The Mummy (2017)

Movie Info

That awkward time when your sorta girlfriend walks in on you with a mummy woman in a pagan ritual…

Sergeant Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and his friend Corporal Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) are always looking for treasure but finding trouble.  Using the war as a coverup for stealing valuable artifacts, Nick thinks he’s found the motherload in Iraq when he steals a map from archaeologist Jennifer Hasley (Annabelle Wallis).  Unfortunately in the Egyptian tomb, Nick has unleashed a monster in the form of Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) whose living death has cursed her and Nick at the same time.  Now, Ahmanet must find Nick to complete the transfer Set into Nick, and Nick is learns through Jennifer that a secret war is being fought against darkness led by Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe)…and he might have just become the most important piece!

Directed by Alex Kurtzman, The Mummy is an action adventure film.  The movie was marketed as the first part of Universal Pictures’ Dark Universe films (initially 2014’s Dracula Untold was considered the first but was deemed not part of the series).  The film was met with negative reviews and a lackluster performance at the box-office.  It received Razzie a Razzie for Worst Actor (Cruise) with nominations for Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actor (Crowe), Worst Supporting Actress (Sofia Boutella), Worst Remake, Ripoff or Sequel, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay.

I went into The Mummy expecting a complete heap of garbage.  With no expectations, I found The Mummy ok…not good, but ok.  I’ve never been a fan of the Mummy character, but the movie does set-up some interesting ideas.

Just don’t ask me to sing “Stars” from Les Mis…

The movie is pretty much just a standard action-adventure movie.  I thought the ’90s reboot of The Mummy with Brendan Fraser was extremely average as well, but people latched on to it for some reason.  Here you have Tom Cruise being the charming Tom Cruise while facing an evil.  The whole Prodigium investigations just felt a lot like Hellboy’s BPRD and crammed into the movie to make a franchise (along with Russell Crowe’s Mr. Hyde).  I know the plan is to expand Prodigium with glimpses of vampires and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, but it did hurt the storytelling here.

The cast is typical of an action film as well.  Tom Cruise can almost do action films in his sleep and despite attempting to make the character darker, he just comes off as Tom Cruise.  Annabelle Wallis wasn’t very distinctive as the romantic foil to Tom Cruise and Sofia Boutella didn’t get enough screentime as the mummy to really like/hate her.  Jake Johnson’s character just felt like a rip-off of Griffin Dunne’s An American Werewolf in London character.  Russell Crowe also needed more development in this film as Hyde and Jekyll (but I did find the line where he called Tom Cruise younger amusing since Tom Cruise is actually older than him despite appearances).

I’m back like Motown Philly!

The special effects were solid, but they also didn’t feel revolutionary.  The 1999 version of The Mummy helped really push computer generated special effects and gave the movie at least that aspect to the story.  Though I did like the design of the mummy, I wanted more from the movie in its special effects.

The movie is just an average action movie, but in its average action movie world, I don’t understand why it garnered so much rage.  As the start of a franchise, it isn’t that great, but I have seen worse…much worse.  I still think it is probably more entertaining than Van Helsing which tried to bring back Universal Monsters in 2004.  I don’t know that the Dark Universe will survive with such a hit at the start of the series.  Plans for The Bride of Frankenstein (the next scheduled movie) were delayed after the release of The Mummy, so it is unclear if the Dark Universe has already ended.

Related Links:

The Mummy (1932)

The Mummy (1999)