*Originally written June 20th, 2017*
"Leave it buried"
The Mummy is the first entry in
Universal's 'Dark Universe' which technically started with 2014's
Dracula Untold, but due to the poor reception, they scrapped and started
again with is. Based on the critical blasting The Mummy has recieved,
I'm interested to see what happens with it, they have some interesting
cast and directors set for future films, but in all honesty, The Mummy
is very mediocre restart to the universe.
2017's The Mummy feels like a remake of Brendan Fraser's The Mummy from 1999 (that I rewatched this week), but set in the modern day. I'll be honest, I was into this for the first act or so. The opening scenes feature a baby murder (Always a plus) and Tom Cruise plays a sort of dickish Nathan Drake or Indiana Jones. He's fun and charismatic enough, but his attempts at humour are a huge miss, which is strange considering his comedic talents were shown off very well in Edge of Tomorrow.
My biggest problem with The Mummy is how convoluted and boring it gets as it goes along. It pretty much loses all its steam after a brief, but excellent plane crash (That is highlighted in all the trailers). I was reminded of World War Z, a film that started strong, but just got worse as it went on. Most of the action is just heavily-bombastic on CGI and really uninteresting.
I was surprised at Sofia Boutella's performance as The Mummy, she was actually quite intimidating and was given more to do than I expected. I really liked the design and the look of the triple eye thing. I was also surprised by the end, which went in a direction I did not expect at all.
I wish the tone had been a bit more consistent, it really is a nightmare at times. It goes from Indiana Jones like adventure, to horror to strange Austin Powers like comedy as Tom Cruise is walking naked around a morgue with random props are covering his junk. It doesn't help that none of the comedy hits either, especially Jake Johnson's comic-relief, who was irritating and brutal.
The worst part was Russell Crowe strangely enough as Dr. Jekyll, who is essentially the Nick Fury of this cinematic universe. He was fine as Dr. Jekyll, not exactly memorable, but fine, but when he becomes Mr. Hyde, do this gets terrible. He hams it up to 11 with an atrocious accent that feels so out of place in this film, it was bizzare.
It was weird to see how little The Mummy does to establish this Dark Universe. Once we got to Russell Crowe's organization, there's loads of easter eggs to the Universal Monsters, but there's no hints to future films in the series, which made it feel stand-alone at the very least. Oh, and there's a weird nod to Brendad Fraser's Mummy trilogy, which makes it canon to this universe, sort of? The film also opens with the 'Dark Universe' logo, which nearly made me throw up.
The Mummy isn't as horrible as the critics made it out to be, but for the most part it is pretty dull, bland and forgettable despite Tom Cruise's game performance and a solid opening act.
5/10 Dans
The Mummy is out now in cinemas in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
Follow us:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews, @DanBremner96 and @ArronRoke91
Instagram: @DanBremner96 and @ArronRoke
YouTube: Figment Reviews
Letterboxd: Dan and Arron
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2017's The Mummy feels like a remake of Brendan Fraser's The Mummy from 1999 (that I rewatched this week), but set in the modern day. I'll be honest, I was into this for the first act or so. The opening scenes feature a baby murder (Always a plus) and Tom Cruise plays a sort of dickish Nathan Drake or Indiana Jones. He's fun and charismatic enough, but his attempts at humour are a huge miss, which is strange considering his comedic talents were shown off very well in Edge of Tomorrow.
My biggest problem with The Mummy is how convoluted and boring it gets as it goes along. It pretty much loses all its steam after a brief, but excellent plane crash (That is highlighted in all the trailers). I was reminded of World War Z, a film that started strong, but just got worse as it went on. Most of the action is just heavily-bombastic on CGI and really uninteresting.
I was surprised at Sofia Boutella's performance as The Mummy, she was actually quite intimidating and was given more to do than I expected. I really liked the design and the look of the triple eye thing. I was also surprised by the end, which went in a direction I did not expect at all.
I wish the tone had been a bit more consistent, it really is a nightmare at times. It goes from Indiana Jones like adventure, to horror to strange Austin Powers like comedy as Tom Cruise is walking naked around a morgue with random props are covering his junk. It doesn't help that none of the comedy hits either, especially Jake Johnson's comic-relief, who was irritating and brutal.
The worst part was Russell Crowe strangely enough as Dr. Jekyll, who is essentially the Nick Fury of this cinematic universe. He was fine as Dr. Jekyll, not exactly memorable, but fine, but when he becomes Mr. Hyde, do this gets terrible. He hams it up to 11 with an atrocious accent that feels so out of place in this film, it was bizzare.
It was weird to see how little The Mummy does to establish this Dark Universe. Once we got to Russell Crowe's organization, there's loads of easter eggs to the Universal Monsters, but there's no hints to future films in the series, which made it feel stand-alone at the very least. Oh, and there's a weird nod to Brendad Fraser's Mummy trilogy, which makes it canon to this universe, sort of? The film also opens with the 'Dark Universe' logo, which nearly made me throw up.
The Mummy isn't as horrible as the critics made it out to be, but for the most part it is pretty dull, bland and forgettable despite Tom Cruise's game performance and a solid opening act.
5/10 Dans
The Mummy is out now in cinemas in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
Follow us:
Twitter: @FigmentReviews, @DanBremner96 and @ArronRoke91
Instagram: @DanBremner96 and @ArronRoke
YouTube: Figment Reviews
Letterboxd: Dan and Arron
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