By Cynthia Ayala

“An ancient princess is awakened from her crypt beneath the desert, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension.”

    —IMDB

Where to start. Okay, so as a fan of the Brendan Fraser Mummy from back in the day, like many I was skeptical. But at the end of the day, I have to appreciate that this film was not a copycat. And it’s still funny. Tom Cruise has proven that he is a very versatile actor, and like many actors, he’s going to have some bad movies under his belt. This certainly isn’t his worst film but it’s not his best either, I’ll admit to that. Was the story the best? Certainly not. I’m going to go ahead and agree with some of the critics who question if the film would have been better had it not been so set on establishing the Dark Universe.

The addition of Mr. Hyde, that all seemed superfluous. The organization part I liked, but adding Jekyll and Hyde, him telling him his little story of evil, that may have been necessary, but Crowe did not have to be in the film as much as he was. All we needed was a story that would teach Cruise’s character what he needed to know in order to defeat the evil. The story should have been centered on the mummy without sending out tendrils to establish the Dark Universe. Honestly, all one ever needs is that one scene to tie in the movies together, one scene here, one there, and then that’s it.

But there are other flaws with the story. She was a great villain, Sofia Boutella, I fell in love with her in Star Trek Beyond and I’m hoping she comes back for the next film whenever they make it as part of the crew of the enterprise. But that’s another discussion for another day. She made a great Mummy, her origins were different and I like the fact that here they incorporated some of the Egyptian Gods here. It’s different than the original, and I like that but the whole Crusader’s part, I felt like that was overkill. There’s no clear establishment of time and at first, when it opened I sat there wondering “am I in the right theater? Is this the right movie?” It was a detail that was used to take the Mummy out of Egypt and move it to a different place, but I’m sure if the writers thought harder about the story they could have found a different way to move the scenery and plot.

The story, while flawed, was still entertaining. The jokes are there, the character dynamics and chemistry, it’s all there, so at least the film is entertaining to watch. It’s not terrible, not Cruise’s best, (my personal favorite will always be Interview with a Vampire) but he delivers a great performance nonetheless. So despite what everyone is saying, there’s no way this film is that bad, and it’s certainly not going to kill Tom Cruise’s career. Come on people, just give it a shot. (★★☆☆ | C+)

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—Film Credits—

Directed by Alex Kurtzman

Screenplay by David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie & Dylan Kussman

Story by Jon Spaihts, Alex Kurtzman & Jenny Lumet

Starring: Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance & Russell Crowe

Rating | Length | Genre: PG-13 | 1h 50min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Distributed by Universal Pictures