By Dalton Patterson
The Mummy, I know this name from the 1999 film “The Mummy” written and directed by Stephen Sommers. The original movie brought Brendan Fraser to the big screen in an action packed, campy, thriller of a film that, while lacking the special effects of a major motion film, still entertained. with loads of banter and “real” reactions, things that would make the audience think, “Yeah I’d probably say that too.”
It’s with a lot of satisfaction that I can say this movie delivers that same feeling. Going into this film I wasn’t sure what to expect given the trailers painted a more serious movie and a lot of dark environments. However, it was nice to hear the typical heroic witty comebacks replaced by genuine questions or awkward moments created by characters missing context. Tom Cruise does a great job of stepping into a modernized version of Brendan Fraser’s original character. That isn’t to say however that the movie didn’t have its flaws. I want to go easy on this film just because of nostalgia but the story feels forced and cliche at times.
The first problem with this film is that it’s very fast-paced, or at least it feels that way. There’s not much substance to the film itself, in fact most of it’s run time is the main characters referencing other, more interesting sounding, adventures. It’s this teasing of character development that just feels wasted as what could have been a full fledged scene is reduced to a throwaway line. Secondly is the way the characters interact, there is a lot to like in a few of the scenes but a majority of the time the characters lack any kind of chemistry. There are moments where the main characters talk about how involved and close they are with each other and yet we see none of this comradery on the screen. A lot of the interactions feel disjointed, as if they were recorded at different times.
The film seems to be trying more to establish a universe rather than be an independent film. Universal studios is pushing for their own “extended universe” as they have already lined up actors for several other classic monster films to be redone.
In conclusion I would give this film a 5/10. I want to say something better about it, especially since it makes a few callbacks to the original, but I can’t look past the problems that it did have.