"The Mummy" has Returned and with it a Dark Universe

  

  In a world where cinematic universes are becoming the path to tread towards lucrative gain, it appears as though every production company is striving for their piece of that franchise pie. Universal, with their vast history of monster characters, has become the latest studio to venture this path. I have fond memories of the Universal monsters. I remember as a kid watching The Creature from the Black Lagoon over and over again. We had it on VHS, black and white, and I was equally terrified of the slow-walking creature as I was intrigued by its sadness. With characters like Frankenstein's monster, the Wolfman, and Dracula, Universal has maintained the benchmark of classic horror movies. Now, in this new age of cinematic universes, Universal thought it would be a good idea to jump on that train, using their classic monster characters. Thus, with the opening of The Mummy this weekend, we now have the beginning of what they are calling their Dark Universe. Let me just start this review by saying: this is not Boris Karloff's Mummy. This is not the Brendan Fraser Mummy. This movie is a completely new take on the character, and it's pretty nuts.

   The Mummy is not perfect by any means. There are moments where I found myself scratching my head in confusion, but when all was said and done, the pros out-weigh the cons of this movie. The biggest driving force behind this film, and probably behind this franchise, is Tom Cruise. When I first heard he was doing The Mummy, I could not picture it. Tom Cruise within the confines of a fantasy-adventure film seemed odd, given his track record for mainly doing big action movies. But it works, for some reason. Cruise plays Nick Morton, a military lieutenant/grave robber/seller-of-black-market-antiquities. When he and his buddy Chris (played by Jake Johnson) unwittingly unearth an ancient Egyptian crypt, they also unleash a malevolent evil in Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella). With her comes a whole load of craziness that Nick and company must try to defeat. Oh yeah, and he has to do this while being cursed. To help wade through the vastness of the plot is Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe), who heads up this underground force of monster hunters and introduces us to the vast universe we're about to embark into.

   I'm just going to get the negative stuff out of the way first, because ultimately I liked this movie. My biggest gripe with the film is the over-emphasis on world-building. That's a term that audiences today are well acquainted with during this age of comic book universes. Without getting too far into the plot, the movie takes more time to set up this shared universe than it does to address the issue at hand, that being the mummy herself. What I thought was going to be a fun action-adventure ended up being a mystery-thriller that involves a mummy and has some action. Don't get me wrong, I like this idea of a shared monster universe. I just wish that wasn't the main focus for this first film. When you try and cram a lot of stuff into one movie, you'll never be able to give due diligence to everything. So, because they spend so much time trying to establish this larger universe, things go unanswered. From this spawns various plot holes and a somewhat underwhelming third act. That being said, it's still really fun.

 
   Where that fun stems from is Tom Cruise. The guy is the epitome of a movie star. His charisma and prowess for intense action helps to elevate this movie over its flaws. Nick is a character that seems out of place in the movie, and what I mean by that is that he's the only one with some sort of charisma. His buddy Chris is the obvious comic relief, but Nick seems somewhat disjointed, which makes his journey much more interesting. There are some great Cruise-esque action scenes that are really fun to watch, and Cruise really embraces this crazy world they're trying to build. The acting overall was pretty good. Besides Cruise I think Sofia Bouotella stands out and does a great job as the mummy; and Russell Crowe's take on an iconic character was really fun to watch as well. Annabelle Wallis plays Jenny and her chemistry with Cruise is fairly believable, despite not having much to do in the film.

   As I mentioned earlier, the action in this movie is really fun, which is good to have in an adventure-movie-that-wants-to-be-an-adventure-movie-but-is-more-of-a-multi-genre-movie. The plane scene from the trailer, in its fullest, was really cool, and there are other moments that are pretty exciting and fun to watch. The tone of this movie was darker than I had anticipated, and it's tonal shifts at times might leave one thinking this movie doesn't know what it wants to be. At some points it tries to be a horror movie, at others a comedy, and at others an action-adventure. But regardless it's still exciting all throughout - at least until the end which unfortunately leaves you wanting. Overall the movie was a fun ride with obvious bumps along the way. I feel I'm just repeating myself, but oh well. I'm intrigued by what Universal has in store for the future of this franchise. I'm sure a lot of it will depend on the success of this movie. Only time will tell.