With many different Cinematic Universes saturating the movie theatres these days, such as the Disney's MCU, FOX's MCU, the DCEU, the Fast & Furious, many forget that the first ever Cinematic Universe was Universal's Classic Horror Universe. Featuring famous characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman. Now, in the very competitive film market, Universal is hoping to reboot this universe, with the new name Dark Universe, with its first entry The Mummy. Tom Cruise appears to be haveing a career renaissance, with films like Edge Of Tomorrow and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation hitting it big with fans. Can his star power help to launch this revamp of a classic Cinematic Universe?
First Thoughts
Is this an enjoyable film? Yes. Is it unique or groundbreaking? Unfortunately not. I wanted to love this film! It ranked No.9 in my Top films to look out for in 2017! But, sadly, this film seems to follow the same generic conventions that audiences would expect to find. It doesn't have anything that would make it stand out from other big blockbusters. Which is very disappointing considering it's both a Tom Cruise movie and the story is centred around an all-powerful monster. However, it is still enjoyable to watch, the action sequences are decent and the Mummy herself is fantastic.
Nick Morton/Tom Cruise
Ironically the title character takes a back seat to Tom Cruise's character, Nick Morton. And rightly so. Tom Cruise is usually a very good actor, particularly action films, as he seems to be able to elevate whatever film he's working on with both his acting and commitment to his craft. And The Mummy is no exception. He is able to entice the audience with his stunts, his humour and, of course, his charm. A great example of this in the film is Cruise's first five minutes of screen time. He shows off his use of stunts against the insurgents in Iraq, his back-and-forth with Chris (Played by Jake Johnson) and his way of talking to the Colonel Greenway (Played by Courtney B. Vance). However, much like how I thought about Will Smith in Suicide Squad, it feels like Tom Cruise is simply playing Tom Cruise. Which is a double-edged sword. Audiences may like Cruise. But it doesn't help when the studio needs this Cinematic Universe to stand out. He is still good to watch though. But I was hoping he would try and do something different with this character.
The Mummy/Sophia Boutella
Sharing the limelight with Cruise is Sophia Boutella, who plays Princess Ahmanet. A. K. A: The Mummy. And I have to say, Universal could not have picked a better actress for the role. Boutella has already proved herself physically capable of stunt work in Kingsman, and she seems to one-up herself in this film. Her acrobatics as the Mummy were amazing, and terrifying at the same time. Her escape from Prodigium, where she's climbing her chains, almost like a spider. It was chilling and very well-acted. Another great example of this is at the Abbey where she's on top of Nick and has a distinct animalistic manner to her movements. I thought it was very well-acted by Boutella. However, I was a little disappointed in how the character was written. In the end, her character could be boiled down to a creepy stalker, as Ahmanet was more or less obsessed with Nick. Now, whilst Arnold Vosloo's Mummy from the 1999 adaptation was obsessed with Rachel Weisz's character, but at least he had the whole hunting-the-men-who-opened-the-chest storyline as well. Whilst Ahmanet doesn't have this and relies heavily on stalking Tom Cruise.
Jenny Halsey/Annabelle Wallis
Perhaps the least developed part of this film is Jenny Halsey, played by Annabelle Wallis who is more or less in the film to be the exposition for the audience and Nick's love interest. Now, to Wallis's credit, she does give a good performance here. But she has next to nothing to work with! Jenny is more or less Nick's feisty love interest who, for some strange reason, appears to have some kind of competition going on with Ahmanet for Nick's affections. Compare this to Evie (Rachel Weisz) from the 1999 Adaptation, who has character development and is a lot more than just a damsel in distress and the exposition, then Jenny is an extremely watered down version of Evie.
Chris Vale/Jake Johnson
The most surprising character for me was Chris Vale, played by Jake Johnson, who was very enjoyable to watch. Johnson seems to have a knack for being a very good comic relief in high budget films, for example, his role in Jurassic World, which is really under-appreciated. However, in this film, he doesn't really have a lot of screentime. He's at the start with Nick in Iraq, where the two are able to bounce off of one another very well, he becomes enslaved to Ahmanet on the plane, causing Nick to shoot him, which is also a surprisingly comical scene, he haunts Nick again a few times, again with very humorous banter between the two, and is resurrected by Nick in the finale just so the two can run off into the sunset. I did enjoy Chris in this film, he was a very funny character. I just really wish that there was more of him.
Henry Jekyll/Edward Hyde/Russell Crowe
I'm still undecided on how I felt about Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde being in this film. On the one hand, Russell Crowe is always a delight to watch. He's clearly enjoying playing both Jekyll and Hyde in this film. And he's very good at playing both! Although, at the same time, Dr Jekyll is only in this film to set up the Dark Universe. Like Jenny Halsey, Dr Jekyll is put into the exposition role, in order to establish the expanded universe that The Mummy takes place in. And then Mr Hyde, whilst fascinating to watch felt very tacked on. I believe the character would have been better if the writers had put him before he had created the formula that made him Mr Hyde and then slowly build up to it throughout other movies in the Dark Universe. Seeing Hyde in this film felt a bit pre-mature. Also, why would Prodigium put a man with a horrible case of split-personality disorder as the head of their institute? That seems very counter-productive!
Dir. Alex Kurtzman/World-Building
Honestly, if I were Universal Studios. I would seriously re-think the decision to hire Alex Kurtzman as one of the main creative voices in building the Dark Universe. In fact, after writing The Amazing Spider-Man 2, I'm surprised he was even considered! And it's quite clear in this film that Kurtzman didn't really learn from the mistakes of that film, much like ASM2 The Mummy focuses too much on trying to set up the Dark Universe instead of trying to tell a good story. There's even a scene at the Prodigium base where Nick is looking at the artifacts that the institute has collected throughout its years and it's almost exactly like the Sinister 6 tease from ASM2. I'm really surprised no-one brought this up, either in editing or in proof-reading the script! Also, Alex Kurtzman is perhaps one of the least inspired directors I have ever seen. The setpieces in this film are pretty bland. Nothing really stands out very well. For example, the Prodigium base, a perfect excuse to be as artistic as you like with the set design, is so dull and boring, and for the first film in a franchise, you need some kind of inspired expression to make it stand out!
The Dark Universe Going Forward
So Universal's Dark Universe is definitely off to a shaky start. But is it dead in the water? Absolutely not! There are still some good elements from The Mummy that Universal should definitely expand upon, such as Jekyll & Hyde, and Prodigium can be salvaged as a concept if handled by a different creative team. But Universal has a lot of work to do if they wish to continue with this franchise. They can't just scrap the plan and go back to the drawing board like they did with Dracula Untold (2014). The next film for this universe is Bride Of Frankenstein in 2019 and will be directed by Bill Condon, who is very good at making a film visually stunning, just watch this year's Beauty and the Beast. So I would say that the Dark Universe has stumbled coming out of the gate, but it can still find its footing down the line. Hopefully with a better creative team behind the camera.
Conclusion
The Mummy is an entertaining film, it has a load of very good actors who give in some pretty decent performances. But the story and the direction really let it down. Having it look very boring, visually-speaking, and having the story worry too much about setting up the bigger universe than it is telling a good horror/action film. If you're interested in the Dark Universe and are wondering how it progresses, or if you're a Tom Cruise fan, then I would suggest seeing The Mummy. But if you're going because you loved the classic horror movies, or the previous Mummy movies from the 90's/00's then you will be disappointed in this entry.
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