Make way for yet another cinematic universe. Joining the ranks of the MCU, the DCEU, and the Monsterverse, the Dark Universe makes its overdue debut to the silver screen after a failed attempt Dracula Untold in 2014. Universal’s new world resurrects and links together the iconic movie monsters of old—Frankenstein’s monster, Wolfman, the Creature of the Black Lagoon—starting off with a reboot of a reboot, The Mummy.
Enter night, exit light
Set apart from Brendan Fraser’s classic series that generated a number of sequels and spin-offs, The Mummy takes on a classic Tom Cruise approach in reimagining the classic movie monster. Wherever he goes, a wave of explosions and crazy stunts follow in his wake.
Universal is adamant with leaving the previous series’ Indiana Jones approach. Since Hollywood has given up on Fraser’s franchise, it’s no surprise that this series gets such a refresh. This iteration is as Hollywood as Hollywood can get, complete with a big city levelled by CGI explosions. While it does have classic horror undertones (most of which are jump scares and body horror), The Mummy is action-packed through and through. It’s a formulaic movie we’re all familiar with.
It was thoroughly enjoyable, but it was more obsessed with setting up its Dark Universe than telling a compelling story about the Mummy. The movie’s second and third act was a blatant setup for the Universe’s Nick Fury figure—Dr. Henry Jekyll. (Yes, that Doctor Jekyll. Played by the magnificent Russel Crowe, too.) In this world, he leads the Prodigium, an organization dedicated to collecting and studying supernatural evil, similar to Hellboy’s BPRD. With fanged skeletons and weird carcasses displayed in its offices, Prodigium clearly serves as the link between all these monster movies in the future.
Monsters in the night
We also get to see quite a lot of Doctor Jekyll’s evil alter-ego, Mister Hyde. Crowe’s smooth transition from the posh Doctor Jekyll to the cockney Mister Hyde was a true scene-stealer. But as much as I loved seeing him, I wish I hadn’t seen as much in a movie that’s supposed to be dedicated to the Mummy.
Meanwhile, Sofia Boutella plays a convincing Ahmanet but, besides initial story exposition, she was just a big baddie who, as with most villains of her origin, wants to unleash a greater evil on the world. There wasn’t much explanation as to why her ambitions of just ruling Egypt evolved into unleashing unspeakable evil, but it doesn’t matter as much. While she does share some character traits with Suicide Squad’s laughable Enchantress, Ahmanet looked and acted cooler. She mixes the notable aspects of the original 1999 villains—the sultry seductiveness of Patricia Velasquez’s Anck Su Namun and the unbridled evil of Arnold Vosloo’s Imhotep. As far as villains go, Ahmanet was frightening and constant.
Opposite Boutella, Tom Cruise plays… Tom Cruise. Technically, his name is Nick Morton. But there’s not much to differentiate him from practically any other Tom Cruise role from recent memory. As usual, he’s the smooth-talking, happy-go-lucky action hero who gets into things bigger than him. It can be coincidentally, but only up to a point. Without giving too much away, the Dark Universe might have future plans for Nick Morton. He’ll need to work on his role to survive.
Sadly, his female lead Annabelle Wallis (playing Jenny Halsey) just wasn’t as lovable as Cruise, Boutella, or Crowe. A victim of shoddy writing, her character bordered on annoying and irrelevant. There just wasn’t enough gravitas for her. She was a convenient plot device but that’s about it.
Give me more
The Mummy thrives on the promise of an expanded universe. If Doctor Jekyll’s appearance was anything to go by, the Dark Universe is something I can get behind. (Fingers crossed for a Nosferatu remake.) Sadly, all that world-building drew some quality away from The Mummy as its own solo movie. It’s a good movie to watch on a weekend, but it doesn’t offer up anything new. As much as I enjoyed the movie as a whole, I ended up more excited for future films than just for The Mummy.
