Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The Mummy Movie Review

Tom Cruise & Annabelle Wallis (r) star in The Mummy

World War ZZZ

Rotten Tomatoes Plot: Tom Cruise headlines a spectacular, all-new cinematic version of the legend that has fascinated cultures all over the world since the dawn of civilization: The Mummy. Thought safely entombed in a tomb deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient princess (Sofia Boutella of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension. From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters. Cruise is joined by a cast including Annabelle Wallis (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, television's Peaky Blinders), Jake Johnson (Jurassic World), Courtney B. Vance (TV's American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson) and Oscar-winner Russell Crowe (Gladiator.) The creative team on this action-adventure event is led by director/producer Alex Kurtzman and producer Chris Morgan, who have been instrumental in growing some of the most successful franchises of the past several years-with Kurtzman writing or producing entries in the Transformers, Star Trek and Mission: Impossible series, and Morgan being the narrative engineer of the Fast & Furious saga as it has experienced explosive growth from its third chapter on. Sean Daniel, who produced the most recent Mummy trilogy, produces alongside Kurtzman and Morgan.


Princess Ahmanet (Boutella) warns, "There are worse fates than death." Look no further than Kurtzman's The Mummy, a disastrous reboot of a once-mighty franchise. It starts off well (Ahmanet's back-story) but unravels in a dust storm of dull banter, hard-to-see (nighttime) action and an endless wave of ridiculous-looking zombies. Cruise looks totally out-of-place in a movie you'd expect to see Vin Diesel in (before Fast & Furious) or (even worse) Jean-Claude Van Damme. Crowe's Dr. Jekyll (yes, that Jekyll) declares, "The past cannot remain buried forever." Why can't it? It's better than digging it up, and ruining it.

Grade: D