Review: THE MUMMY is a Fun and Adventurous Horror Film That Could've Been Better
As you know, Universal Pictures is launching a whole slew of new monster movies based on the classic monsters that the studio is famous for. They are calling it Dark Universe and it all begins with The Mummy, which is the film that is going to pretty much set the tone for the Dark Universe.
A part of me was excited to see The Mummy, the other part of me was worried that it would suck, and wouldn't live up to the greatness of the original. Well, I've seen the movie and I didn't hate it. I also didn't love it either. It just kind of fell in the middle ground of love and hate.
The Mummy is a fun and entertaining horror adventure film that I know some audiences will enjoy. Hell, some people might even love it. I felt it was more adventurous than horrific. There are some moments that may scare some people who are easily scared. I enjoy a good adventure film though, and it was that adventurous tone that I enjoyed most. There was a lot of talk and hype about the movie being scary, but I didn't see it. These are monster films and it would have been nice to have felt some kind of fear of the monsters. I guess I'm just desensitized to this kind of stuff. It takes a lot for me to get scared.
Tom Cruise was great in the film. He always manages to give a solid performance and you could tell he had a blast making this movie. He couldn't save the film from its faults though. I also enjoyed Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll. I just wish they would have handled his character a little differently because his portrayal felt forced. It seemed like he was turning into Mr. Hyde way too much, and the funny thing is, they make it seems like he's always prepared for the change, but in the end, he's not prepared at all. For example, he has this serum that he has to inject into himself with an injection gun whenever he starts to turn. But, he's always using it at the last minute! On top of that, there are these serum cartridges that he has to load the injection gun with that take time and he struggles to load it as he is turning. This happens multiple times, and for some reason, that injection gun is never pre-loaded!
Sofia Boutella was great in the role of the mummy Ahmanet. I actually enjoyed the fact that this time around the mummy was female. It added an interesting new element to the legend. The CGI used to bring her character and the other mummy monsters to life were well done, but I would have liked to see more practical effects used. CGI monsters just don't scare me.
Regardless of all the star power that this film had, and the fact that it was fun, there were a lot of elements in the movie that felt way too forced. Certain things that propelled the story forward didn't have a natural progression. Everything was rushed. It was kind of all over the place. There were lots of cool visuals to watch and enjoy, but the story lacked substance. It's hard to talk about this stuff without spoiling some of the big plot elements of the film.
I do want to point out that there were a lot of cool little callbacks to some of the horror films of the past. Other than classic The Mummy, one of the most prominent inspirations in the movie seemed to come from American Werwolf in London, which I wasn't expecting. I won't say how it's utilized in the story, but you'll see when you watch the movie.
There were a few loose ends and unanswered questions by the time the film ended. I'm sure the plan is to answer these questions as the studio moves forward with the Dark Universe films, but it would have been nice to have some closure on a few things. I didn't like the way the movie ended. There's a pretty big event that happens at the end of the movie that helps set up future films, but the movie still ends without giving us the big reveal! it just leaves us hanging.
Regardless, of the film's problems, it was still a fun ride and I think that there's an audience out there that will enjoy it. The original Mummy is still the best!
