WASHINGTON — Of all the movie monsters, The Mummy should be best suited for a remake due to its very nature of being wrapped and preserved for revival.
So when the 1932 Boris Karloff classic was adapted into a 1999 blockbuster starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, it was no surprise that it became a Top 10 grosser, sparking a smash sequel in “The Mummy Returns” (2001) and launching The Rock’s movie career with “The Scorpion King” (2002).
But if you’ve seen the 2017 trailers, you know that the newest “Mummy” boasts a very different look and feel than its predecessors. That’s a shame because it scraps the far more interesting Indiana Jones archaeology in favor of out-of-control zombie chase sequences that unfortunately won’t die.
The story follows mercenaries Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and Chris Vail (Jake Johnson), who seek black-market trades while evading insurgents across Iraq. When an airstrike opens a crater in the desert, the hapless duo stumbles across an ancient tomb, featuring the mummified remains of the Egyptian princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), who was buried alive as punishment for killing her family.
Arriving on the scene, veteran archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) and military officer Colonel Greenway (Courtney B. Vance) order the coffin to be exhumed, an operation that backfires when the evil spirit of the ancient princess is released, wreaking supernatural havoc across Europe.
It would be dishonest to say that the movie isn’t intriguing at the start. For the first 20 minutes, you’ll be hooked by the backstories of Ancient Egypt and the alluring archaeological digs of present day curiosity. You’ll lean forward as a construction crew finds an underground London crypt for the Knights of the Crusades, then you’ll bite your nails as Ahmanet’s Egyptian coffin is found guarded by statues facing inward, not outward, and a pulley system meant to keep the body down, not bring it up.
While these initial discoveries are suspenseful, the first few action sequences are equally impressive. The Iraqi rooftop shootout is a thrilling introduction to our heroes, who duck and dodge insurgent gunfire that pins them down amid “Butch & Sundance” buddy comedy between Cruise and Johnson.
Best of all is a riveting plane crash, as birds smash through the cockpit windshield for a 3D jump scare, followed by a gripping descent filmed 90 percent with practical effects. Cruise and Wallis took 60 parabolic flights on an Airbus four miles above sea level off the coast of France, free falling for 23 seconds at a time during the ballistic phase to appear weightless in a breathtaking zero-gravity effect.
This plane crash is the high point for director Alex Kurtzman, who wrote “Mission: Impossible III” (2006), as well as screenwriters David Koepp and Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote “Mission: Impossible” (1996) and “Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation” (2015), respectively. It’s in these moments that we’re reminded of Cruise’s gutsy insistence to do his own stunt work even at age 54.
Unfortunately, as soon as the plane crash is over, Act Two goes downhill quickly with a resurrection plot device that attempts to recapture the Live-Die-Repeat magic of “Edge of Tomorrow” (2014). It doesn’t work nearly as well here, introducing an “Unbreakable” cloak of invincibility for Cruise, but one that’s so inconsistent that we don’t know when or how he can be harmed, lowering the stakes.
It becomes most laughable in a forest sequence, where Jenny inexplicably survives a nasty car wreck, then shouts ridiculously from the totaled vehicle, “Get her! Kick her a**!” As Cruise obliges, charging at Ahmanet, she delivers a simple uppercut that sends him flying 50 feet in the air. It’s all just stupid.
During such over-the-top moments, the CGI-heavy villain recalls Cara Delevingne’s The Enchantress in “Suicide Squad” (2016), arguably the worst superhero villain in recent years. As she amasses her zombie minions across Europe, it feels more like “The Walking Dead” than “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Those Indiana Jones flicks worked because they were reality-based until unleashing the fantasy at the end. When you spray the fantasy so early and often, it robs the audience of supernatural wonder.
Sofia Boutella (“Star Trek: Beyond”) isn’t the only cast member squandered by the outlandish script. Courtney B. Vance, who won an Emmy as Johnnie Cochran in FX’s “The People vs. O.J. Simpson” (2016), disappears way too early. It’s disappointing to see such a gifted actor portraying a figure of power, only to be discarded so haphazardly at the start of Act Two. It’s a major missed opportunity.
Meanwhile, Jake Johnson (“Jurassic World”) and Annabelle Wallis (“Peaky Blinders”) are given characters that feel awfully familiar. Johnson’s ghostly sidekick is a rip off of “An American Werewolf in London” (1981), but his apparition shows up too inconsistently to be effective. Likewise, Wallis’ scorned ex-lover is a clone of Alison Doody’s Elsa in “The Last Crusade” (1989), but oscillates from love interest to femme fatale so irrationally that we don’t buy Cruise’s feelings in a climatic teardrop.
Most hamstrung is Russell Crowe, not because of his performance, but because his character of Dr. Jekyll (and Mr. Hyde) is so obviously forced into the script simply to expand the franchise. His extra storyline not only compromises the Cruise-Wallis relationship, it pulls focus from The Mummy, who should be the true antagonist, but instead, spends a large part of the climax tied in Crowe’s chains.
We can understand why Universal would want to introduce Dr. Jekyll; “The Mummy” is supposed to kick off a new Dark Universe franchise with Javier Bardem as Frankenstein, Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man and rumors of Angelina Jolie as Bride of Frankenstein. These monster-movie remakes have plenty of potential, from Dracula to The Wolfman, but Universal better take a new route quick.
This would-be franchise starter is a sad failure to launch. Time to wrap it up, bury it and start over.
