'The Mummy' Movie Review

Hello, fellow moviegoers!
   The Mummy is directed by Alex Kurtzman, and it stars Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, and Russel Crowe. When a group of adventurers reawakens an ancient Egyptian princess, they must stop her before she brings unknown horrors into the world. This is the first entry in Universal's new "Dark Universe", a cinematic universe based around their classic movie monsters (The Mummy, Frankenstein, Dracula, etc.).

   The biggest problem with The Mummy is that it sometimes forgets that it's The Mummy. Universal is trying so hard to set-up the Dark Universe that they forgot to actually make the first film good. Many times throughout the film, they abandon the main plotline to give long monologues about this "new world of gods and monsters". While the universe they're setting up seems interesting enough, if they want it to succeed in the future they need to focus more on the actual movies and not on the universe.
   The plot of the movie works fine enough, but it fails to really go the extra mile. There isn't enough meat on the bones here to actually make the film interesting. To make matters worse, there are moments in the film that are really interesting. You get glimpses of a great movie here and there, but overall the story fails to be anything that will stick with you.
   I do want to point out that there is some fun to be had in this movie. Visually, this film is excellent. The design of Sofia Boutella's mummy was unique, and the makeup was really well done. The production design of any of the Egyptian sets was interesting to look at, as well as the headquarters of the organization Prodigium. Also, the shot you see a lot in the trailers with the splitting pupils was really cool to watch, even though we'd seen it before. 
   The action scenes in this movie were also a lot of fun. They were very well shot, and easy to follow. This movie does crashes really well. There are several points in this movie where something is crashing, and all of those scenes were great. Particularly the plane crash scene you see in the trailers. That whole scene really managed to get your blood pumping, and Tom Cruise really sells it well. 
   The cast in the film gave decent performances as a whole. Tom Cruise was Tom Cruise, so if you've enjoyed him in anything else, you'll probably like him in this. The one major standout, to me, was Russel Crowe. I won't spoil his character because some people don't know who he's playing, but just know that he plays his character really well. You can tell that he's having a lot of fun doing it, and I hope we see a lot more of him in the future. The character itself felt a little shoehorned into the movie, but Crowe still gave a great performance so that can be forgiven.  
   There were a few things in the film that felt really silly. The biggest of which was Jake Johnson's character. His character was there to serve two purposes. He was "the comedic relief", and he forwarded the plot. In a better film, that could have worked. In this film, however, he just felt like a McGuffin that makes bad jokes. Some of the other silly things were a few character motivations that don't really make any sense and the ending, which had potential but wasn't handled well at all. 
   The Mummy sets up the Dark Universe franchise well, but it fails to actually be a solid movie. There is fun to be had in this movie though. It's really cool to look at and the action scenes are well done. Russel Crowe gives a really good performance, but his character felt a little forced. The plot was pretty weak, but I'm really curious to see where they take the Dark Universe moving forward. As a whole, I would say The Mummy was decent. It's not bad, but there are much better movies out there to see right now (Wonder Woman, It Comes at Night).
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6/10 

   So what did you think of The Mummy? Are you excited about the Dark Universe? Let me know by commenting on this post! Also, if you enjoyed this review, share it on Facebook and Twitter. It really helps! Don't forget, I post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so check back then for more movie reviews and other miscellaneous movie thoughts! 
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