THE MUMMY (2017)

Studio:       Universal Pictures
Director:    Alex Kurtzman
Writer:       David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie, Dylan Kussman
Producer:  Alex Kurtzman, Chris Morgan, Sean Daniel, Sarah Bradshaw
Stars:     Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Marwan Kenzari, Russell Crowe

Review Score:

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Summary:

A thief, an archaeologist, and a mysterious doctor come together to stop a resurrected Egyptian princess from summoning the god of death.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

England, 1127 A.D. – Crusader knights entomb a fallen swordsman with an ancient Egyptian stone.

England, Present Day – A railway construction project uncovers the underground chamber of crusader tombs. Leading a team of soldiers and scientists, Dr. Henry Jekyll, who oversees a secret society called Prodigium that is dedicated to combating supernatural evil, takes authority over the dig site.

Jekyll recounts the story of Princess Ahmanet, a fierce warrior and heir to the throne of Egypt who was destined to be worshipped as a living god. When her father, the pharaoh, had a son who would become heir instead, Ahmanet vowed revenge. Ahmanet made a pact with Set, the Egyptian god of death, who gave her a bejeweled dagger that she used to kill her father, his wife, and their child. While preparing to murder her lover with the dagger, which would summon Set to possess a mortal man, Ahmanet was captured. Pharaoh’s guards mummified Ahmanet alive and buried her sarcophagus in Mesopotamia under a pool of mercury, which Egyptians believed weakened evil spirits. Ahmanet was then deliberately erased from history.

Mesopotamia, The Cradle of Civilization, Currently Known as Iraq – While on long range reconnaissance for the U.S. Army, treasure hunter Sgt. Nick Morton compels his companion, Corporal Chris Vail, to help him recover buried treasure in an insurgent zone. Caught in a heavy firefight, Vail calls in an air strike. The missiles uncover Ahmanet’s burial site.

Knowing that the duo planned on looting, Colonel Greenway arrives to chastise the two soldiers. Archaeologist Jennifer Halsey also arrives. She reveals that during a one-night stand in Baghdad, Nick stole the map to Ahmanet’s tomb that she received from Henry Jekyll.

Greenway orders Nick and Vail to explore the tomb with Jennifer. From the chamber’s layout and mercury pool, Jennifer realizes that the tomb is actually a prison. Forced to leave because of incoming military activity, Nick triggers a pulley system that releases Ahmanet’s sarcophagus. A camel spider bites Vail.

Nick becomes transfixed by the sarcophagus. He experiences a vision of he and Ahmanet kissing in the desert. In this vision, Ahmanet tells Nick that he set her free.

The sarcophagus is loaded on a plane as Nick, Vail, Jenny, Greenway, and the troops exit the area. While in the air, Vail becomes possessed from his spider bite. Vail stabs Greenway to death, forcing Nick to shoot Vail.

The plane flies into a massive murder of crows that causes the craft to break apart over England. Nick helps Jenny deploy a parachute to escape. However, Nick goes down with the plane and dies alongside everyone else.

Nick inexplicably comes back to life in the morgue. He begins seeing visions of undead Vail, who repeatedly taunts Nick about being cursed by Ahmanet.

Ahmanet resurrects at the crash site. She starts killing men by draining their blood to reconstitute her human form. She then revives her victims as zombie minions.

Shocked that Nick survived, Jenny tells him that she was part of Jekyll’s archaeology group that was searching for the Dagger of Set. Uncovering the crusader’s tomb led to the discovery of the sacred stone from the dagger’s hilt. This in turn led to the location of Ahmanet’s burial place in Iraq. Jenny theorizes that the crash and Nick’s resurrection are related to disturbing the mummy, and they have inadvertently angered the gods.

After experiencing more visions, Nick tells Jenny that he knows where Ahmanet is. Nick leads Jenny to a church where Ahmanet’s minions capture him. With the dagger in her hand, Ahmanet recites an incantation to Set and prepares to stab Nick, but is unable to because the hilt is missing its stone. Jenny interrupts the ritual. Nick fights off the zombies to rescue Jenny from Ahmanet. Jenny recovers the dagger.

Nick and Jenny escape in an ambulance van. Jenny realizes that Ahmanet purposefully brought the plane down near the church so that she could recover the dagger, which was being held in a reliquary. Jenny and Nick also realize that Ahmanet can partly control Nick’s mind when he drives them back to the church.

Nick and Jenny drive away once more while fending off zombie attacks. The van overturns. As Ahmanet attacks Nick, Jekyll’s team arrives in time to take Ahmanet and Nick captive.

Nick is taken to Jekyll’s lab in London. Nick observes Jekyll taking an injection that prevents him from transforming into monstrous Mr. Edward Hyde. Jekyll explains that Prodigium is dedicated to eradicating evil forces. Jekyll also shows Nick the chamber where Ahmanet is held in chains while being embalmed with mercury so she can be dissected.

Ahmanet continues manipulating Nick’s mind as she explains how she intended to make her lover a living god. Ahmanet tells Nick that he has taken her lover’s place in the Set summoning ritual. Ahmanet also tells Jenny that Jekyll will kill Nick to prevent Set from taking form as a mortal man.

Jenny confronts Jekyll. To Nick’s surprise, Jekyll admits that his plan is to stab Nick with the completed dagger, believing that killing Nick to obliterate Set will break the curse. Jekyll’s men recover the stone from the crusader’s tomb.

Ahmanet summons a scarab beetle that implants itself inside a technician’s ear. Possessed, the technician disables the mercury embalming process.

Unable to get to his injection in time, Jekyll transforms into Hyde. Hyde and Nick battle until Nick is able to recover the injection and revert Hyde back to Jekyll.

Nick regroups with Jenny. Jenny theorizes that if they can destroy the stone, Ahmanet will be unable to complete the ritual, which would in turn lift the curse.

Ahmanet breaks free from her chains and recovers the dagger. Jekyll’s soldiers surround the stone to protect it.

Ahmanet pursues Nick and Jenny through London streets as a massive sandstorm causes chaos along her path. Ahmanet also raises crusader knights from the dead to attack Jekyll’s soldiers. Ahmanet recovers the stone to complete the dagger.

A vision of Vail leads Nick and Jenny through the fray into a flooded tunnel. Ahmanet drags Jenny underwater. Jenny drowns.

Nick recovers Jenny’s body. Undead knights capture Nick. Ahmanet confronts Nick after the knights crumble to dust. During their fight, Nick takes the dagger from Ahmanet. Ahmanet appeals to Nick to stop when he smashes the stone on the ground and it cracks. Thinking he might be able to save Jenny, Nick decides to stab himself with the dagger.

Set possesses Nick. The stone shatters when the dagger falls to the floor. Nick embraces Ahmanet. Fighting against Set’s possession, Nick manages to put his mouth to Ahmanet’s and drain her lifeforce. Ahmanet shrivels back into an inanimate mummy.

Nick then uses Set’s power to resurrect Jenny. Jenny recovers the dagger. She approaches Nick, who hides in the shadows. Nick tells Jenny to stop, admitting that he allowed Set inside him so he could save Jenny, but is not sure what he is now. Nick vanishes before Jekyll arrives with his soldiers.

Jekyll and Jenny discuss how much of Nick is still a man and how much is a monster, wondering if he is evil or an ally. Soldiers return Ahmanet to her sarcophagus and fill it with mercury. Nick resurrects Vail and the two men set out on horseback in the desert to search for a cure.

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Review:

Come at “The Mummy” as a standalone film, and it mostly gets the job done as a buttered popcorn blockbuster built from a big budget, big names, and big things going boom.  Except there is a limited amount of slack to cut for focusing on soda pop thrills over substantial chills since “The Mummy” intends to anchor a slate of, presumably, similarly styled films.  That prospect is harder to give a pass, much less muster enthusiasm for.

It would be like knowing in 2007 that in ten years time, there would be four more “Transformers” movies progressively promoting indecipherable CGI fireworks over engaging stories that make sense.  Suddenly, what seemed like harmlessly hollow action entertainment that first time around takes a more ominously unattractive tone.

Plenty has been speculated elsewhere regarding Universal’s shared monster movie world and what “The Mummy” means to its direction.  For the sake of this singular review, let’s simply say that “The Mummy” isn’t the homerun the studio hoped for as the inaugural entry in their “Dark Universe” series.  It’s not the swing and a miss some critics claim it to be either.  Keeping with the baseball metaphors, “The Mummy” hits more of a bloop single into right field: good enough to get on base, not so much for driving in a go-ahead run.

“The Mummy” has a great cast.  Surprisingly, at issue is the fact that nearly none of them are right for their roles as written.

Tom Cruise is Nick Morton, a recon officer in the Army who pulls double duty as a treasure hunter pilfering priceless artifacts from Middle East warzones.  Nick’s latest point of plunder comes courtesy of a map he stole by bedding an archaeologist in Baghdad and blackmailing his buddy into flirting with a court martial too.

Generally speaking, Tom Cruise has a charismatic screen presence.  Although Cruise is considered a sex symbol by some, there remains a “clean” or “safe” aspect to his appeal, even in more rugged “Mission: Impossible” outings as an action star.

Which is why a womanizing playboy with a devil-may-care smirk connecting dots between one-night stands doesn’t fit his personality.  Tom Cruise doesn’t sell cavalier smarminess the same way Kurt Russell, Matt Damon, or maybe Chris Pine could.  Cruise can usually play almost anyone, but this Han Solo/Indiana Jones type is squarely in Harrison Ford territory, and actually aims younger than that.

The same is true of Cruise’s companions.  Jake Johnson portrays Nick’s salty sidekick Vail, a function that suits Johnson fine, yet this specific characterization is on the other side of the actor’s specialty.  “The Mummy” is peppered with subtle swaths of humor.  But because characters skew slightly sideways from the actors’ familiar personas, comedy can’t cut in with nuances the screenplay intends.

On Nick’s other arm is the archaeologist he used to get in his mummy recovery mess in the first place.  It isn’t Annabelle Wallis’ fault that Nick’s conscious love interest Jenny sets herself up to be more basic than white bread.  That blame again falls on the script, written by committee in typical tentpole fashion, which constructs action to be empty, people to be pedestrian, and lines to be literal.

When you add up dialogue for what it really says versus what is on the screen, “The Mummy” outs itself as being interested mostly in moving to the next chase or battle, not building backstory or keeping characters consistent.  Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll proves this by virtue of his shoehorned inclusion.

Nick acquires a curse when he uncovers the tomb of Egyptian princess Ahmanet.  This attracts the attention of Jekyll, who brings both Nick and Ahmanet back to his London lab.  Jekyll is a brilliant scholar, doctor, lawyer, and leader of a secret society of monster hunters.  Academic accreditations aside, when it comes to concocting a strategy for breaking the curse, his mind narrows to simplistic tunnel vision of putting a knife in Nick’s heart, insisting that is the only way.

Jenny has another way however, implying maybe she has more mental acuity than her mentor.  She never gets around to proposing her plan directly to Jekyll though.  She’s busy being led by the hand as a damsel in distress from a spectacular plane crash to a spectacular van crash to a spectacular citywide sandstorm to a slightly less spectacular underground flood full of zombies.  You can say that “The Mummy” is light on a lot of things, but you can’t say it’s light on summer movie spectacle.

Ultimately, “spectacle” is the word of the day for “The Mummy.”  Act one layers in extensive exposition.  As soon as that’s out of the way, the film’s foot puts the gas pedal to the floor and never once dares to check the rearview mirror.

The downside to all of this energetic emphasis on everyone and everything other than Ahmanet, who spends much of her movie embalmed in a sarcophagus or in shackles as a prisoner, is that the main attraction isn’t the mummy.  It’s an awkwardly inserted faceoff between Jekyll and Nick, undead attacks, spider swarms, shattering glass, and eardrum-piercing explosions.  Something is always happening in “The Mummy.”  Now try finding a motivated plotline connecting that sight and sound fury together.

If Universal wants to refashion their monster properties as action-adventures instead of classic creature features, that’s their prerogative.  But when the response to flash and fire without a rolling rhythm is as underwhelming as it was for “Dracula Untold” (review here) and now “The Mummy,” no one should be surprised by the disappointment, either from the audience or at the box office.

Review Score:  55

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