A soldier accidentally unearths an ancient Egyptian princess
who rises from the dead to bring about a powerful curse. ACTION/FANTASY
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The Mummy (2017) |
When Universal Pictures first announced their plans for a Dark Universe featuring reboots of all their classic monster movies, I just about fell out of my seat. I never thought I'd see Dracula, Frankenstein, the Invisible Man, and the rest of the gang on the big screen together. The universe's debut film? Another Mummy reboot. Ok, sure. The star? Tom Cruise. Wait, what? Of course they finally lost me when they decided to abandon the horror roots of the franchise and go for a more family-friendly action tone. This blatant disregard for the value of horror in Hollywood is one of the main reasons why the third version of The Mummy sucks something awful. In all the producer-driven chaos, the film has no clue what genre it wants to be or what story it wants to tell. In the end, it's practically nothing.
Tom Cruise stars as soldier/treasure hunter Nick Morton, a protagonist with zero charisma or skill for that matter who just seems to be around because Tom Cruise was the biggest name they could get. He unleashes the ancient Princess Ahmanet, a mummy who made a pact with the god of death and never fulfilled her side of it, making her undead for all time. Unlike the original Karloff and the Fraser classic, there are no clear rules for bringing the dead back to life. Also, there is hardly any semblance of a plan. I feel like Universal was so focused on future films that they forgot to finish this one. The film's best parts are nods to other movies, mostly due to Russell Crowe's charming and fun performance as Dr. Henry Jekyll and his brief but memorable turn as the evil Mr. Edward Hyde. Apart from him, there's nothing else holding this film together. I just hope to God that Cruise doesn't end up being this franchise's Van Helsing. Provided this film is successful enough to introduce the rest of the Dark Universe, there needs to be a great deal more focus put on making the next movie better. This franchise has some incredible potential and I don't want it wasted on crap movies like this. We've got Javier Bardem on track to play Frankenstein's Monster and Johnny Depp in the bag to play the Invisible Man. I want so badly to see these films. But this one has to work first. And I just don't see that happening. |