Review of The Mummy (2017) by Teddy F — 27 Jun 2017

Not as bad as the critics say, The Mummy is still a flawed movie that will most likely be forgotten by summer's end. Distributed by Universal, starring Tom Cruise, and related to the 1999 classic, 'The Mummy', there was reason to believe this film could be a lot of fun...and it is to an extent. The first hour (rough estimate) of the movie is the most exciting bit, with lots of action right off the bat and several jump scares to add to the suspense; it wasn't until the movie had to start giving some answers that it started to lose me. In this part, the film tries to introduce us to this new extended universe called the Dark Universe and is where the movie starts to stray away from the main plot and becomes more interested in giving us hints or Easter eggs of what we can look forward to seeing in future movies. This twenty-minute sequence felt forced, unnecessary and ended up slowly taking me out of the film; luckily, it wasn't that long. From there the movie got back on track, with grand visual effects and a constant questioning of what would happen next, helping it regain some of its momentum. The ending, however, was a bit confusing, tangling itself in multiple knots and I figure they'll try to better explain it in the next film. Throughout the story, there is a variety of tones presented, including attempts at humor, intense action, and eeriness. 'The Mummy' never ends up mastering any of these tones but it doesn't entirely fail at any of them either. Overall, the plot was fine but nothing spectacular.

Tom Cruise is solid, playing a slightly different role than we're used to but his character still worked for me. His character, Nick Morton, was actually one of the things I felt really worked for 'The Mummy'. Nick Morton had a selfish, adventurous spirit and although not the friendliest of guys, he is still someone we can root for. Annabelle Wallis does a capable job while playing Jenny, an archeologist that ends up teaming up with Tom Cruise. Some felt that her character was nothing more than a damsel in distress and was quite shallow for a modern day female lead. Personally, I felt that wasn't true, because even though she didn't do much physically, she provided much to the expedition with her expertise regarding ancient Egypt, providing knowledge to the team and if anything, was the responsible one of the bunch. Jake Johnson provides comic relief to the film, nothing more and Sofia Boutella does an exceptional job as the evil Egyptian princess Ahmanet, creating a convincing antagonist who is just as good at gaining your sympathy as she is losing it. Russell Crowe is a great actor but he did feel slightly miscast as Dr.Jeckl/Mr.Hyde, but that could've just been the fact that the only time he was in the film was during the scenes I said felt forced. Maybe in the next Dark Universe chapter, his character will fit in more with the rest of the film and I'll get to appreciate Mr. Crowe more.

All in all, I would say "The Mummy" is a relatively enjoyable summer blockbuster but isn't anything new and there is no need to rush to the theaters to see it.