The Mummy is not a great film, but it's not that bad
My mother spent the majority of her career in education as a school librarian. As a result, I spent many an afternoon perusing the books in her library as she worked after school. She is an excellent librarian and her collection contained many a volume—anything an elementary student might want to know.
One particular genre, classified by the unparalleled Dewey Decimal System, could be found in the 700’s under sports, games, and entertainment. On her shelves were a series of books that told the stories of movie monsters, specifically those under the Universal umbrella, with names like The Wolfman, Frankenstein, Dracula, and my personal favorite, The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
I never had cable growing up, so I was never treated to these films on the small screen, but because of my many hours in my mother’s library, I learned about them all the same. I knew the names Bela Legosi and Boris Karloff at a time when most of my friends were more concerned with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Kevin Costner.
Even though I had never seen the films themselves, I found the look and style of the characters to be fascinating and terrifying and beautiful.
The cyclical nature of Hollywood means that everything will reappear at one point or another. No film is safe, it seems, from a reboot or a remake. The same is now true of these classic Universal films.
With this year’s release of The Mummy (itself a reboot of a Brendan Fraser triology from the late ‘90s/early 2000’s), Universal is cashing on the cinematic universe a la Marvel and DC. Their so-called Dark Universe will feature the classic monster movies in an updated environment, ripe for the very best in CGI uncanny valley style animation, existing together for what one can only hope will be eternal movies in the monster vs. monster genre.
The Mummy is sitting at a whopping 17 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is to be expected for the type of movie it is. Many of the aggregate critics are understandably harsh on the film.
Is The Mummy a great cinematic masterpiece? Not at all. Have any of the various Mummy films been great cinematic masterpieces? Absolutely not. Is this version of The Mummy any worse than the others? Not really.
2017’s The Mummy tells a coherent story about an ancient evil and does so with a few laughs and very few chills. It’s not a great movie, but it’s not a bad one either.
This film begins with the tale of Princess Ahmanet, who was destined to rule Egypt until her younger brother was born. Not content to give up her birthright to a whiny little brat, Ahmanet made a pact with the Egyptian god Set to give him physical form in exchange for a kingdom.
The pact gives her enough superpowers to murder her father, his wife, and their baby but she’s unable to overcome his guards and is mummified alive and buried far away from Egypt in an underground tomb, guarded by statues and covered in a pool of mercury, which supposedly wards off evil spirits.
Cut to modern times, a pair of mercenaries (Tom Cruise and Jake Johnson) looking to loot modern day Iraq under the guise of a government contract inadvertently open the tomb with the help of a cruise missile.
Another young researcher (Annabelle Wallis) immediately recognizes the significance of the find and the sarcophagus is removed for transportation to London, when the evil within begins to take control.
Obviously, this film is not breaking any new ground. Nor is it retreading old ground effectively. Tom Cruise is miscast for the part, calling back to Brendan Fraser style humor but not selling it anywhere near as effectively, and he lacks a certain amount of chemistry with the leading lady, both living and dead.
But if you can overlook certain things, the story itself is interesting and fun. In particular, the secret society that exists to combat evil being led by a barely contained Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe) helps establish a universe that there is bound to contain at least a few good ideas. There is potential in the Dark Universe, even if it’s not fully realized in The Mummy.
I can say, without hesitation, that there is at least an audience of one for these films. I’d like to see more. Even with the negative reviews, The Mummy looks to be moderately successful at the box office, which means I’ll likely get my wish.
Next up: The Bride of Frankenstein. We’ll have to see where it goes from there.