***Adventure, thrills, horror, Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis***

Two American soldiers & treasure-hunters (Tom Cruise and Jake Johnson) discover the tomb of evil Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), who attempted to summon the death-god Set but was seized and mummified alive. They and an attractive archaeologist (Annabelle Wallis) fly Ahmanet's sarcophagus to Britain when all hell breaks loose. Russell Crowe is also on hand.

"The Mummy" (2017) is the reboot of The Mummy trilogy of 1999-2008 and the first official film in Universal’s Dark Universe franchise, which reimagines & updates the classic universal monsters. The producers flirted with the idea of "Dracula Untold" (2014) being part of the Dark Universe, and the epilogue of that movie set in the modern world suggested this, but the idea was dropped. While “The Mummy” garnered $410 million worldwide, it was considered a disappointment and critics generally lambasted it.

I found the modern setting a nice change of environment compared to the late 1920s-40s of the previous trilogy; it prevented it from being the same-old-same-old. I also didn't mind the various locations outside of ancient Egypt, e.g. northern Iraq and England; even Hammer's version from 1959 started in Egypt, but quickly moved to England. I also favored the switch to a female mummy and that the slightly convoluted story kept you guessing. So the flick gets points for NOT being one-dimensional and hackneyed.

I enjoyed it for the most part, although it coulda been more compelling in the latter portions. It has the same spirit of high adventure of the 1999 movie mixed with gothic horror (including creepy zombies) and a bit o’ comedy, but not too much. While the curious inclusion of Dr. Jekyll (Crowe) smacked of pushing the new franchise, it didn’t ruin the viewing experience. And winsome Wallis doesn’t hurt.

The film runs 1 hour, 50 minutes, and was shot in England; Burbank, California; and the Namib Desert, Namibia.

GRADE: B

A disappointment.

'The Mummy' begins with promise. I initially enjoyed the duo of Tom Cruise and Jake Johnson, the plot set-up and the location choice of London. Russell Crowe is a standout name too. However, sadly, the film gets progressively worse throughout the 110 minutes.

The premise kinda just falls into itself, with any interest disappearing pretty quickly. The link between Cruise and Johnson becomes tiresome, as does all the comedy in the film in truth - there's a few chuckles, but nothing laugh worthy. The zombie vibe doesn't fit, either.

What also doesn't help is the fact they're blatantly trying to set up a film universe of some sort, which they put too much focus on. I found the effects hit-and-miss, I feel like they could've used more practical stuff rather than relying so much on CGI - for the make-up et al. at least.

Cruise leads ably and does a decent enough job - he has done far greater of course. Crowe never really gets going in my opinion, though does have a couple of cool to look at scenes late on. Sofia Boutella is alright, as is Annabelle Wallis. A meh for the cast.

Nothing diabolical, but a fair distance from good too.

Oh gosh. Where do I even start. This film sucks.

Now before I begin to tear this film into shreds, let me give you some background. I was excited for this movie. I love Tom Cruise. I love Sofia Boutella. I love Russell Crowe. I love the Universal Monsters.

Lets just say I was disappointed.

This film has some of the worst tonal problems in a film ever. An inconsistent tone is my biggest pet peeve. Sometimes it's scary. Sometimes it's a huge action blockbuster. Sometimes it's trying to be like Brendan Frasier's "The Mummy." It doesn't know what it is.

The female lead (who's name I can't remember) is incredibly bland. Not her acting, she's actually quite good. It's the writing is what makes her bad.

Jake Johnson's character is one of the most annoying characters in a movie ever. And I mean that. I hated almost every scene he was in.

The few high notes: Sofia Boutella kills it. Russell Crowe is delightfully campy. Tom Cruise gives another solid performance despite his character being super unlikable.

Alex Kurtzman is what hurts this film. The direction is quite bland. Kurtzman is a bad screenwriter and a just as bad director.

This film is a mess. Tonal problems and bland writing. Some fun action scenes and performances can't keep this film from being a boring trainwreck.

1.3/5.0

Honestly, this film screwed up big time and it's not as good as the 1999 film, most people are going to compare this film to that and I don't blame them. Tome Cruise was like a walking joke in this and while I saw this in the cinema, people were laughing during an action scene that was actually badly put together and I didn't realise this until now. This is pretty much a mix bag of a film which is a shameful way to start off a new cinematic universe of the Dark Universe.

Remember when _Dracula Untold_ was supposed to kick off Universal's Monster-Movie franchise, but then they canned that because of how poorly received that movie was? Well get ready to go straight back to the drawing board Universal, because _The Mummy_ isn't even half the movie that _Dracula Untold_ was. Sofia Boutella as the titular Mummy is the movie's one redeeming feature, but she far from salvages this train-wreck.

_Final rating:★½: - Boring/disappointing. Avoid where possible._