The Mummy, the 2017 version of the classic Universal monster, crashed and burned at the box office this past summer (although it did extremely well at the overseas box office). It strived to be a far more vibrant and exciting version of the Boris Karloff version of the Mummy that was released in 1932, to which this film was often compared to in its promotional and publicity materials. And yeah, the Karloff Mummy is very dated and creaky--with the exception of a still-chilling sequence of an expedition member going insane with horror at the (off-screen) sight of the Mummy making its way out of its tomb.
Yet Universal seems to have forgotten its other Mummy remake, the superb film that was released in 1999 with Brendan Fraiser and Rachel Weitz that--unlike the Tom Cruise version--was such a hit that it spawned two sequels. The Fraiser version had a sense of fun and high adventure that effortlessly blended humor and horror into an extremely enjoyable package that stands up to repeated viewings even to this day. But the Tom Cruise version has none of this. So what happened with the brand spanking new version with Tom Cruise? Part of the problem was with Cruise himself.
While Tom Cruise may well be a world-wide superstar, I never really thought he was a very strong actor. When you see him in films like Valkyrie, where he’s surrounded by an impeccable cast of actors, he’s usually the weakest link. That’s because Cruise basically plays himself in each and every film--which works very well in the Mission Impossible films, but it doesn’t here. In The Mummy Cruise is playing a U.S. soldier who’s supposed to be one of these likeable scoundrels that’s always out for himself in a humorous vein.
But I don’t even believe Cruise as a soldier here, much less a lovable rascal. He’s badly miscast in The Mummy, in the part of an adventurous rogue that Harrison Ford played to perfection in the Indiana Jones films. Even Brendan Fraiser was very good and completely believable as ’shoot-first-ask-questions-later’ Rick O’Connell in his Mummy films. As a result of Cruise’s miscasting, his very presence drags down the film overall, which feels more like just another one of his action films, instead of a horror thriller. This is a shame, because Sofia Boutella, who was very good in Star Trek Beyond, manages to shine whenever she’s allowed to here as the Mummy.
The other problem with the new Mummy is that it is the first film in the new Dark Universe saga, and we are reminded of this by the presence of Russell Crowe as Henry Jekyll (yep, the same dude who turns into Mr. Hyde), who runs a special monster squad that captures monsters and keeps their body parts in specimen jars after presumably performing horrific experiments on them (wait, who are really the monsters, here?). Valuable screen time that could have been devoted to battling the Mummy (remember her?), is instead wasted on twitchy Dr. Jekyll and his group of minions--who feel more like an intrusion on the story that I actually wanted to see.
So the new Mummy winds up being a faulty action/adventure/comedy that forgot it was a horror movie that spends the better part of its running time advertising an upcoming series of Dark Universe films which may or may not even be happening now that this incarnation of the Mummy has bombed (at least in the US). Excuse me while I go watch the Mummy again--you know, the good one with Brendan Frasier and Rachel Weitz. And I’m even going to re-watch the original Mummy with Karloff, because--creaky or not--it’s got Karloff, a sturdy actor and a class act who was never, ever miscast in his entire career. --SF
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