The Mummy (2017) Review

The Mummy, Universal Pictures

The Mummy, Universal Pictures

<p>Out of all the movie monsters&comma; I have to say the Mummy never really scared me&period; Seriously&comma; think about it&comma; what is so scary about a mummy&quest; Maybe its looks&quest; The Mummy never seemed threatening to me&period; It moved slower than a Romero zombie and always looked like a dried up raisin that needed a hug&period; Now&comma; you want to talk about vampires&comma; werewolves&comma; or those juiced up speed freak zombies that Snyder gave us&comma; then there&&num;8217&semi;s a reason to be scared&excl; It wasn&&num;8217&semi;t until <em>The Mummy<&sol;em> franchise &lpar;1999 &&num;8211&semi; 2008&rpar;&comma; starring <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;lonelykidsclub&period;com&sol;collections&sol;brendan-fraser">Brendan Frase<&sol;a>r&comma; that I had a reason to fear a mummy&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s time for another reboot&period; This time they&&num;8217&semi;ve dug up another classic movie monster&comma; dusted off some bandages&comma; put a &&num;8220&semi;new&&num;8221&semi; spin on it&comma; and released it upon the world&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Come to find out&comma; Universal Pictures decided to grab some of the classic movie monsters so they could put a 21st-century spin on them and launch&&num;8230&semi; the Dark Universe&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s pretty much an excuse to reboot a bunch of movies&period; Now&comma; a lot of people thought that <em>Dracula Untold &lpar;2014&rpar;<&sol;em> was considered the first film in the DU &lpar;Dark Universe&rpar;&period; However&comma; <em>The Mummy<&sol;em> has been billed as the first film of the series&period; I&&num;8217&semi;m guessing since <em>Dracula Untold<&sol;em> wasn&&num;8217&semi;t received very well by the public&comma; Universal wanted to start the DU franchise with a clean slate &lpar;<em>The Mummy<&sol;em>&rpar; instead of building off of a film &lpar;<em>Dracula Untold<&sol;em>&rpar; with poor ratings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128082" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128082" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-128082" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;03132411&sol;The-Mummy-still-2-1024x638&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Mummy&comma; Universal Pictures" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"598" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128082" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Mummy&comma; Universal Pictures<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Truthfully&comma; after watching the trailer&comma; I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t expecting much from <em>The Mummy<&sol;em>&period; Come to find out&comma; I had set my bar of disappointment at the right level&period; What&&num;8217&semi;s this PG-13 story about&comma; you ask&quest; Well&comma; during an assignment in Iraq&comma; Sergeant Nick Morton and Corporal Chris Vail stumble upon a mysterious tomb buried deep in the desert&period; After inspecting the tomb&comma; archaeologist Jenny Halsey realizes it&&num;8217&semi;s the tomb of Princess Ahmanet &lpar;who did a lot of bad things while she was alive&rpar;&period; Due to threats in the area&comma; Colonel Greenway tells them to pull the sarcophagus and get it ready to be transported out of there&period; By removing the sarcophagus from its prison&comma; they wake up Ahmanet and free her to finish what she started all those years ago&period; She wants to gain the power to rule&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s a basic storyline&period; Someone wakes up evil&period; Evil tries to take over the world&period; Good tries to stop evil&period; Imagine if you will &lpar;because I don&&num;8217&semi;t recommend watching it&rpar;&comma; a movie that runs for one hundred eleven minutes with a lot of CGI scattered throughout&period; Said movie tells its story through current time&comma; flashbacks&comma; hallucinations &lpar;maybe&quest;&rpar;&comma; psychic talks &lpar;between Nick and Ahmanet&rpar; and you have&&num;8230&semi; <em>The Mummy<&sol;em>&period; I better watch out&comma; I almost made this movie sound interesting&period; The story jumps back and forth between past and present&comma; which really messed with the pace&period; I felt like every time the movie took a step forward toward the credits&comma; it would take two steps back for another flashback&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some people voiced concerns about <em>The Mummy &lpar;2017&rpar;<&sol;em> just being a gender swapped repeat of <em>The Mummy &lpar;1999&rpar;<&sol;em>&period; Keep in mind&comma; this version of<em> The Mummy<&sol;em> is supposed to be a reboot of the classic&comma; 1930&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Mummy<&sol;em>&period; The gender swap idea didn&&num;8217&semi;t bother me&comma; and I was hoping that it would bring something new to the story&period; Unfortunately&comma; it didn&&num;8217&semi;t feel like the swap changed or enhanced the story at all&period; I have to admit though&comma; I saw a strong resemblance to <em>The Mummy<&sol;em> <em>&lpar;1999&rpar;<&sol;em> in some of the scenes&period; Now&comma; they did pull off a cool way to &lpar;possibly&rpar; link all of the monsters in the DU together&comma; if that&&num;8217&semi;s the way they go with it&comma; so thumbs up to that part&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128081" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128081" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-128081" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;03132151&sol;The-Mummy-still-3-1024x638&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Mummy&comma; Universal Pictures" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"598" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128081" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Mummy&comma; Universal Pictures<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I have to give a quick shout out to <em>The Mummy<&sol;em> for some of its set designs&period; Ahmanet&&num;8217&semi;s tomb and Jekyll&&num;8217&semi;s lab were impressive looking&period; I liked Jekyll&&num;8217&semi;s lab the best&comma; because of all the background visuals that were floating around&period; The look of Ahmanet was okay&comma; but aside from the crazy eye thing she had going on&comma; nothing was interesting about her&period; Unfortunately&comma; Ahmanet will fall into the abyss of the forgotten once all the hype is over and the posters come down&period; I think the worst part of the special effects were the zombies that Ahmanet creates as she gains power&period; The dead army didn&&num;8217&semi;t blend into the scenes and stood out badly&comma; especially in the action scenes&period; There are a few other spots that the CGI stood out&period; However&comma; the dead army made the most impact&comma; because they popped up a lot more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some of the faces you&&num;8217&semi;ll see are Tom Cruise &lpar;<em>Jack Reacher&colon; Never Go Back<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; Annabelle Wallis &lpar;<em>The Brothers Grimsby<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; Sofia Boutella &lpar;<em>Kingsman&colon; The Secret Service<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; Russell Crowe &lpar;<em>The Nice Guys<&sol;em>&rpar;&comma; Jake Johnson &lpar;<em>Let&&num;8217&semi;s Be Cops<&sol;em>&rpar; and Javier Botet &lpar;<em>The Conjuring 2&rpar;<&sol;em>&period; Now&comma; I like Cruise and enjoy most of his movies&comma; but I don&&num;8217&semi;t think he was the right choice for the main character&period; He brings the same Cruise energy that you&&num;8217&semi;re used to seeing in his films today&comma; and maybe that was it&period; The main role needed more <em>War of the Worlds<&sol;em> &lpar;2005&rpar; Cruise&comma; where he was scared and out of his element&comma; not the <em>Mission&colon; Impossible<&sol;em> Cruise&comma; where he always had things under control&period; As far as Johnson goes&comma; I liked him and thought his bits were funny&comma; but his main role in the movie can be summed up by saying he&&num;8217&semi;s Jack Goodman from <em>American Werewolf in London<&sol;em> &lpar;1981&rpar;&period; If you don&&num;8217&semi;t get the reference then you&&num;8217&semi;re missing out on a great movie&&num;8230&semi; fix that&comma; stat&excl; Boutella did a good job with what she was given&comma; but when the movie you&&num;8217&semi;re in is going down in flames&comma; can anyone see how bright you truly shine&quest; I expected Wallis&&num;8217&semi;s character to have more of an impact in the movie&comma; but she just fills the scenes and says her lines&period; Crowe&&num;8217&semi;s character was my favorite&comma; he played a very different version of Dr&period; Jekyll than I was expecting&period; I liked it&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sidenote&colon; After watching this one&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m starting to lose hope that the Dark Universe will churn out any good monster movies&period; I guess we&&num;8217&semi;ll see when <em>Bride of Frankenstein<&sol;em> comes out around February 2019&period; The other DU films don&&num;8217&semi;t have titles yet&comma; but Universal has plans to make a movie for <em>Creature from the Black Lagoon<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Invisible Man<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Van Helsing<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Wolf Man<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Frankenstein<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Dracula<&sol;em>&comma; <em>Phantom of the Opera&comma;<&sol;em> and <em>Hunchback of Notre-Dame<&sol;em>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;128083" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-128083" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-128083" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;08&sol;03132647&sol;The-Mummy-still-4-1024x638&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Mummy&comma; Universal Pictures" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"598" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-128083" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">The Mummy&comma; Universal Pictures<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>If for some reason you actually want to own a Blu-ray copy of this&&num;8230&semi; horror filled flick&period; It comes out September 12th&comma; 2017 and here are the special features&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Audio Commentary with director and producer Alex Kurtzman&comma; and cast members Sofia Boutella&comma; Annabelle Wallis and Jake Johnson<br &sol;>&NewLine;Deleted and Extended Scenes<br &sol;>&NewLine;Cruise &amp&semi; Kurtzman&colon; A Conversation Rooted in Reality &&num;8211&semi; Tom Cruise and Alex Kurtzman discuss the making of The Mummy&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Featurettes&colon;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&ast;Rooted in Reality &&num;8211&semi; Filmmakers and cast reveal how they broke away from old tropes and traditions to create a dynamic and realistic 21st-century monster movie&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&ast;Life in Zero-G&colon; Creating the Plane Crash &&num;8211&semi; Watch Tom Cruise&comma; Annabelle Wallis&comma; and the crew shoot the incredible plane sequence&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&ast;Meet Ahmanet &&num;8211&semi; Sofia Boutella shares the excitement of reinventing a monster icon&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&ast;Cruise in Action &&num;8211&semi; A behind-the-scenes look at Tom Cruise&&num;8217&semi;s most memorable Mummy stunts&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&ast;Becoming Jekyll and Hyde &&num;8211&semi; Find out how the casting of Russell Crowe brought a bold new dimension to the roles of Jekyll and Hyde&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&ast;Choreographed Chaos &&num;8211&semi; Watch as cast and filmmakers create an epic outdoors clash between ancient and modern worlds&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&ast;Nick Morton&colon; In Search of a Soul &&num;8211&semi; Tom Cruise describes what drew him to play a man seemingly without a soul&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&ast;Ahmanet Reborn Animated Graphic Novel &&num;8211&semi; Witness Ahmanet&&num;8217&semi;s descent into the monstrous underworld as she is reborn into the Goddess of Chaos and Wrath<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;m sure there&&num;8217&semi;s a fan base out there somewhere that thinks this is a great movie&period; I&comma; however&comma; am not part of that fan base&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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