The Mummy (2017) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjHgzkQM2Sg

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Starting over with a familiar formula is always a gamble because you can either cook something special or burn something horribly. In their efforts to reboot the classic monsters of the ‘Dark Universe’, Universal Pictures ended up doing the latter with 2017’s The Mummy.


PLOT


The film begins in Ancient Egypt following the story Princess Ahmanet. When her pharaoh father bares a son that blocks her from inherited the throne, she makes a deal with the deity Set, the God of Death. Given demonic powers and a ceremonial dagger, she kills her family and gets mummified by priests after getting caught. The story’s present starts in 21st century Iraq where US Army Staff Sergeant Nick Morton & Corporal Chris Vail find her tomb and intend to bring it to Britain as treasure, unintentionally waking her up. Archaeologist Jennifer Halsey comes with them since Nick stole a map from her after an affair they had, hoping to find antiquities to sell in the black market, much like he intends to with Ahmanet’s tomb. Chris gets possessed by the mummy princess via spider bite, kill his superior officer Colonel Greenway (Courtney B Vance) and tries killing everyone on the plane to Britain until Nick has to shoot him down. Terror only gets worse when a flock of crows attack the plane and cause it to crash when getting sucked into the engines. Nick does save Jenny by having her take the last parachute and surprisingly, he survives the crash unscathed. When he wakes up in a morgue in Britain, he sees Chris’ spirit speak to him, warning him he is cursed to be Set’s vessel. Ahmanet does escape from her sarcophagus and starts feeding on people to regenerate her body, zombifying them in the process. She does try to stab Nick with the dagger when she finds him roaming around the crash site hoping to believe he’s only hallucinating, but she hesitates due to not having a signature ruby that can complete the possession of Swt. She chases him and Jenny until being captured by soldiers led by Henry Jekyll who actually was the one who sent the latter to find the dagger. Doctor Jekyll takes Nick & Jenny to his quarters where he reveals to Morton he’s an agent of a secret society dubbed ‘Prodigium’, meant to hunt supernatural threats. When seeing how much control Ahmanet has over him, he intends to allow Set to control him in order to render the deity vulnerable. Nick does not find comfort and tries to leave until facing Jekyll's dark personality, Edward Hyde. He fights him long enough to give him the sedative that regains Jekyll control. Ahmanet eventually breaks free and as she regains the ruby at London Underground, she summons a sandstorm in London and summons more zombies. Vail’s spirit would guide Nick & Jenny to London Underground to evade the storm, but the mummy princess ultimately finds them and drowns the latter. Nick does try breaking the ruby and actually cracks it, but hesitates when Ahmanet reveals he can reverse death. So he would instead stab himself and allow Set to control his body. However, he has enough control to extract the mummy’s life force and resurrect Jenny. Knowing Prodigium will pursue him, he chooses to vanish before being found. Once Ahmanet’s body is restored in her sarcophagus, Jenny and Doctor Jekyll do wonder if NIck could ever have enough control to use his powers for good. As they remain unsure, the film ends in a cliffhanger with Morton embarking on a search for a cure with a resurrected Vail by his side. 


THOUGHTS


At the time of its release, I was onboard with this reboot because shared universe franchises were becoming a trend thanks to the MCU making a big payoff in the 21st century. Warner Bros’ DC Extended Unvierse was a decisive one in comparison, but Legendary’s Monsterverse has become quite solid over the years so that was enough for me to be prepared that this wouldn’t be a perfect joy ride. Needless to say, this was far from good and was just plain bad which left me in big disappointment. I still surprise myself when I say it aloud not because others have said the same, but it’s downright poor in quality terms. The pressure was on for Alex Kurtzman to get the grounds going as director/producer, only for him to be given a bland script by David Koepp, Dylan Kussman & Christopher McQuarrie. I think the main problem with this action flick is that they’re forcing the interconnection early on rather than wait it out for a future entry like the intended Invisible Man or Frankenstein that would’ve started the likes of Johnny Depp & Javier Bardem to name a few. The first half of the movie starts out interesting, but once the story basically pauses to show off a vampire skull and a severed hand of Gill man, I gave up because that’s not how you introduce a shared universe. I don’t even feel moved with the book of Imhotep being part of Jekyll’s library because that’s just false hope in bringing back anyone from the Stephen Sommers produced trilogy. The catalog of Universal Monsters worked out because the crossovers were never planned until after each character was introduced separately. Not going that route is where I’m lost. I got nothing against Russell Crowe as Jekyll & Hyde since he owns it in going from composing to sadistic as both personalities, but he’s placed the movie’s Nick Fury, a character that was basically the patriarch of the MCU’s Phase 1, which feels unnecessary down the line for a complex character. You see, I don’t want to be comparing one movie to another because that just comes to show what I would rather be watching and comes to show how bad this ordeal is. There are still good merits with Sofia Boutella being significantly great in being bad to the bone as Ahmanet. All the visual effects and makeup peaked when she was onscreen to emphasize how this mummy was an ultra threat. She is very different from Imhotep because her lust for power comes from pure greed, whereas the latter did it out of one sided love. She killed her family for her entitlement issues, which makes her the most irredeemable of antagonists ever depicted and boy did karma hit her back harder since the god she made a deal with it didn’t hesitate taking her soul at the right opportunity. If she really loved her father like she said, she would’ve not had to make a deal with Set in the first place and just accepted the world doesn’t evolve around her. Another big gripe I had from this movie was the lead itself, Tom freaking Cruise. I love Cruise’s work over the years, yet I’m not convinced with him as Nick Morton for the most part. For one, I haven’t been able to buy into the chemistry he has with either Jake Johnson’s Chris or Annabelle Wallis’ Jenny, but he’s depicted like a whole new Rick O’Connell. I’m sorry, but you can’t replicate the role that made Brendan Fraser a legend. Hell, this movie supposed to be a reboot, yet it can’t help setting up narrating the origin of Ahmanet in the get go just like the Sommers trilogy did for the preceding villains. If you want to be very different, stop copying the past. Even Chris is a carbon copy to Griffin Dunne’s Jack from An American Werewolf in London, being a ghost of a friend midway, and that pisses me off because this movie ain’t even trying to be original. At the very least, they could’ve given the exposition after the tomb was found. Morton’s journey of going from selfish to selfless can be interesting for many protagonists depending on the setting, and the Set factor does spice things up, but we’re not supposed to treat monsters like superheroes. It works for the Monsterverse because there are worser threats than Kong & Godzilla who are actually meant to be protectors. Looking back, I do think Wallis makes interesting because she ain’t a carbon copy of Evelyn from the Sommers trilogy; Jenny is driven as an archaeologist, but she always did her best in thinking realistically compared to Nick, hence being an opposites attract relationship. It was badass that Morton would use Set’s power to save her and Chris, but it just doesn’t convince me that he would continue this protagonistic route had a sequel been made since he admitted he was hoping for another chute to save himself from the crash. Whether or not he meant it, it’s hard to root for someone who would say that. On top of that, there’s much more shit that occurs where I’m stunned there wasn’t any confirmed reshoots. Like it’s pretty stupid Greenway knows Morton would sell antiquities on the black market, so he shouldn’t be having him around rather than exposit his background for us the audience. I mean Ahmanet could’ve been someone else’s problem instead of Nick had he not been there and that would’ve been more interesting. There also should’ve not been a way to bring out Ahmanet’s tomb if the point is to keep her from escaping even after death. And did anyone other than Jenny even freak out for the fact Nick didn’t have a single scratch on him? It looked like they were more surprised of him being naked when that’s basically autopsy protocol. To get this shit over with, 2017’s The Mummy is the worst example to reboot an IP to establish bigger crossover plans when it should’ve been its own thing like before. It does feel like a blessing however since Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man and Wolf Man were great refreshers that are far from disrespectful retellings. If you dig monsters or bombastic adventures, skip this and stick with the Sommers trilogy that does better with both.