The Mummy

We haven’t seen such a disappointing mishmash of an A-movie in a while. After the “mirror talk” in the ladies’ restroom, the movie falls into a downward spiral. As a horror adventure set in the present day with a wise-cracking Tom Cruise, it couldn’t have ended well. After a few extraordinarily successful years, Universal wagered on proven blockbuster screenwriters – and it failed spectacularly. You cannot have a cash cow without an idea or enthusiasm. Possibly Russell Crow’s worst role? (18/06/2017)

All the ingredients you need for an adventurous tale are abundantly present here. Beautiful locations, a stunning damsel in distress, a courageous hero who goes to great lengths, and a mysterious tale as the central theme. But what's the point when there is a desperate lack of substance and balance? Nick is too arrogant in the beginning and then unbelievably noble as time goes on. Ahmanet spends most of her time in dried-up form, so there is nothing specific to fear, and Vail, the joking friend, is pure evil with his boisterous approach. The biggest joy is the fact that Russell Crowe didn't just drop in for a minute, but it is truly disappointing to find out that perhaps every other line was written by a different screenwriter, turning a potential blockbuster into almost a self-parody. I don't want to do a disservice to The Mummy, as I was mildly entertained at times, but its perplexing genre inconsistency, strangely anticlimactic epilogue, and absence of any new idea, where the only adrenaline moment is the airplane crash shown in the trailers, left me feeling frustrated just a few hours after watching it. (08/06/2017)

I'm probably too nostalgic for the original Mummy films with Fraser and as such I found this version with Cruise to be a dreadful bore, since I associate The Mummy with good gags and Tom with better action. The humor is almost absent (hints of strained jokes) and for how serious it pretends to be, half the film can’t even be taken completely seriously. I didn't even like the idea of using Crowe's character to possibly expand The Mummy into the more extensive fantasies of unrelated realms. After a few days, the film literally disappeared from my mind. (30/08/2022)

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. (07/06/2017)

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. (13/06/2017)