Director:Â Alex Kurtzman
Cast:Â Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance
Running Time:Â 110 mins
Rating:Â 12A
Release Date:Â June 9th, 2017
For those expecting 2017’s Universal reboot to reach the B-movie level goofiness of THE MUMMY (1999) or THE MUMMY RETURNS (2001), the less said about THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR the better, will be left sorely disappointed in this bland and uninspired attempt at franchise domination.
Less a coherent experience, this new Mummy plays like a mid credit scene extended into a feature length running time. The woefully miscast Tom Cruise stars as Nick, a dashing and rogue thief who steals antiquities along with his sidekick Chris (Jake Johnson, whose charm is utterly wasted here). When they stumble upon the hidden burial site of Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), Nick accidentally sets the cursed mummy free and now must find a way to stop the end of the world from happening.
This is the first half of the film, and, to give some credit, actually feels like there was some attempt at making something bordering on watchable. The second half of the film begins when Jenny (Annabelle Wallis) and Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe) enter the picture, essentially grounding what little momentum the film already had to a halt. Here begins Universals attempt to start what they call their ‘Dark Universe’ (apparently DRACULA UNTOLD didn’t count). So focused on putting all their mummified eggs into one basket, they’ve forgotten to actually make a film and not just a glorified trailer. Boutella is given nothing to do as the title monster and spends an odd amount of the films running time either chained up or pining after Cruises character (oddly the plot revolves around her characters infatuation with Cruise, with her quite literally wanting to have sex with him – just one of many odd moments that read more like a Cruise vanity project then this summers must see blockbuster).
Likewise, Wallis is little more than the perfunctory love interest, although her blank expressions and wooden performance doesn’t help. By the time Crowe arrives, the film can’t muster up enthusiasm for its own premise, filling in a sagging middle section that allows Crowe’s Jekyll to alternate between posh English and what could be described as cockney English, as the mild mannered doctor disappointedly shows off the monster within him (complimented by some ugly CGI). It’s impressive how a franchise that started 18 years ago could look better then a top tier studio release in 2017 but THE MUMMY is hideous looking, with CGI reminiscent of a direct to DVD release (the blandness of the colour onscreen, with its exciting mix of greys and darker greys, doesn’t help either).
Whether this truly is the start of the Dark Universe that is so desperately kicked off here remains to be seen, but it leaves much to be desired. As lifeless as the mummies in the film, this one deserves to be buried far beneath the earth for thousands of years.
