Too Much All Wrapped Up In One – THE MUMMY (2017) Review

Have you ever watched a movie that you wanted to love so much but just couldn’t bring yourself to do it? Like you see many great ideas at play but also many terrible ideas that it becomes this mixed bag that leaves you disappointed? That’s The Mummy (2017) for me.

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After Dracula Untold, I was extremely excited for the future of a shared universe of the famous Universal Monsters all coming together for one great monster mash but then…this movie happened and shattered my dreams into pieces. One giant flop that killed the Dark Universe before it even began.

Let’s begin things with the positives.

I DON’T HATE IT

The general consensus for the movie is that it was one of the worst movies in years, rivaling movies like Batman & Robin or even The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and instantly, I will say that I do not think that at all. I find that to be a very extreme opinion about the movie as I did find myself enjoying the movie the first time I saw it though have grown to notice more and more flaws upon revisits.

A GOOD SETUP

I think this movie STARTS strong: it does a good job setting up this new mummy without it being a rehash of Imhotep from previous versions, I like that Tom Cruise’s character Nick is this selfish thief character who’s only in it for the money with room to grow thus giving him almost like a Nathan Drake feel to him, and I think his connection to Ahmanet (The Mummy) is a great idea.

AHMANET WAS A GREAT FIRST ANTAGONIST

I consider Sofia Boutella to be one of Hollywood’s most underrated badass women and this role shows what she’s capable of. From beginning to end, she is probably the best thing about the movie: Ahmanet’s a cold-hearted murdering witch who demonstrated some impressive powers, when she first rises from her sarcophagus it is genuinely creepy, and she proves to be an effective villain on her own in my opinion. She never feels like a watered down Imhotep, she is a new Mummy for this universe.

GREAT VISUALS AND FUN ACTION

I believe in credit where credit is due and I will still say that this movie was shot very well, had AMAZING set design, decent CGI, had some pretty fun chase sequences, some thrills that made me smile, and it showed lots of potential for the Dark Universe. Not nearly as well as Dracula Untold did but enough to see where it could have gone. I really liked the idea of Ahmanet reducing all the glass in London back to its original state as sand to create her sandstorms, it was something that I never would have thought of.

THE BEGINNING OF THE DARK UNIVERSE

This is more of a mixed aspect but I did like how this movie set up Nick as the next mummy who would have more than likely joined the likes of Frankenstein’s monster and The Invisible Man. Fusing him with Seth, the God of Death could have led to some great moments in a sequel or crossover and I really find it a shame that the Dark Universe was canceled. That being said…

We’re going to get into the negatives…

BIT OFF MORE THAN IT COULD CHEW

Everything involving Nick was a great set up but then you have everything else that this movie tries to cram into its first movie. So many ideas here that COULD have worked if executed differently but…ugh. Russell Crowe as Jekyll and Hyde was a great choice but the entire middle section of this movie where they basically try to shove you right smack dab in the middle of this universe proves to be just too much. The fight against Hyde was silly and unnecessary, the SHIELD-like organization of Prodigium is barely fleshed out, and this irritates me because this COULD have worked. I might do a whole post about this another time.

TONE?

Probably my biggest gripe about the movie was its tone: it had no idea if it wanted to be a dark epic, a horror-thriller, an action movie, an action-comedy, or whatever genre this movie tries to throw at you. At time it DOES manage to be effective like everything involving Ahmanet when she’s first risen and she’s all skeletal and creepy? That was cool. The chase through the forest was great! I loved the underwater segment despite my phobia of drowning.

But then you have things like Jake Johnson’s character. Oooooh boy. I love Jake Johnson but this movie used him so poorly, trying to go for this almost American Werewolf In London tribute where the ghost of the best friend is constantly coming back to taunt the friend. I got a couple chuckles but for the most part, I just found it annoying and there are other jokes they try to throw in there but they mostly fall flat except for a couple that Tom Cruise laid out that actually made me laugh.

WAY TOO FAST

The other big one is its pacing: this movie from the moment it starts moves at the same pace as a cheetah on three cases of Monster energy drink. It never takes the time to slow down and properly catch people up and even when it technically has a slow moment, they last like five minutes before ANOTHER action scene happens and we’re back to running from the mummy again. I think this movie would have benefited from another twenty or thirty minutes of runtime to give a slower but still thrilling pace.

ALEX KURTZMAN

Much like with Wally Pfister and his dreadful Transcendence movie, I think this is another case of a man who works well behind the scenes of a movie but not directly behind the camera. I like what Alex Kurtzman tends to produce but I do not think he was ready to tackle a movie THIS huge for his first big blockbuster.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, The Mummy is a movie that I still feel conflicted about due to the many good and bad aspects that it brings to the table. I really wanted to love this movie and hope that something great could come about in future Dark Universe movies but unfortunately, that universe is dead and buried. I doubt even the Book of the Amun Ra could bring it back.

I still don’t hate the movie but after all this time, I know just find the movie to be OKAY. Nothing great, just an okay adventure-thriller that could have led to great things if a better director were given the reins. I’m going to give the movie a 5.5/10.

You’re all SO SWEET for making it this far and I hope you all enjoyed this review! I write about anything geek related, especially comic book related stuff so if you want to stay up to date with all the reviews, news breakdowns, and lists I do, make sure to follow this blog or follow me on Twitter @MelodyMacReady ! Love you all!

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