Ever since Marvel studios turned their cinematic universe into box office gold, many other studios have tried to also cash in on this current trend. Warner Bros. started the DC universe and have also started the monsterverse with Legendary pictures, which is a shared universe of monsters such as Godzilla and King Kong.
Now, Universal has released their first movie which they are using to launch the dark universe, which will be a collection of movies starring famous Universal monsters such as the Wolfman, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and many more. Unfortunately, Universal did not get off to the best start.
Plot
The Mummy stars Tom Cruise as Nick Morton, a member of the armed forces who, during an expedition, wakes up an evil mummy (Sofia Boutella) from thousands of years ago. Morton is then chosen by the mummy for a vicious task that would lead to the destruction of mankind. Attempting to avoid the mummy at all costs, Morton and his cohorts must end the curse and save humanity from the wrath of the mummy.
Characters
The story in this movie has already been done a bunch of times, so the movie needed to provide the audience with some new, interesting characters that they could become invested with and the movie pretty much failed. The performances overall are fine but there just weren’t any characters who were interesting.
Tom Cruise is good as usual, but his character isn’t very likable. Annabelle Wallis has a very poorly written character. All she does is get in danger and give the exposition. She and Cruise also have very poor chemistry in the movie. Their romantic bond is not really believable.
Jake Johnson is pretty annoying throughout the movie. He is definitely the comic relief of the movie but most of his jokes fall flat. The only interesting characters in this movie are Russell Crowe and Sofia Boutella as the mummy.
Boutella does a pretty good job at making her character intimidating as the villain. A lot of her scenes are pretty cool. I can’t get into Crowe’s role in the movie without going into spoilers but I did like his character.
Direction
Alex Kurtzman is the director of this movie and I think he did a mostly decent job with what he had to work with. The action scenes in this movie are actually pretty well done. There’s a plane crash that is a really cool scene and a car chase in the woods that is handled pretty well. The action scenes are entertaining, to say the least.
The main issue with this movie is that the filmmakers are trying to cram too much into one movie. This movie should have just been entirely about the mummy, but the studio is trying to set up a cinematic universe, which means they have to put in a bunch of stuff to set up future movies.
The movie takes like a 30-minute gap within the plot to set up the universe and it feels very forced. The Mummy is actually really cool in this movie and it feels like she is set to the side at certain points.
Also, the ending of this movie is just plain awful. The final showdown between Cruise and Boutella is so short and what happens after the fight is really confusing. It ends very abruptly with so many questions unanswered.
Final Thoughts
The Mummy is a movie that had potential but fell flat. The story is weak, the characters are weak, and the dark universe elements feel very forced. However, some decent action scenes and a cool villain can make this an entertaining movie if you simply don’t think about anything else.
Rating: 4/10
The Review
The Mummy
The Mummy truly suffers from Universal's desire to build an entire monster universe. There are some fun, action scenes, but this movie is mostly a mess, especially from a narrative standpoint.
PROS
- Sofia Boutella as The Mummy
- Some fun action
CONS
- Overstuffed with exposition
- Too concerned about setting up other stuff
- Awkward jokes
- Narrative doesn't make a lot of sense
Review Breakdown
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The Mummy