"Mummy", 2017 - Review

Some of you might have already heard about negative reception the last “Mummy” movie has gained after touring in cinemas throughout the world just recently. Normally I don’t listen to the critics and like to form my own opinion of the film, which is why I chose to go to the movies disregarding all the reviews I’ve checked prior to that.
And I have to say that I didn’t at all expected it to repeat the events of the 1999’s film, moreover I’d rather it had not, and just to be fair, it didn’t. Because, you know, nothing can overdo the “Mummy” version of 1999!

So let’s start with a plot and basic information. I’ll leave out the spoilers for those who haven’t yet seen it.

“Mummy” has been premiered this summer and was directed by Alex Kurtzman. He’s got both successful cinema works and some quite disappointing. A lot of directors do. Personally I like what he did with “Now you see me” and “Ender’s game”.
The main cast is presented by Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Russel Crowe, Jake Johnson and Sofia Bouttela.

In the opening scenes we find out the pre-history of the female mummy that’s been hidden in the tomb somewhere under the sands in 1127 A.D. A crew of “treasure hunters” plus archeologist find this tomb in present days and try to deliver it safely to London but something goes entirely wrong and instead of putting the mummy for historical and lab research, they’re being hunted by this mummy that’s suddenly come to life and now is led by some supernatural force. Well, that pretty much covers it.

Now to the specifics that made my eyes tick.

Sorry, this pic doesn't belong here, but it's quite relevant because that's how I looked as the movie progressed minute by minute.

The main issue I had with watching the film is not catching on to the “essence” of the villain. It would have been more entertaining if the mummy wasn’t pictured plain evil just because she’s EVIL.

The creators totally missed the point of the whole reboot by not granting the mummy some humanity at least in the flashbacks where and when she’d been a regular mortal. Without it the mummy feels empty. Funny thing to say about someone already dead, ain’t it… Do you remember how vibrant Imhotep was in “Mummy” of 1999? Whatever he did was for the sake of his loved one. He wanted to bring Anck-Su-Namun back to life, regardless of the means, so that they can be together forever, the world came second. His love made him look more human than he actually was and at the end we’ve even felt a little bit sad for their love story to have been unfulfilled. Only a perfect script can make you sympathize with the villain.

Or a mental dysfunction… I don’t know, whatever works for you I guess)))

By the way about the EMPTY. As much as the villain is empty in “Mummy” of 2017, to my greatest disappointment, the same goes for the live characters in the film. Even Nick Morton who’s played by Tom Cruise invests nothing as a character so I can’t truthfully feel for him when he’s in this mess trying to save his and others’ lives.

I’m going to reveal some things further but I don’t consider them spoilers cause they don’t really affect the plot and are just random things that fell out of place due to different reasons.

In the beginning Nick Morton is in the middle of the war in Iraq with his body and apparently he’s after something very different than weapons or strategies of the opponent. And then when an archeologist Jenny Halsey appears and claims that he’s a treasure hunter we understand the roots of his venture. Somehow the aging 50-something man with red face – that would be Tom Cruise – robbed this very attractive young lady of the work of her life while having seduced her into the hot night with him. This happened in the early beginning of the film and it already set it the wrong way for me.

I don’t mind the romance element in the film, it’s just that the chemistry is not really there. The heroin of Annabelle Wallis is a beautiful, sexy and young woman, and Tom Cruise despite all the extracurricular activities, namely Scientology, is still Tom Cruise and one of the skillful actors in Hollywood. I don’t hate on them in the least. But there’s a huge gap let on in the script concerning their relationships. I’d rather not see any romantic hints in the film if they’re presented so poorly with lack of a class. Anytime that happened in this film I was instantly reminded of how fluent and natural it was coming from the 99’s movie, Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz as the leads, I mentally facepalmed.

Another thing that set me off is that they fit so many action scenes into one movie that in all this constant movement they didn't really give a chance for the heroes to develop or be something more than faces to the audience.

After seeing the movie, I’ve read a little information about it, just curious as to what brought so many events forcefully pushed into one movie. Because it did feel like they tried to compile a lot of different stuff into this one piece. Then having found out that with this reboot the creators planned to launch a whole “Dark Universe” film series I finally caught on to what they were trying to do. I won’t say much about it but you’ll be wondering the same thing after seeing the movie and stumbling upon some unexpected characters.

I feel like after all the negative things I said I should add something positive about the “Mummy”. And I do have a few moments I did like.

First of all, the double iris of the mummy eyes is impressive. I want to believe it’s something they came on their own.

Another thing I liked is seeing Jake Johnson in this film. His character is amusing and a slight deviation from all the horrors and dissapointments happening around. It’s even greater when he’s changed into another condition, if you have no idea what I’m talking about then let’s leave it at that.

Visual effects are not much different from those in the 1999 film, but they’re no poorer too, so I consider them passable.

If I stretch my mind I may probably pull out some other moments I found good or tolerable but I’d rather you find them on your own.

All in all, this film is alright to see once but I would never ever want to see it again. Once was pretty much enough for me. I am almost sure that I wouldn’t have lost anything if I hadn’t seen it at all.
My only hope is that if they eventually go for the “Dark Universe” film series, they would substantially improve or they shouldn’t even do it.

Thank you for reading my post and I wish you more good movies!

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