There were high points: 1933’s The Invisible Man, 1935’s Bride of Frankenstein and 1954’s Creature from the Black Lagoon, and best-forgotten films (hello, The Mole People), but the monsters ruled the theater until, much like the dinosaurs, their time was done.
Now, nearly 60 years later, Universal has stolen a page from the Marvel Studios’ playbook to create its Dark Universe, an interconnected world of “gods and monsters,” to borrow from Dr. Henry Jekyll, that promises a lengthy run of big-budget, big-screen adventures to come.
And like Marvel, Universal is using a second-tier character to get things started (editor's note: this writer's ID'ing the Mummy as a second-tier monster caused some debate in the newsroom; this debate ultimately ended with this editor deciding the only first-tier monster was the Creature), but The Mummy is no Iron Man and director Alex Kurtzman is no Jon Favreau. Somehow, it still mostly works.
As written by David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie and Dylan Kussman (from a story by three other people, including Kurtzman), The Mummy must accomplish a lot in less than two hours.
The film must reintroduce audiences to its Egyptian villain, one wisely reimagined as the power-hungry princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella); set up its central evil-hunting, monster-killing black-ops cabal, which is led by Jekyll (Russell Crowe); and justify star Tom Cruise’s paycheck.
Cruise plays Nick Morton, a soldier of fortune who isn’t above stealing precious antiquities while helping the U.S. government secure war-torn Iraq. Morton and his girl Friday, Chris Vail (a game Jake Johnson), stumble upon a buried prison tomb where Ahmanet’s sarcophagus has been submerged in liquid mercury for centuries. They also must contend with Dr. Jenny Halsey (Anabelle Wallis), a key archeologist working with Jekyll’s group, whom Morton slept with in order to steal the map to Ahmanet’s tomb.
So far, so good — or at least light-years better than 1999’s woeful CGI-and-Brendan Fraser-fueled The Mummy.
However, early trailers for this iteration of The Mummy completely spoiled one of the film’s best moments: a zero-gravity, mid-air freefall when Ahmanet somehow magically undermines the military transport plane carrying her sarcophagus. It’s a thrilling sequence that rivals anything Cruise has attempted in his Mission: Impossible franchise.
It also confirms that Ahmanet wants Morton to be her eternal companion by transforming him into the living god Set.
And here’s where The Mummy gets a little muddy.
Morton is whisked away to meet with Jekyll, which also allows Kurtzman to tease future film installments by slowly panning through Jekyll’s scientific lab filled with specimen jars of skulls with fangs, severed limbs and more. If you’ve seen Guardians of the Galaxy, this is the equivalent of The Collector’s museum of cosmic artifacts and alien life forms.
Jekyll gets to show a flash of Mr. Hyde, his chaotic alter-ego, and he also unloads a lot of information about his secret organization and why it hunts monsters and destroys evil. This is all essentially an extended primer for the Dark Universe, but it’s unspooled awkwardly. Hopefully, future films can provide a better understanding of Jekyll and his group.
Then it’s off to the races as Morton and Halsey must obtain an ancient dagger and mystical stone that can resurrect Set and place his spirit in a human host. If you’ve ever seen a Cruise action movie (and really, who hasn’t?) then you’re familiar with seeing Cruise run, duck, cover and run some more.
Once the dust settles, a key player in the Dark Universe has been established, and Jekyll gets yet another voiceover to re-re-emphasize the volatile and dangerous nature of man’s impending battle with the monsters. Yes, it’s hokey and unnecessary, but that’s Hollywood today, which has little regard for an audience’s ability to keep up with key plot points.
One word of warning: Avoid The Mummy in 3D. The effects don’t warrant the upcharge, and the glasses distract from being able to fully absorb and clearly see the solid set designs that flesh out this new world.
Despite its flaws, The Mummy is a good movie.
The next film in Universal’s Dark Universe, however, needs to be great.
This article appears in Jun 8-15, 2017.