I rather luckily received a DVD screener of this movie, though I suppose some might consider it a curse. The movie drew 15% positive on Rotten Tomatoes.
You know what? I’m 65% in and I actually kind of like this movie. Maybe it is because I did not pay full price at the theater, but I am finding this to be a pretty good movie. It certainly didn’t deserve the pummeling the critics gave it.
It does fail the number one test it had to pass, though. It isn’t as good as the Brendan Fraser 1999 movie, which was a lot more fun. A lot more fun.
However, this movie is better than I expected by a lot. I think Tom Cruise is actually doing a really good job. The screen writer, Christopher McQuarrie, made sure that Cruise has an actual character to play instead of just “protagonist man”.
I would actually consider this a pretty decent launch to the “Dark Universe” movies. I honestly hope they still manage to continue.
I liked it. It’s an entirely different type of movie than the Brendan Fraser movie. Like you, I thought it did a credible job of launching the Dark Universe movies, which I also hope continue.
This movie seemed a lot more similar with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, with less steampunk. It’s somewhat unfortunate that they chose to start with The Mummy. It caused a lot of comparisons that they didn’t need. This was less of a light-hearted, popcorn movie than that one. It was a lot darker. I think anyone who walked in expecting excess silliness was bound to be at least a little disappointed (ok - there’s some silliness).
The other thing that I imagine some people weren’t expecting, although I haven’t seen it discussed, is the Tom Cruise character’s unlikeableness. He is not a affable, goofable oaf, like Brendan Fraser. He’s an ass. Granted there’s a redemption arc, but if you’re expecting a classic summer movie hero, this guy ain’t it.
Overall, I hope they continue these movies. My family and I enjoyed it.
I think Universal themselves crushed **The Mummy **with the expectations built up with their “Dark Universe” hype. Everyone wants a Marvel-style money-making apparatus, no one wants to do like they did and build it one piece at a time over years.The film is bogged down by huge swathes of universe-building exposition as the script tries to set up all the other films, rather than just making this one good and hinting at the other monsters and letting things unfold.
And there’s the problem with Cruise insisting on playing characters 20 years younger than he is, so you have Russell Crowe’s character calling him “son” when they’re about the same age. Cruise looks good for his 50s, which is not the same as looking 30.
Crowe does, at one point, refer to Cruise as being “a younger man” than himself; which, of course, he’s not, in the real world; but his character is supposed to be.