When I saw the trailer for The Mummy three months ago, I was excited to see that the main villain would be a woman. Was that the only reason I choose to see the movie? No, I was interested in seeing how Universal Studios would launch their endeavor into the “Dark Universe”. The Dark Universe is the studio’s launch into the monster themed movies using their archive of monster characters such as Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Invisible Man. Universal Studios is trying to play in the same million dollar playground as Warner Brothers (DC) and the Walt Disney Studios (Marvel) with this movie. Does The Mummy hold up or should it take a seat back? Let me share with you my view.
The Mummy starts in present day London, when a construction crew tasked with digging tunnels under the city’s streets discover a tomb. The tomb belongs to a group of English crusader knights and a mysterious man arrives to oversee the archeological find. The story about the tomb is that a gem from ancient Egypt is buried with one of the knights. In a flashback, the hieroglyphics on a mural in the tomb, tells the story of Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella). She is first in line to succeed her father Pharaoh Menehptre, only to be stripped of her birthright when his second wife gives birth to a son. Determined to claim the throne for herself and the power to rule all of Egypt, Ahmanet sells her soul to the god Set, who gives her a special dagger to transfer his spirit during a human sacrifice. After murdering her family, Ahmanet attempts to sacrifice her lover to give Set physical form, but he was murdered by her father’s guards and mummify Ahmanet while still alive.
Fast forward to present-day Iraq, soldier for hire Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and his partner, Chris Vail (Jake Johnson), accidentally discover the tomb of Princess Ahmanet after surviving a battle in the city. Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis), an archeologist, arrives and investigates the tomb and confirms it is the burial site of Ahmanet. After removing Ahmanet’s sarcophagus from the burial site, it is placed on a transport plane, headed to England. During the flight, Vail transforms into some kind of zombie like creature after being bitten by a camel spider while inside the tomb. Vail goes nuts and he kills and attacks the passengers on the plane before Nick shoots him dead. The plane crashes and everyone on board is killed except for Jenny, who is parachuted off the plane by Nick. Nick awakens a day later in a morgue in Oxford, and learns from Vail’s ghost that he has been cursed by Ahmanet. Vail warns Nick that Ahmanet wants to use him as a replacement vessel for Set so he can be born. Ahmanet sarcophagus survives the crash and lands in a deserted church that hides the special dagger that was used centuries ago to bring Set to physical form. During a struggle between Ahmanet, Nick and Jenny, unknown soldiers appear and subdue Ahmanet while rescuing Nick and Jenny. Nick is brought to an unknown location and is introduced to the leader of Prodigium, Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe), a secret society dedicated to hunting supernatural threats. The organization houses objects such as the hand of the Gill-man and a vampire’s fanged skull (hints to the other monster stories will tie in). He confirms that Nick became cursed when he freed Ahmanet from her tomb.
While Ahmanet is being subdued, Nick learns from Dr Jekyll about the “disease” he is suffering with that causes him to transform into an evil form. The form that Dr. Jekyll transforms into is Edward Hyde, which is described as a virus caused by evil. The question of “can evil be cured” is what drives Dr. Jekyll to find all forms of evil that walk the earth and find a cure for evil. Nick and Jenny realize during their time with Dr. Jekyll of his true purpose of saving Nick and capturing Ahmanet which leads to a battle to save their lives and…human kind.
So was this movie entertaining?Yes. Was this movie fun to watch? Yes. Was the villain evil and menacing? Yes. Will I see this movie again? Not in the theatre but would watch it once the stream is released. Now, don’t get me wrong about this. Again, I enjoyed the movie and Princess Ahmanet was a bad ass chick. She made this movie for me. Tom Cruise’s character was cheesy and the damsel in distress, Jenny, did annoy me but watching Ahmanet wreak havoc in London to avenge those that did her wrong was pretty cool to watch.
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