The Mummy

The immortal Cruise has found himself another excuse for stuntmen to kid about, this time in Iraq and England. The Mummy lacks a director with balls. Kurtzman does his work, but brings no surprise in the form of visual awesomeness or a clever idea. Luckily the screenplay seems quite original. The bad guy is a girl and Cruise is a jerk who releases her by mistake during his quest for treasure. Very refreshing. As the beginning of a bigger story about monsters, the Mummy works excellently and I’m intrigued to see what follows. Similar to Tom, gentlemen will wonder whether it will be Sofia Boutella or Annabelle Wallis. P.S: This has nothing whatsoever to do with Sommers’ Mummy and frankly this version can’t touch that one, but neither can most movies. (14/06/2017)

A bit of horror, a bit of humor, always adventure. I liked The Mummy very much, and I was quite surprised, because I really like the original 1932 film and this newer version as well. It's a very entertaining spectacle with many imaginative scenes (that doesn't mean, of course, that something similar has never been done before), pleasantly quick but not frantic momentum, a sympathetic cast, and the bombastic music of Brian Tyler. The non-forgettable finale gave me similar joy as the zombie crusaders. And I didn't expect to ever see Tom Cruise in a “girl in trouble" role. (16/06/2017)

It's a real shame about this new Dark Universe attempt. It's always nice when a classic gets a new coat of paint so that even the youngest generation can enjoy a new take on it and discover the original at the same time. But this is where it all ended prematurely. Genre-wise it's an unbalanced mess and the whole thing feels terribly confident, and no alternative admits that The Mummy should be a solitary film. But unfortunately, it is, and in retrospect, the aftertaste of the unfulfilled fragment remains. Moreover, Tom Cruise is no longer the rascal he would probably like to remain until his death. Annabelle Wallis, the queen of historical series (The Tudors, Peaky Blinders, and Pan Am), didn't particularly impress me either. Sofia Boutella and Russell Crowe are slightly better, but it's not enough. I was hoping the classic duo of Kurtzman & Orci were enough for it to be great, but Hercules and Zorro were more successful. (30/11/2019)

It is so, so conflicting, what a shame. For a while it's an adaptation of Uncharted with everything, for a while it is and adventurous silly action movie with an annoying sidekick à la modern Mummy, for a while it continues in the darkened mode of gothic horror, at times it would very much like to refer to the style of good old universal movies, it often uses to the contemporary blockbuster plague "CGI solves everything", in the style of all contemporary franchise movies that make the universe go round, future thing are more indicated and actually told and... And you probably already got the idea. On the other hand, it's well-paced, most of the action has a drive, and even though it would be nice to replace Cruise with someone like new Price/Lee, nothing bad can be said about him this time. We cannot say it is a modernization of a (let alone respectful) of a true classic movie from the Universal department not even remotely. But as a (so far purely on the paper) more advanced alternative of all comic book cinemas series it´s enough to get by. Especially if the movie would have been in the same mode throughout the footage, preferably in Uncharted mode with slightly horror stylization. (08/06/2017)

Actually, it's good. The Mummy has its flaws, but Tom Cruise's charisma, the fast pace and the effort to introduce a new world for two hours easily entertains. The opening is reminiscent of Indy or the “Uncharted” games, the horror interludes work surprisingly well, and at times The Mummy straddles the line between PG-13 and R-rated. You probably won't be downright scared, but saying it’s horror adventure is not an exaggeration. There's more or less always something going on, and once they stop trying for funny interludes, it really paces just as you'd expect and hope after the trailers. In the end, it's a bit of a bummer that while The Mummy is a proper adventure flick, it unfortunately doesn't offer any scenes that you'll be excitedly describing to your friends and sending them to the cinema. As the start of a potentially interesting cinematic universe, however, it works without the slightest problem, and I'll happily be there next time. (12/06/2017)