The Mummy

Director - Alex Kurtzman (Alias, People Like Us)
Starring - Tom Cruise (Interview with the Vampire, Days of Thunder), Annabelle Wallis (Annabelle, X-Men: First Class), and Sofia Boutella (Star Trek Beyond, Monsters: Dark Continent)
Release Date - 2017
Genre - Horror/Action
Tagline - "Welcome to a new world of Gods and monsters"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I was born in 86 and love everything 80s but I am a product of my youth and I grew up in the 90s.  I was in middle school when horror took over my life which is around the time I discovered the Universal monster movies along with their remake of The Mummy starring Brendan Frasier.  I loved those films and was somewhat obsessed with them.  I can even remember the small MTV video parody with Snoop Dogg.  The films were so cheesy and fun.  When Universal announced another remake and the announcement of the Dark Universe I was excited to say the least.  Then, the news of Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe broke out and disappointed me.  I'm not one of those guys that bitched that Brendan Fraser wasn't cast in the same role but I didn't expect much from Cruise.  The film hit theaters and horror fans bashed it in everyway imaginable so I decided to skip it.  Recently, an opportunity arose where I could review the film and I went ahead and checked it out.  Glad I did.

     The film follows two treasure hunters who accidentally uncover the final resting place of a mummified princess who had made a pact with a powerful god.  She kills her father and his newborn son in order to claim the throne but is caught.  They mummify her alive and take her far from Egypt to be buried.  Once she is freed she sets back in motion her plan to take over the world and set a powerful Egyptian god loose in modern day London.

     I mostly review indie flicks made on shoestring budgets but I do enjoy a good popcorn flick.  I can look passed the plot holes, jump scares, and horrible CGI.  To me, most of these theatrical releases are nothing more than mindless entertainment.  The Mummy is no different.  It was far from perfect but I enjoyed it in that aspect.  I didn't care for the acting.  I don't mind Tom Cruise.  Hell, I grew up watching his movies likes Interview with the Vampire and Days of Thunder.  He's a great actor but he just didn't fit the role here very well.  His character is extremely flat and very unlikable which is the opposite of the previous mummy films.  In the first Mummy film released by Universal in 1932 followed a very charming Boris Karloff who comes across almost as a hero to the viewer.  The first remake of The Mummy, released in 1999, once again gave the viewer a very likable character portrayed by Brendan Fraser.  Cruise is unable to pull this off.  Sadly, there is no strong characters in the film including Sofia Boutella who portrays Ahmanet the mummy.  All the characters are visibly weak which makes the film not feel as dangerous as the previous installments.  The story for this one is all over the place and borrows from several other films in the genre, as well as, tosses in a few references from previous films.  This time The Mummy follows a female who did something unspeakable and is caught.  This was a great change that could have been so much more but the film was so hung up on her being a female that they forgot to finishing writing the story.  I really enjoyed the expandable universe with Dr. Jekyll making an appearance.  Sadly, it is overshadowed by the lack of action and suspense.  The film has no climax nor does it come across as feeling dire.  It establishes Tom Cruise as a god before the film's ending and would serve as a great character establishment for something much bigger but clocking in just a little less than 2 hours is overkill considering.  Story has some serious problems.  With that being said, I really enjoyed the little nod to An American Werewolf in London where we have the dead comrade help the main character through his supernatural ordeal. Finally, the film is full of practical and visual effects.  Some of the visual effects were good but considering the film's budget they could have been so much better.  The visual effects are very noticeable and most could have been done more effectively with practical effects.  Here is a 2017 film starring Tom Cruise and the visual effects are dated.  There film has several on screen kills but they are mostly anticlimactic and lackluster to say the least.  Overall, The Mummy is far, far from perfect but it is still a film that would be entertaining in a theater with friends or on your couch with a six pack.  I know the film is bad, bad in many different ways, but I still had fun with it.  Take my review, much like the film, with a grain of salt and check it out yourself.