The Mummy Review

Plotline: –

Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and his friend cum ally Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) accidentally discover the tomb of Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) while fighting with a gang of Iraqi thieves. Turns out that Nick knew about the tomb which he in turn got to know from an archeologist Jennifer Halsey (Annabelle Wallis). As they are carrying Ahmanet’s coffin in an airplane certain mishaps occur and the plane crash lands.

Will the passengers survive? What lead to the mishap? What’s with the coffin of Ahmanet?

Positive points: –

• Dedicated performances from the cast especially Cruise, Butella and Crowe alleviate it from its obvious glitches.
• The winner in this movie is its cinematography for sure! The movie has so many wonderful shots and a lot being with the camera in constant motion which make the cinematic experience even better and richer.
• Good action sequences with equally wonderful visual effects is what we all wanted and were given faithfully by the makers.
• In spite of all its flaws, The Mummy is an engaging and thrilling watch and becomes even better in the second half.

Negative points: –

• Although the storyline seemed good, its lack of novelty is what irks me a lot. Being the first movie of Dark Universe, it could have given us a lot new other than the same old cursed mummy stories but alas!
• The direction is flawed at quite some parts which makes the movie look silly at times.
• The screenplay incorporates unnecessary humour and seems to have been loosely written many a times along with suffering from a lack of character development.
• As far as horror elements are considered, this movie can’t even scare kids.

Direction, Script and Other Technicalities: –

Alex Kurtzman has done an above average terms in terms of directing the movie. At one side where he has used VFX’s quite well, he also seemed to have suffered from a lack of cognizance in using the actors properly in such sequences. Movies like this depend largely on how the director views it and hence the same is responsible for joining the loose ends of the script which Kurtzman does and doesn’t at times.

The screenplay by David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie and Dylan Kussman was backed by a powerful but clichéd storyline which they worsened with underdeveloped characters and at times silly and unrequired jests. The writing not only uses the same commonplace Mummy legend stories but also fails in doing justice to its characters which makes you feel empty even after a thrilling watch.

The cinematography by Ben Seresin is the best part of the movie and he has used some really wonderful and at times breath-taking shots with my favourite being the plane crash sequence. Movie makers as well as those interested in movie making can take this flick as a case study in case they wish to know how to play with the camera when you need to pour in VFXs. The action sequences are as expected wonderful and so are the visual effects of the film. The music score by Brian Tyler too matches with the mood of the film.

Performances: –

Tom Cruise plays a character which he has played often so there isn’t much new that we could see in him. Nevertheless, he gives a good performance and we are glad to have him in this franchise.

Annabelle Wallis has developed as an actor and has performed better than what she has done in her previous works. Still she has a long way to go in terms of acting albeit her screen presence is outstanding.

Russel Crowe is wonderful as the arrogant Dr. Henry Jenkyl (the famous character created by R. L. Stevenson) but we wished to see a lot more from his character.

Sofia Boutella is amazing as Ahmanet and gives a splendid performance.

Jake Johnson didn’t have much to do instead of being comical even when he is a dead man in the movie.

Final Verdict: –

For all those who had high expectations from this flick, you would be disappointed by the lack of novelty and vapid horror in the movie but it doesn’t compromise with the thrill which makes it a good watch. The Mummy is just the beginning of a new franchise and we may hope to get a lot from it if the stories and the characters are developed properly. Watch it for its thrill, performance and technicalities especially its cinematography.

RATING: 3/5