The Film: 4/5

It’s pretty rare when I’m granted the opportunity to review a big, splashy, FX-driven Hollywood summer blockbuster, and few films released during this hot and miserable season arrived in theaters with greater expectations than The Mummy. Universal was banking on the theoretical financial success of this expensive action-horror reboot to launch their “Dark Universe” series and give them an interconnected franchise that would challenge Marvel and DC’s superhero cinematic universes for box office supremacy.

Unfortunately, they hoped that could be achieved with the help of Tom Cruise’s fading star power with American moviegoers (though he still brings in the crowds in the foreign markets, where this film made most of its worldwide take). Universal still intends to make the Dark Universe a thing even though audiences are failing to muster any enthusiasm for the problematic endeavor, with the studio aiming to release an updated Bride of Frankenstein directed by Bill Condon with Angelina Jolie possibly to star on Valentine’s Day 2019 and an Invisible Man feature starring Johnny Depp also in the pipeline for the distant future.

Cruise is his typical cocky rogue with a slight dash of humor self as Army reconnaissance officer Nick Morton. Along with his wisecracking sidekick Vail (Jake Johnson), he uncovers the secret tomb of Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), an Egyptian princess who was condemned to live burial in an impenetrable sarcophagus after forging a pact with the death god Set and murdering her family to claim the throne. Inevitably, Ahmanet is released from her tomb and goes about draining various male victims of their souls to rebuild her own strength so she can finally complete the mission she began thousands of years ago to give Set the earthly form the demonic deity requires to unleash darkness and mayhem upon the world, or something like that.

That’s the plot of the movie in a nutshell. I didn’t want to spend too much time on a lengthy synopsis that gives away some of the better twists and turns, though they aren’t exactly original or daring. The Mummy is just your basic CGI-heavy tentpole rollercoaster ride that borrows story elements from the 1932 and 1999 versions of the tale and remixes them with crucial ingredients borrowed from classic horror and sci-fi flicks like Lifeforce, An American Werewolf in London, and Tombs of the Blind Dead and loads of Tom Cruise running both to and from the finest digital effects that a budget ranging anywhere from $125-195 million can afford. I went into The Mummy ’17 expecting a passable time-waster of a mediocrity, but instead I was surprised with a highly derivative but still entertaining mash-up of atmospheric horror and slam-bang action feature.

Arriving on home video barely four months after its theatrical release, The Mummy was the biggest film to date directed by Alex Kurtzman, the go-to screenwriter for big-budget silver screen properties who started out as an executive producer for Xena: Warrior Princess before graduating to profitable franchise scripting with Transformers, Star Trek, and Mission: Impossible III with his former writing partner Roberto Orci. Kurtzman had been charged by Universal with overseeing the Dark Universe slate of features alongside writer/producer Chris Morgan (a veteran of the Fast and the Furious series) that was originally supposed to begin with 2014’s Dracula Untold – a plan cut short by that film’s poor showing at the box office.

Despite having only previously directed the character-driven dramedy People Like Us, he was chosen by the studio to helm the movie that would kick off their cinematic universe of adrenaline-fueled adventures starring modern interpretations of their legendary monster characters with a mammoth budget and some terrific talent on both sides of the camera. Kurtzman was one of several prominent screenwriters that took a crack at nailing down the right story, a team that also included Jon Spaihts (Prometheus, Doctor Strange), Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married), David Koepp (Spider-Man, Jurassic Park), and Oscar winner Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects). McQuarrie, who had previously directed Cruise in Jack Reacher and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation (both great flicks), was recruited by the iconic star and avowed couch jumper to beef up his character’s arc and reportedly contributed the plot development that I won’t reveal but plays a large role in the future of the Dark Universe…. if it even happens at this point.

When The Mummy first hit theaters, Variety ran a story about how Cruise appeared to have had far greater control over the film than its relatively inexperienced director, and how he used that increased authority to have the film reimagined as another of his patented starring vehicles. If Universal’s long-term expectations for their Dark Universe line-up is going to ride mostly on the gradually decreasing box office drawing power of names like Cruise, Depp, and Jolie, then the series likely won’t last very long. Sometime during the development process, it was decided that there needed to be a character introduced in The Mummy who would serve as a central player in the larger universe. With that in mind, Oscar-winner Russell Crowe was cast as Dr. Henry Jekyll, the tweedy British scientist who functions as the Nick Fury character and has a dangerous secret of his own that threatens to make Nick Morton’s problems even worse.

Robert Louis Stevenson’s tormented man of science has become the head of a secret society called Prodigium whose purpose is to hunt down, study, and destroy creatures of pure evil such as Ahmanet. Of all the goofy story elements at play in The Mummy, this is one of the best. Jekyll and Prodigium reminded me so much of Guillermo Del Toro’s Hellboy movies (right down to the Del Toro-esque look of the Prodigium headquarters) that I wished the visionary Mexican filmmaker had been made the creative godfather of the Dark Universe, a la Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios. But then these classic anti-heroes and villains that impacted the past century of fantastic cinema might have been treated with the respect they deserve rather than suffer the indignity of being awkwardly transformed into 21^st century action heroes. At least that seems to be Universal’s intentions for this shared universe based on the plot threads left hanging at the end of The Mummy.

There isn’t anything that special about Kurtzman’s (or is that Cruise’s?) stab at resurrecting a horror icon, but with a running time of 110 minutes – far shorter than your average would-be blockbuster – The Mummy rarely drags or overstays its welcome thanks to a lean and muscular pacing. Veteran editors Paul Hirsch (Phantom of the Paradise, Star Wars) and Andrew Mondshein (The Sixth Sense) keep the action moving without seeming incoherent and the exposition flowing without overwhelming the viewer with showing but not telling. Occasionally the story takes us to some interesting places both narratively and visually. Kurtzman and his cinematographer Ben Seresin (World War Z, Pain & Gain) clearly enjoy soaking the audience in the expansive Iraqi desert, cold underground tombs where an army of reanimated crusader knight zombies await Ahmanet’s orders, and the uneasy interiors of Prodigum’s base of operations. The enjoyable music score composed by Brian Tyler (Bubba Ho-Tep, Iron Man 3) hits all the proper action beats but also has a macabre playfulness that comes in handy during the creepier sequences.

Cruise has been way better even as the star of a big-budget genre feature (see Edge of Tomorrow right now if you already haven’t), but his years of experience in front of the camera serve him well as his performance is an absolutely pure paycheck slumming effort, but at least he earns that money by taking the unnecessarily convoluted story seriously (even injecting some levity at times to keep things from getting too grim) and throwing himself – literally at times – into the action scenes with energy and professionalism. The rest of the cast does fine in what is essentially a Tom Cruise ego trip. Boutella emanates menace and sympathy as the slyly seductive Ahmanet and makes a fine adversary for our so-called hero Morton. Annabelle Wallis (Peaky Blinders) gets little else to do but deliver pages of exposition and be a reluctant love interest for Cruise, but she does both well. Jake Johnson (Jurassic Park) supplies some comic relief that doesn’t always seem out of place, and Russell Crowe has a ball hamming it up for the moolah as Dr. Jekyll. He even gets to cut loose royally in a scene where he proves unable to suppress his infamous alter ego Edward Hyde.

Audio/Video: 5/5

Filmed in 6k resolution 65mm, The Mummy is presented in its rightful 2.35:1 widescreen aspect ratio in a stunner of a high-definition transfer that retains a true filmic appearance and takes full advantage of the elongated frame without loss of information on the sides. The cool blue color palette favored by the filmmakers adds immeasurably to heightening the mood and tension of the film and conceals the limitations of the practical and digital effects well. Skin tones are warm and authentic and details are crisp and sharp be they up close or glimpsed at a distance. The best listening option on this Blu-ray is the 24-bit English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio track that has also been encoded as a Dolby Atmos track if you have the proper home viewing technology. You get the full range of audio activity on this track, with perfectly audible dialogue blending beautifully with prominent atmospherics and explosive sound effects during the bigger action sequences. The stellar mix spreads itself across all channels with depth and nuance. Spanish and French Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks and an English Descriptive Video Service option have also been provided along with subtitles available in English, Spanish, and French.

Extras: 3/5

Bonus features start with upfront previews for Atomic Blonde, Despicable Me 3, and Cult of Chucky.

The feature comes complete with an audio commentary in which director Kurtzman is joined by stars Boutella, Wallis, and Johnson. The quartet offer a fun and engaging chat track full of stories, jokes, random observations, and self-congratulatory back patting (as it often goes with these recent releases).

Once the movie is over, we get into the real meat of the supplementary material, starting with four deleted and extended scenes (5 minutes) that were rightly cut from the final film. “Cruise & Kurtzman: A Conversation” (21 minutes) opens with footage from the Hollywood premiere before segueing into a casual conversation between star and director that covers the concept behind this modern take on The Mummy, how Cruise became involved, praise of the cast and crew, and more. Like the commentary, there’s a lot of love shared between the participants, but the ground covered is done so with keen insight into the storytelling process and the nature of creative collaboration in cinema. “Rooted in Reality” (7 minutes) focuses on the work, from script to design, that went into grounding the story in a recognizable world.

“Life in Zero-G: Creating the Plane Crash” (7 minutes) examines the creation of a pivotal set-piece in the film and it’s interesting to watch as Cruise came up with the idea to film the bulk of the sequence in a real airplane capable of simulating zero gravity in flight. That man loves his old school stunts and so do I. Boutella’s alluring villain is the subject of the featurette “Meet Ahmanet” (8 minutes), with comments from the actress and other members of the cast and crew discussing the character’s inception and realization. “Cruise in Action” (6 minutes) naturally covers the aging superstar’s energy and intensity in the service of making the various chases and fights look as real as possible.

The filming of a destructive action sequence set in London during the third act is covered in “Choreographer Chaos” (7 minutes). “Nick Morton: In Search of a Soul” (6 minutes) centers on the character arc of Cruise’s self-serving wannabe hero. Finally, we have the animated graphic novel “Ahmanet Reborn” (4 minutes), a story written by Mark Bristol that is told through a gorgeous series of painted images from artist Christopher Shy. A DVD copy and digital download code are also included in this package. 

Overall: 4/5

The Mummy doesn’t have an original bone in its body, but a small army of storytellers and technicians manage to cobble together a Frankenstein’s monster of an action-horror flick with dumb fun, creepy atmosphere, and head-scratching lunacy to spare. If the rest of the Dark Universe slate happens and they’re as frenetically goofy as Alex Kurtzman’s kick-off feature, I’m down to follow this series wherever it may roam. Universal’s Blu-ray presentation is outstanding with reference quality video and audio and some choice supplements that might enhance your enjoyment of the main film.