Every studio now is trying to copy Marvel’s formula of making a shared universe for their films in hopes of creating a franchise. Warner Brothers is trying to play catch up with their DCEU which has been really bad up until WONDER WOMAN. Warner Brothers is also going with Legendary for their kaiju universe starting with KONG: SKULL ISLAND -- technically, GODZILLA, but KONG was the one that really pushed the universe further. And now Universal is trying their second attempt at doing their Dark Universe for the supernatural beings. Think if VAN HELSING was a movie universe instead of just one movie. DRACULA UNTOLD was supposed to be the start, but that failed so they’re retying. For better and worse, Universal is stuck with THE MUMMY. Right at the beginning they’re showing off their shiny new Dark Universe logo to fully commit.
THE MUMMY I can’t really say is disappointing because I wasn’t really expecting much to begin with. Yet it managed to both exceed and fall short of expectations. The major problem with trying to push for a shared universe before you even get one film out is you’re immediately going to have to set up a lot of things. The perfect example of a movie being too preoccupied with setup rather than the movie at hand is IRON MAN 2. And THE MUMMY feels even worse than that.
It takes a while to actually get to Nick (Tom Cruise) and Vail (Jake Johnson) it starts to be fun. The two of them are funny and have nice chemistry. I would have really liked a movie with those two guys in their adventures. But I already knew it wasn’t this film and got kind of upset. I can see the movie with just those two being a lot of fun. And it was while it lasted. But then the mummy stuff starts to happen and that movie goes byebye. After that, it’s kind of a slog.
Nick was quick to jump on board with things being weird. Usually in these monster movies you spend half of the second act trying to convince the straight character that things are supernatural or out of the ordinary. But (not a spoiler, it happens in the trailer) dying in a plane crash then waking up will really put things into perspective. They even play it for laughs a bit. There’s a couple of legitimately good jokes out of this.
This, however, highlights probably the biggest problem of the film. It has no idea what kind of tone it wants. First it’s a serious film. Then it’s a goofy action-adventure film with Nick and Vail. Then it’s serious. Then it’s a horror film. Then there’s comedy. Then back to serious. Then exposition dump. Then really dark. Then silly. Then serious again… Much like it trying to juggle the Dark Universe building and the story it can’t handle all these different tones. Not only does it play to the detriment of THE MUMMY but it doesn’t give much hope for future Dark Universe films.
Which sucks because I really liked Russell Crowe as Dr. Henry Jekyll. This isn’t really a spoiler as arrives before Tom Cruise does. Crowe plays the character(s) fantastically and it really got me excited to see his movie later on down the line. I kind of like how they just have him as part of the universe from the get-go. I think it’s better than to just reveal him at a later point and just expect us to just acknowledge he was here the whole time. But using him as an exposition dump isn’t the best way to do it. Spider-Man 2 did a much better job of setting up Dr. Connors and The Lizard. They didn’t build him up, they just had him be a supporting character that Peter runs into. They acknowledge him as part of the universe without drawing attention to him. Unfortunately that ultimately didn’t lead anywhere, but it’s a better way to do it.
One other thing I have to mention… Egyptians are getting screwed by Hollywood. Between EXODUS: GODS AND KINGS, GODS OF EGYPT, and now THE MUMMY, Americans must think Egyptians were a bunch of white dudes. Think about that for a moment. Egyptians, white people in the desert before sunscreen was invented… Yeah, right.
Honestly, I find it hard to talk about this movie. There’s not much to say. It’s got a ton of problems and a few good things here and there. But worst of all is that it’s just plain boring. There’s a lot of spectacle but it’s hollow. Even with some genuinely funny, albeit jarring, jokes it’s not enough to recommend viewing this movie for anything other than Russell Crowe’s performance as Dr. Jekyll. But that’s definitely not worth the price of admission. Go watch WONDER WOMAN or CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS instead.
4.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment