I've never written a movie review before, but after seeing this one I just had to, I was so disappointed. I was a kid when the previous Mummy series came out, and those movies were infinitely more interesting/entertaining. Its a huge disappointment because this film falls apart for several reasons:
Story- Cursed Egyptian princess is awoken after 5,000 years. Okay, awesome. Has all the same powers as previous incarnation, Imhotep (controlling sands, super strength, animating corpses, etc.). Okay, cool- could've been a little more creative/ original, but okay. You cast Sofia Boutella as the new Mummy- super awesome (I'd never even heard of her before this movie and now I'll probably go see everything else she's ever in).
And then the best the writers come up with is that the endgame for such a powerful entity would be... to just summon a more powerful entity than her into existence? Way to drop the ball- someone should be fired for that hack job. The potential was there to make Ahmanet an infinitely interesting character ( Sofia Boutella's seductive charm alone has you routing for Ahmanet half the movie) but they reduce her to an eye-candy role, writing her to literally need Tom Cruise's body to do what she has set out to do (not even going to delve into that ridiculousness). At least when they wrote Imhotep in the previous incarnation, it made sense in that his motivations were his own power, not someone else's.
And that's without even touching on the rushed backstory for Ahmanet, or the fact that there is really no development in the relationships between the characters nor the characters themselves.
Action- Its like they somehow took all the iconic scenes from the previous incarnation and made them awful. The Mummy absorbing people's life force. The images when the mummy is controlling the sands. The chase/escape scenes. Not only were none of these concepts elaborated on, they somehow managed to make them less interesting this time around, too. If you don't believe me, go back and watch the 1999 version.
Cast- This is probably the most egregious problem with this movie, and its very disappointing because it wasn't all bad. Russel Crowe as Dr. Jekyll? Brilliant. Absolutely awesome portrayal of the Jekyll/Hyde characters delivered masterfully. Previously mentioned Sofia Boutella as the Mummy? What a perfect choice for the role. Even Jake Johnson's Sgt. Vail would've been good if the writing had been better. But 54 year old Tom Cruise as the lead? Embarrassing. Say what you will about Brendan Fraser, but in 1999 he had hit his stride and was funny and charming. He was also in his 30's and much more believable as a treasure-hunting action star. There's no point in even talking about the casting choice of Annabelle Wallis, because her presence might as well have been non-existent after the scene where she slaps Tom Cruise in the face (you know, right at the beginning). The writing didn't make it believable that she is an archaeologist, and the performance isn't memorable in the slightest. Especially if we're comparing that to 1999 Rachel Weisz's Evie who was a dream-babe.
And even without the comparisons, if the two most interesting/compelling characters in your hero-saves-world action movie are A) a character who had all of 10-15 minutes of screen time, and B) the main antagonist, then you did something way wrong.
All in all this was a sad attempt to reboot an awesome story which had great potential- a solid frame of reference in the previous incarnation, a darker, more dramatic/less goofy tone, and almost 2 decades in updates to CGI/special effects which could have made for much more compelling supernatural/action scenes- but it was squandered with terrible writing and awful casting which lead to hollow performances.
Story- Cursed Egyptian princess is awoken after 5,000 years. Okay, awesome. Has all the same powers as previous incarnation, Imhotep (controlling sands, super strength, animating corpses, etc.). Okay, cool- could've been a little more creative/ original, but okay. You cast Sofia Boutella as the new Mummy- super awesome (I'd never even heard of her before this movie and now I'll probably go see everything else she's ever in).
And then the best the writers come up with is that the endgame for such a powerful entity would be... to just summon a more powerful entity than her into existence? Way to drop the ball- someone should be fired for that hack job. The potential was there to make Ahmanet an infinitely interesting character ( Sofia Boutella's seductive charm alone has you routing for Ahmanet half the movie) but they reduce her to an eye-candy role, writing her to literally need Tom Cruise's body to do what she has set out to do (not even going to delve into that ridiculousness). At least when they wrote Imhotep in the previous incarnation, it made sense in that his motivations were his own power, not someone else's.
And that's without even touching on the rushed backstory for Ahmanet, or the fact that there is really no development in the relationships between the characters nor the characters themselves.
Action- Its like they somehow took all the iconic scenes from the previous incarnation and made them awful. The Mummy absorbing people's life force. The images when the mummy is controlling the sands. The chase/escape scenes. Not only were none of these concepts elaborated on, they somehow managed to make them less interesting this time around, too. If you don't believe me, go back and watch the 1999 version.
Cast- This is probably the most egregious problem with this movie, and its very disappointing because it wasn't all bad. Russel Crowe as Dr. Jekyll? Brilliant. Absolutely awesome portrayal of the Jekyll/Hyde characters delivered masterfully. Previously mentioned Sofia Boutella as the Mummy? What a perfect choice for the role. Even Jake Johnson's Sgt. Vail would've been good if the writing had been better. But 54 year old Tom Cruise as the lead? Embarrassing. Say what you will about Brendan Fraser, but in 1999 he had hit his stride and was funny and charming. He was also in his 30's and much more believable as a treasure-hunting action star. There's no point in even talking about the casting choice of Annabelle Wallis, because her presence might as well have been non-existent after the scene where she slaps Tom Cruise in the face (you know, right at the beginning). The writing didn't make it believable that she is an archaeologist, and the performance isn't memorable in the slightest. Especially if we're comparing that to 1999 Rachel Weisz's Evie who was a dream-babe.
And even without the comparisons, if the two most interesting/compelling characters in your hero-saves-world action movie are A) a character who had all of 10-15 minutes of screen time, and B) the main antagonist, then you did something way wrong.
All in all this was a sad attempt to reboot an awesome story which had great potential- a solid frame of reference in the previous incarnation, a darker, more dramatic/less goofy tone, and almost 2 decades in updates to CGI/special effects which could have made for much more compelling supernatural/action scenes- but it was squandered with terrible writing and awful casting which lead to hollow performances.