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The Mummy

The Mummy: Universal’s ‘Dark Universe’ Franchise Gets Off to Underwhelming Start

  • Annabelle WallisSofia Boutella...
  • Action & AdventureScience Fiction...
  • Alex Kurtzman
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Marija Djurovic
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The Mummy: Universal’s ‘Dark Universe’ Franchise Gets Off to Underwhelming Start

Probably one of the strangest things about this latest reboot of the long-running The Mummy franchise – a film which is supposedly envisioned as the first installment in a possible ‘Dark Universe’ franchise – is to find someone like Tom Cruise taking on the lead role; how the studio managed to lure him into this ungodly mess, we will never know. The only thing that it is clear is that Universal is trying to pull all of the stops in order to draw the audiences into its newly-formed world of monsters. However, given that the story, which was last revisited on-screen back in 2008 with Tomb of the Dragon Empero, lacks some serious storytelling skills, originality and drive.

 

The Mummy follows the story of army reconnaissance sergeant, Nick Morton (Cruise looking positively adrift here), who enjoys making a bit of extra money with best friend and partner, Chris Vail (Johnson), by hunting and digging up treasures and selling them on the black market. After one of their missions goes awry, they accidentally find themselves uncovering the ancient tomb of Ahmanet; an Egyptian princess, who, after losing her royal status, ended up killing her family before making a deal with the Egyptian God of death, Set, to live forever.

With the help of anthropologist, Jenny Halsey (Wallis), Nick and Chris decide to explore their newly-found treasure that eventually leads them to Ahmanet’s sarcophagus. A series of events follows which, unfortunately, ends up freeing Ahmanet from her confinement, causing chaosall around them. With Nick now being marked as her ‘chosen one’, he soon finds himself subjected to deadly chases and confusing mind-control with Ahmanet, who is slowly regaining her power whilst commanding an army of the undead – a la The Walking Dead. Searching for answers, Nick soon reaches out to the only man who could possibly have any, Dr. Jekyll (Crowe attempting to bring some much-needed gravitas to proceedings) in order to find a way to put an end to the mess and return the princess where she belongs.

Trying, but ultimately failing, to offer a fresh new spin on the timeless monster, The Mummy’s biggest flaw comes in the form of its absolute lack of originality – ironic right? Pulling in ideas – and sometimes not very subtly so – from the previous installments of The Mummy as well as other sci-fi adventures owned by the studio, it’s amazing how much they were able to get away with.

Touching on several genres throughout, the story, as well as the film’s entire cast, seem to be at a loss as to where the story is going, with the comedic lines and timing falling awkwardly flat at every turn. The action, on the other hand is relatively solid, with Cruise once again pulling off several gravity-defying stunts. However, the story’s melodramatic leanings tend to overshadow any of the positives throughout.

 

To put it simply, The Mummy doesn’t really manage to hold up its end of the deal, thanks to an unoriginal and on-the-nose script. It will be exceptionally difficult to imagine anyone sticking around long enough to see what the franchise’s future installments have to offer.

Like This? Try

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008), The Mummy Returns (2001), Wonder Woman (2017)

360 Tip

The zero-gravity scene took sixty-four takes and was shot for two days in a falling plane.

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