The Mummy (2017)

Movie: The Mummy

Starring: Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, and Russell Crowe

Rating: PG-13 (for violence, action and scary images, and partial nudity)

Release Date: June 9, 2017

Review:

Two Stars; Average

The poster above proclaims, “Welcome to a new world of Gods and Monsters.” Therein lies the problem with Alex Kurtzman's The Mummy. The picture doesn’t deliver on what its title promises; it’s barely about “the mummy.” It sacrifices narrative and character for world-building and the development of a franchise. Unfortunately, Universal isn't the first studio to encounter this issue; Warner Brother's Batman vs Superman was highly criticized for doing the same. With The Mummy, however, Universal brings the most disappointment. The Karloff and Lugosi monster movies are some of the most iconic pictures ever to grace the silver screen. To botch the revival of such classics is nearly unforgivable.

That's not to say that Mummy is a bad film, necessarily. It's not. Beginning with Russell Crowe's Henry Jekyll narrating the legend of the evil Egyptian princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), the movie quickly turns its focus to Nick (Tom Cruise) and Vail (Jake Johnson), two American soldiers in Iraq with a tendency to steal historic treasures. Upon the discovery of Ahmanet's tomb, Jenny (Annabelle Wallis), a British archaeologist and adventurer, convinces Nick and Vail’s military commander to tote Ahmanet’s sarcophagus back to London, where it can be studied and analyzed. Of course, by removing Ahmanet’s body from her tomb, Nick is cursed to become a physical vessel for the Egyptian god of evil.

Where the film falls apart is when audiences are introduced to Dr. Jekyll's secret society for containing & destroying evil. The dialogue becomes so basic; things begin to be spelled out for the audience in almost comic book-like fashion, as characters do little more than speak their thoughts out loud. Ahmanet, the mummy for whom the movie is named, becomes little more than a secondary character, while Jekyll and Hyde move to the forefront. And then there's the actors themselves, who appear so bored with the characters and script that it's near impossible for the audience to feel engaged. Cruise in particular, who's Nick is possessed by Ahmanet for what must be close to 50% of the movie, is incredibly one dimensional and stiff, turning in a performance worthy of the Twilight Saga.

With that said, where The Mummy shines, it shines bright. Several scenes involve top-notch action by Cruise, particularly early in the movie, when a flock of ravens bring down the plane carrying Ahmanet’s mummified remains. Additionally, Sofia Boutella is haunting as Ahmanet, making her absence from the second half that much more apparent.

Overall, The Mummy is just fine. While it could've (should’ve) been better, it doesn't deserve to be slaughtered by critics as it has been. Still, it's hard not to hope that the next tale in Universal's "Dark Universe" corrects the issues of this one. Building a franchise doesn't require every single detail across multiple movies to connect. It does however, require that the director is given the autonomy necessary to create a film that can hold the audience's interest.