The Mummy (2017)

Last year saw the start and swift end of the Dark Universe franchise. 'What was that?' I hear you cry! It was Hollywood trying create a new franchise with The Mummy, Dracula, Frankenstein and all the others with individual films and then somehow tie them all together. It all started, and ended, with the Tom Cruise action(?) adventure flick The Mummy from 2017 where as an eager explorer he unknowingly unleashes an ancient mummy on London.

Some time ago I reviewed the 1950s Victorian-set version and found a lot to enjoy. It was simple, not all that scary but well made and acted. Cruise's version almost acts as a remake but with a modern twist that starts with some promise. Working alongside the military, Cruise is scanning endangered archeological sites in Iraq for hidden riches and stumbles across a hidden tomb that holds Sofia Boutella's mummy. As with the 1950s version, the sarcophagus is sent to the UK but the plane carrying it crash lands and all hell breaks loose. Enter Russell Crowe's Dr. Henry Jekyll with a plan and here we start to see the foundations for a franchise that never came to be.

What really hurts The Mummy is that it doesn't know if it's a horror thriller or a summer action flick. The thrills are very few and action, while entertaining, doesn't suit the tone director Alex Kurtzman seemed to be aiming for. Looking at his credentials, he unfortunately appears as another pawn for the producers to control so that they could have their money making franchise. Tom Cruise still comes off okay but having the film be a vehicle for his star power ultimately makes for a tonally confused experience.

However, I did enjoy the adventure aspects of The Mummy while I was watching. Visually it looks good and the cast, particularly Boutella, do their best with the material they have, but once the credits roll and you think about the film the next day, it does start to fall apart. On iMDB it looks like the franchise is still going ahead and I would like to see more retellings of these famous characters, but I think a different approach would be needed.