Ah The Mummy, one of my all-time favourite movies, I remember the first time I saw the 1932 film with Boris Karloff when I was very young, scared the living daylights out of me, thank heavens for big-backed sofas!
Then many, many, years later in 1999 Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz brought The Mummy back to life (excuse the pun) on the big screen with its wit, wonderful chemistry between Fraser and Weisz, some pretty nifty CGI during the transformation scenes of Arnold Vosloo’s Mummy and not forgetting that one line that so many off would throw into conversations as much as we could, “Apparently he was having a very good time!”.
Now 18 years later (oh damn now I do feel really old!) The Mummy is back with not only a reboot of the film but also the start of the “Dark Universe“, a new world of gods and monsters that will be unleashed onto cinema screens, starting with The Mummy, all the films will be connected by a mysterious organisation known as the “Prodigium” which is led by Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe, (Nice Guys, Les Miserables) who we have been introduced to in this movie.
Tom Cruise (Oblivion, Jack Reacher), takes on the lead character in the film as Nick Morton who finds the tomb of Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella, The Kingsman: The Secret Service, Monsters: Dark Continent) and as you would expect, The Mummy is unleashed to cause mayhem and disaster!
So what we have with this new reboot of The Mummy is a movie like much of the other Tom Cruise films, it’s all out action, massive stunts, big explosions and lots of running around. Not sure that this could be classed along the lines of the 1932 film as a horror, maybe Universal weren’t sure which direction to take the movie, although there are some jumpy moments that you can see coming, but still make you miss a beat!
It’s a fun movie, Sofia Boutella was good as The Mummy, she certainly seemed to bring the character to life on the big screen and the special effects makeup looks great, not to mention the CGI as, much like Vosloo in 1999, builds up her body from a decaying mummy into Ahmanet.
I wasn’t too sure about Russell Crowe as Jekyll at first, but he did start to grow on me as I saw more of him throughout the film, it will be interesting to see him in the other movies that are on the way, such as The Invisible Man with Johnny Depp.
Overall The Mummy is a fun film, but personally, for me, it’s not as good as the 1999 film, now that had me laughing in the aisles and still has me laughing at it now, this version didn’t seem to have much chemistry between the character and they all seemed almost like throwaway characters. The special effects work well, the sound is really good and all the speakers in good effect and good music.
Let’s look at it this way, unlike Marvel who started off their MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with a brilliant movie, Iron Man, and then went from strength to strength, it may seem that Dark Universe is more like DCEU (DC Extended Universe) and it may take a couple of movies or indeed the next one before they hit the mark, much like DCEU did with Wonder Woman.
Welcome to The Dark Universe!
Movie title: The Mummy (2017)
Movie description: Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension.
Date published: June 13, 2017
Country: UK
Duration: 1h 51m
Director(s): Alex Kurtzman
Actor(s): Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis
Genre: Action, Adventure
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
