced to screaming “Nick!” more than half the time, unfortunately diminishing her to damsel-in-distress status and wasting the potential of a decently good character.
The Jekyll/Hyde storyline is distracting and unnecessary, leaving viewers questioning the purpose of Russell Crowe’s character(s).
From the trailer, The Mummy looks to be a scary film, or at least a little thrilling. However, after watching the movie, it appears all of the “scary” scenes were utilized in the trailer, presenting a monster movie without a scary monster. Honestly, I find the 1932 version of The Mummy to be scarier than 2017’s, even with its CGI and elaborate sets.
To be fair, The Mummy didn’t start off terribly and showed promise, with its plane crash scene actually being pretty thrilling. This was the best scene by far and gave Cruise and Wallis the ability to show off their own stunts. The Mummy was pretty fun for a while but begins to lose this quality before getting halfway through.
Its best quality was its surprising humor — quips that actually evoked a few chuckles — and its allowance in letting Cruise show off some of his own stunts, which were pretty impressive. Cruise’s starpower is clear, but even as big a star as Cruise can’t carry The Mummy to success.
The Mummy seems to be trying to do two things at once — developing both a story and also attempting to be a scary monster movie. It falters in this attempt, failing to develop either and instead giving a very lukewarm, “meh” feel.
It had potential, but in order to be successful, The Mummy needed to pick a side. It’s clearly set up for a sequel, which, honestly, probably doesn’t need to happen.
Next to Wonder Woman, the other big action film currently in theaters, The Mummy can’t compare. It’s the kind of film you watch on a rainy day at home, while Wonder Woman is the kind of film that inspires.
The Mummy is the first entry of the “Dark Universe” films, and hopefully its successors will learn from its mistakes.
Rating: 1.5/4
Photo courtesy of Universal Studios