The Mummy starts well, is incredibly jumbled in direction in the second act and does its best to redeem the mess in the third act. It has some really entertaining moments scattered through out the entire film, but not enough to create a competent, coherent piece of cinema. The Mummy from the 90s, as hokey as it was, did a better job of story structure, character development and balancing out the horror/humor. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give the new one a go, as this review is just one man’s opinion, but just tame your expectations before entering this tomb.
A monster universe from Universal Studios has potential to be something great, but I’m not sure you want to start it off this way. Regardless, it has been started off and it can only go up from here.
Official Synopsis
Thought safely entombed deep beneath the desert, an ancient princess (Sofia Boutella, Star Trek Beyond, Kingsman: The Secret Service) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day. Her malevolence has grown over millennia and with it come terrors that defy human comprehension.
The Mummy isn’t a broken, unredeemable mess that critics have said it is. It certainly isn’t a great or good film by any stretch of the imagination, but it showed potential. More importantly, it shows that there is some coolness in a monster universe that could be with the likes of werewolves, vampires and maybe even Van Helsing. That is a lot of good stuff for great movies in the future.
That being said, there is no future right now, as The Mummy comes out of the gates limping. The story ultimately fails The Mummy, as the script is incredibly undeveloped in story and in the characters that reside in it. It feels rushed and focuses more on cool hints of the future, rather than what it’s trying to accomplish as a standalone. That’s not to say there aren’t bright spots in it, but connections with the antagonist and protagonist, a major driving point for the film, are far from solid.
Anyway, let’s get right into it.
Act one starts with introductions to Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), our new mummy, and how she got to where she did as the antagonist in the film. It’s a gruesome tale of a power struggle to stay the course as a future ruler of her father’s kingdom, which equaled out to her killing her father and baby brother. It’s also a tale of a pact made between her and the God of Death, Anubis, who grants her power beyond her wildest dreams. Before she can become ruler, though, she is captured, mummified alive and buried deep within the ground in a pool of mercury for all her misdeeds.
The story then shifts to the present, where we’re introduced to soldier and rare antiquity thief, Nick Morton (Tom Cruise), who ends up stumbling upon Ahmanet’s grave site with fellow thief, Chris Vail (Jake Johnson), after being in an intense firefight with insurgents. With the help of archeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis), Nick and crew discover the tomb of Ahmanent and accidentally releases her from her pool of mercury confinement. In addition to this hiccup, Nick’s partner, Chris,is injured by an ancient bug. Ahmanet’s tomb is then transported towards London to be examined by archeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis). Along the way, Chris’ bite turns into Chris’ death, which ends in the release of Ahmanet and an eventual plane crashing into the ground. This is how act one ends.
The opening, while a little bit too explain-y, is decent. Act one tends to rely on humor and a wee bit of horror to satisfy its journey to act two. It’s an okay way to start the film, but still lacks explanation in antagonist motivation to do what she did in her backstory. Simply ruling over a kingdom seems like a no-brainer for typical motivation, but the backstory also tries to force in a love story, where Ahmanet is sacrificing the love of her life, whom we have met for a period of 15-seconds (if even that long), to allow Anubis to take over his body and rule the world with her. You may think that such a piece of her background is the main focus of this flashback, as such a thing was present and fully developed in the 90s Mummy movie, but it’s completely glossed over for whatever reason. This will come back to bite the movie hard, as act two will try to force this into being the motivating factor for Ahmanet’s return. That sort of stuff can’t be glossed over.
The second act begins with Nick waking up in the morgue. Thought dead, he wakes to find a strange connection to Ahmanet, whose tomb is amongst the wreckage of the plane. The strange connection that saved Nick’s life leads him and Jenny back to the plane crash site, where they discover Ahmanet has been awoken and is feeding on crash investigators to regain her strength. From there we have a big chase scene, which ends up being the introduction to a secret organization in London that investigates the weird/wild paranormal and monster universe. This organization is led by Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe) and is tasked with ridding the world of ultimate evil everywhere, now including Ahmanet. The capture of Ahmanet lasts for about 10-15 minutes while exposition is given about the organization. In addition, Nick is nearly killed by Dr. Jekyll’s Mr. Hyde, which ultimately results in the release of Ahmanet on the world. The end of act two sets up Nick’s sole purpose for living, which is to stop Ahmanet before she brings the entire world down to its knees.
I’m not sure if filmmaker Alex Kurtzman or his screen writers were in a rush to get to act three, but they completely glossed over the importance of act two. We get no connection between Nick and Ahmanet other than explanation and weird dream sequences. The story attempts to set up a ‘lost love’ plot point, but it never comes to fruition because act one doesn’t really give you a ‘love story’ between Ahmanet and her past lover. There is nothing there in the beginning, so in the middle there is nothing to play off of to bring a solid connection between Nick and Ahmanet. Because of the lack of care with Ahmanet’s love story in act one, it’s a tough sell to convince the audience that she missed someone so much that she has a connection with Nick, who reminds her of her lost lover from ye old golden years. All we have to play off of is that she wants to rule the world and will do everything in her power to destroy it and rebuild it. She also wants to sacrifice Nick, but not really sacrifice him, which is why he is constantly being chased by Ahmanet. It’s really quite poorly developed.
In addition, we’re led to believe that some jewel on a dagger, which Ahmanet needs to successfully sacrifice Nick, is holding all of her plan together. By destroying the jewel it will somehow unravel her plan and end her reign of terror on the world. There’s a lot of disjointed and genuinely confusing pieces that are being taped together in attempt to form a coherent story that is supposed to lead you to act three. In short, act two is an undeveloped mess that is struggling to pull itself together properly.
That said, the lone bright spot of the second act is the introduction to Crowe’s Jekyll and Hyde, who is cool as hell, as well as the hint to a bigger monster universe (you see creature remains in Jekyll’s lab), which is why you’re wanting to go see The Mummy.
Anyway, as act three begins, Nick finally realizes that he must help stop Ahmanet and rid the world of her forever, or at least temporarily forever. I’ll stop right there. Act three does have some redeeming value in the final moments, as well as successfully opening the door for more monster movies from Universal Studios. It does end on a solid note and doesn’t necessarily create a hero out of Tom Cruise’s Nick, which feels proper considering the character development of Nick. I was actually quite satisfied by Cruise’s performance, as it never really crossed over to someone you depend on to save the day, a typical role for Cruise.
Act three aside, overall The Mummy starts well, is incredibly jumbled in direction in the second act and does its best to redeem the mess in the third act. It has some really entertaining moments scattered through out the entire film, but not enough to create a competent, coherent piece of cinema. The Mummy from the 90s, as hokey as it was, did a better job of story structure, character development and balancing out the horror/humor. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give the new one a go, as this review is just one man’s opinion, but just tame your expectations before entering this tomb.
On the special features side of the tracks, here’s what you should expect:
– Deleted/Extended Scenes
– Cruise & Kurtzman: A Conversation
– Rooted in Reality
– Life in Zero-G: Creating the Plane Crash
– Meet Ahmanet
– Cruise in Action
– Becoming Jekyll and Hyde
– Choreographed Chaos
– Nick Morning: In Search of a Soul
– Ahmanet Reborn (Animated Graphic Novel)
– Commentary
For a movie that had a lot of issues, I’m thoroughly impressed with the amount of quality features included on this release. The BTS stuff is incredibly impressive, especially the plane crash feature, as is the choreographed chaos. As a whole this is added value through the roof.
