2/5

The Mummy had and still has a lot going for it. I was on board for this film to begin with, when I first heard of a The Mummy reboot I was happy. I was then just a smidge let down to hear that Tom Cruise would be the leading man. Not that I have anything against him, I'm more than excited to see a new Tom Cruise film come out (Mission Impossible [insert number here], Edge of Tomorrow). But his presence is a singularity, and a film needs to work around the man for it to succeed. For the Mummy I simply would have liked an actor that held their own while also blending in, the movie also needed an actor that the audience would believe this scenario was new to, e.g. Chris Pine would have played perfectly in this role. I just don't believe Tom Cruise is new to this, he is an action veteran, and while he still looks great, he comes with the baggage of his previous films. Jenny his love interest, played by Annabelle Wallis, is either too young or just clearly not that into Tom Cruise (I don't blame her), regardless their romance feels more non-existent than contrived, honestly she should have been playing his daughter.*

Casting aside, the savagery of initial reviews (the dreaded council of tomatoes) led me to believe that there could be some merit to their whinging, and there was, but not enough for the treatment this film received. I was disappointed that his comedic relief friend, played by Jake Johnson, died so soon, or at all. Then I was relieved when he was brought back as an apparition, then I had to go through the whole ordeal again when he promptly disappeared and didn't return until the third act and only briefly, just to return alive and well a moment before the end credits, "thanks for bringing me back from the dead". They knew we wanted him back why not just keep him here?

Dr Jekyll's inclusion seemed a bit premature, or simply poorly thought out, when considering the aspirations of this Dark Universe. I was concerned that they would allow it to be written into a script that a man of such an unstable condition was afforded such an important position, within an organisation that housed valuable artifacts and a whole secret organisation (was the organisation inside the London Natural History Museum?), also he must be a terribly negligent doctor, self prescription of controlled medicines could/should/would loose him his license. I mean it's the little things, but I assume he's just upper management, does his boss even know about this?

Apart from these concerns this was a decent waste of my time, beautifully shot in beautiful locations and Sofia Boutella is stunning, and any amount of time could be spent watching her, undead or not. Ultimately The Mummy deserved to have been defeated in a much more satisfying way. But honestly despite the fact that there are so many shortcomings I'm just not mad, I even predict I'm going to play this movie in the background sometime in the future. It is sad that it is destined, at it's height, to just be future white noise while I'm reorganising a room or pretending I'm sick, but that's what nearly all movies become once you pass 21, you're going to be dead soon and you don't have time to re-watch even your favorite film without good reason. I can only hope that this has been a wake up call to Universal to not rush a script that hundreds of millions of dollars is riding on, and really think hard about casting, especially when franchising is the name of the game because I don't think I could forgive two more of these blunders, and I would really like to see this Dark Universe succeed.