300 Words on "The Mummy" (2017)

Over a year ago, I wrote a piece which acknowledged my excitement for 2017’s The Mummy, and wishing my best to Universal’s proposed Dark Universe – their answer to the overwhelmingly popular Marvel Cinematic Universe – The Mummy being the first chapter in this new saga. Well, I never ended up seeing The Mummy; dissuaded from doing so by the scores of negative reviews which greeted the film’s opening and now, more than a year after its premiere, I can finally offer my own take on the film which sunk the Dark Universe before it even began.

The hatred which greeted The Mummy was probably not warranted. The film isn’t that bad. In places it is a fun, cheesy B-movie. But as the spectacular, prestigious start to a franchise that Universal wanted it to be, The Mummy proves to be even more lifeless than its titular risen-from-the-dead monster. There is some artful cinematography, but The Mummy is the prime example of a film designed by committee, showcasing very little art and simply reeking of corporate greed.

In the midst of all of this is the always-welcome Tom Cruise who seems to spend the majority of the movie looking straight down the barrel of the camera in disbelieving confusion (probably unable to believe that he was actually cast in this film), and even his presence – alongside Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Russell Crowe, and Courtney B. Vance – cannot entirely salvage the film. And if the stunts which Cruise et al. perform were to be the jaw-dropping highpoints in the movie (and perhaps rival Cruise’s other death-defying spectacles of the Mission: Impossible franchise) than they surely underwhelm.

The Mummy just feels sloppy and rushed; the product of a studio desperate to throw their hat into the ring when it was obvious they were not ready. There are some decent moments to make you chuckle or jump in your seat, but they ultimately do not do enough. And just as quickly as it was born, so died Universal’s Dark Universe.