Verdict
Summary
The Mummy isn’t a terrible film and I thought there were some impressive action scenes at times with a few interesting ideas but it is ultimately not as good as the cheesy but fun 1999 movie or even the Boris Karloff classic.
Plot: Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) is a soldier of fortune who plunders ancient sites for timeless artifacts and sells them to the highest bidder. When Nick and his partner come under attack in the Middle East, the ensuing battle accidentally unearths Ahmanet, a betrayed Egyptian princess who was entombed under the desert for thousands of years. With her powers constantly evolving, Morton must now stop the resurrected monster as she embarks on a furious rampage through the streets of London.
Review: When I first heard they were doing another reboot of The Mummy I couldn’t help but ask why. The 1999 re-imagining with Brendan Fraser and co. is still fresh in our minds and frankly still holds up as a massively enjoyable Indiana Jones-style adventure flick. The same will not be said for this reboot starring Tom Cruise whose only decent movies recently have been the Mission: Impossible series.
Reviews for this movie have been pretty harsh but I understand where they are coming from as it all feels a bit thrown together unsure whether it’s a horror or action flick. It surprisingly lacks the sense of scale and exciting set-pieces that the Fraser movie had and although it tries to do something different there is little you will remember after watching.
Cruise is always watchable on-screen and his dedication to action is laudable; obviously the biggest sequence in the movie is the zero G plane crash with Cruise and the cast being thrown around as the plane hurtles towards the ground. That and the fight between Crowe and Cruise are the only real stand-out moments for me. I love watching Russell Crowe in anything and seeing him tackle a character like Jekyll & Hyde is a lot of fun; in fact, they should have made the movie about him. Also, I think it would have been cool seeing as they are trying to create this universe (like everyone else these days) then they should have introduced Van Helsing and have him try to put a team together for a big threat that’s coming.
I liked seeing a female Mummy in Sofia Boutella but she wasn’t particularly threatening and like the rest of film never really created a sense of dread. The ads describe her character as Ruthless. Cunning. Evil. Yeah, she really didn’t get to display much of that and I thought Imhotep was a far more interesting antagonist from the previous movies.
There are a few nice Easter Eggs in this Mummy though which connects it to the previous movies; it’s just a shame it doesn’t really establish its own identity mostly due to the unlikable supporting cast. I couldn’t stand Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) who was just an annoying smart arse and then you’ve got Nick Morton’s friend Chris Vale (Jake Johnson) who was also annoying and particularity loud for the first half hour.
Jerry Goldsmith’s score to the 1999 Mummy is still a bit of a classic hearkening back to the epic serials of old but Brian Tyler’s new score is disappointingly bland.
It was all a bit too darkly lit at times and I like these movies to be set more in the desert rather than cloudy London.
Overall, The Mummy isn’t a terrible film but it is a flawed start to the Dark Universe and I understand why people aren’t loving it. I thought there were some impressive action scenes at times and a few interesting ideas but it is ultimately not as good as the cheesy but fun 1999 movie or even the Boris Karloff classic.