Review of The Mummy (2017) by Pat M — 01 Jul 2017

I was hoping The Mummy would turn out to be one of those misjudged gems, ala John Carter, The Last Witchhunter, Edge of Tomorrow... alas, my hopes were not fulfilled. The Mummy is, unfortunately, quite the mess.

Which is a great shame, because there is actually a great movie in there, lurking beneath the surface that is the banal,and tone deaf effort put to screen. Considering the talent involved, there's no real excuse for such an error in judgement.

First and foremost in the problems - it's not the least bit scary, and when it should be, it's been undercut by earlier poor tone decisions. Some say the fault lies with Cruise - I'm not so sure.

Cruise can do dark, he can do serious, he can do menacing - I suspect (with no actual proof) that desperate Universal hired Cruise with the understanding he deliver a 'Cruise' blockbuster action film.

And Cruise has. The problem is, they should have hired Cruise to deliver an 'Interview with the Vampiresque' performance - there was certainly plenty of room for a darker, scarier, and more morally ambiguous tone to the film's plot.

I think Universal simply lacked the courage, good sense and insight necessary to make full and best use of the source material. Hopefully, they do better on Dark Universe II.