113.
The Mummy
5.5/10
Woohoo The Mummy is back! And apparently this one is going to lead the way to Dark universe, show casing all of the monsters that Universal has on their belt. After the success of the first two with Brendan Fraser and the slight hiccup that was his third, it was cool to see that this film was back on the roster, even if it meant seeing the trailer way too many times for my liking. Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe were on board, although I can't honestly remember a Cruise film that I enjoyed. If this was the start of a new universe, it had best make a strong start to pave the way and learning that the film had already changed the Director a couple of times along with Cruise having an abundance of control, it wasn't brimming with confidence. Only time will tell so let's unwrap the movie.
Setting the story we are back in English crusader times of 1127 A.D. and a group of knights capture a large, famous Ruby from ancient Egypt before burying it with one of their Knights in a tomb. Back to present day and construction is taking place on a new underground transport tunnel until the men dig through into a knight's tomb, of course and start snapping pictures until a group of mysterious men lead by one large figure, arrive to investigate. As the man walks up to the main tomb and hieroglyphics on the wall, we see its Crowe stepping out of the shadows to tell us a little history. The story is of Princess Ahmanet who was first in line to command Egypt from her father until he met a new woman and she gave birth to a sun which stripped her of her birth right. Jealously drove her to sell her soul to Set who gave her a special dagger to kill her family with and then sacrifice her lover to bring Set into physical form. Just as we see this about to take place, her father's priests stop her and mummify her, burying her alive and surrounding her in mercury so that her evil form cannot escape from the tomb.
We head over to Iraq now and two men on horses are chatting about sneaking into a nearby town that is occupied by the enemy. They are both soldiers and their faces are covered but its clear that one of them is going to be Cruise and in what was mean to be some dramatic unveiling, he takes off the cloth covering his face and low and behold it's him. He's followed a map to this spot and they need to get into the town to see what it's about. The next scene cuts to the town running down alleyways from gun fire, and onto roof tops with plenty of explosions and dead ends at a must there was also an attempt at humour between the two men. Chris Vail is Cruise's partner and this character just continued to annoy me already. Nick, played by Cruise, leads the two to one final rooftop where they are completely surrounded and Vail, played by Jake Johnson is distraught that he is going to die. Both are saved when a drone drops an airstrike, clearing the way for the mean before the building they are on collapses and falls towards a massive hole that has opened up. All that is visible is the top of a large Egyptian statue. Jenny turns up, an archaeologist played by Annabelle Wallis, just in time to stop the Colonel giving Cruise and his man marching order, mind the pun, and clearly there is some chemistry between her and the main man. It turns out that they had a one night stand and this is how Cruise has stolen the letter and map to the area. The Colonel gives her permission to investigate the site but only if the useless duo go down with her. Hitting the bottom and looking around they realise that it's actually a prison and with time running out for results, Nick shoots a rope which raises the sarcophagus of Ahmanet. Looking straight at the eyes of the casing, Nick starts to have visions of being in the desert with the occupant and is woken just before she kissing him, calling him her chosen. At the same time, camel spiders pour out of the walls and one bites Chris on the neck. Once the coffin is loaded onto a transport plane heading for London, shit starts going down. Nick starts to have the same dream again and as he sees himself getting killed, he wakes to Chris standing next to the sarcophagus trying to open it with a knife. The Colonel goes to stop him but is stabbed repeatedly, to which everyone runs before he turns his attention to them. The bite is clearly affecting him, with one eye now snow white, her face half covered in blue veins. Nick is forced to shoot him dead as he doesn't stop attacking them. Walking into the cockpit, Nick and Jenny go searching and for answers as to what has happened to one of the engines, just to see a few hundred crows flying towards the plane. Smashing through the front windows and engines, the plane is now in a nose dive and Nick grabs the one parachute he can, puts it on Jenny and sets it off for her before accepting his fate and smashing into the English countryside. Now we has just witnessed some of Ahmanet's power of possession.
Nick wakes a day later in a boy bag in Oxford and as he gets off his table, the Ghost of Chris is standing behind him for instant answers. He explains how Nick is cursed and the Princess sees him as a vessel to bring Set into the world. Shitting himself just as Jenny and the main Coroner walk into the room, everyone is surprised that he is alive, but not just alive, he doesn't have a mark on him. Meanwhile at the crash site, Ahmanet has escaped from her coffin and is attacking rescue workers by sucking their faces to regain some skin onto her decomposed body. Once they have been killed, they turn into her zombie minions . Nick and Jenny are slamming some pints back until Nick sees Chris behind the bar calling him over to chat. He follows him into the toilets and they have, what is meant to be a comical exchange, about why he shot him when he was supposed to be his friend. They continue to talk about whether Nick will give in to her as it's going to be the only way to stop it. He needs some air and goes into the alleyway only for the mummy to be there, crawling towards him as hundreds of rats fill the floor and jump onto Nick. Just as he runs for it, a car hurls towards him in full beam and Jenny pulling him off the main road t reveal that he was hallucinating once again. She's already been on the phone to someone to explain that she's going to be bringing him in but Nick is adamant he needs to go somewhere because he knows where the coffin is. Getting to a church yard, we she the mummy spying on them as they explore until they are split up and through another of his visions and he is inside the church, with two zombie minions, as they hold him down on the table Ahmanet reveals herself, smashes a reliquary and bringing out the dagger. Just as she goes to kill him and let Set run riot, she notices the Ruby is gone. Like a proper little Princess she screams the house down as Jenny staggers in, not quite sure what she is looking at. The mummy begins her attack, throwing her into the pews as Kick puts his fist through one of the minions head and kicks the other's clean off. Running outside, they split as is Nick is just saving himself, he jumps into an ambulance and stops to pick Jenny up. After an exchange about him leaving her they head to find a main road to escape before a minion or two try to punch and head butt their way through the windows, obviously failing. They circle around but Ahmanet controls Nick's mind and he's driven straight back to the church. Trying again to drive away, this time they crash down a bank and upside down, they see the mummy walking toward them. Nick grabs a log but is easily over powered and at the last minute, unknown mercenaries appear and subdue the crazy bitch, but also Nick.
Being lead to some underground facility in London, Nick is taken to the leader, Dr Henry Jekyll. Yes really, this story is happening. He even shows us a little struggle to control the power before injecting himself with some sort of quick cure. It's Crowe as well and he explains that Jenny is part of a group called the Prodigium who are a secret society that hunt supernatural threats so as they walk through rooms we see a webbed hand, skull with fangs and the usual predictable shit. He confirms that Nick is cursed because he unlocked the tomb. With a few more visions from Nick, he is worried from the mummy's welfare as she is chained up and being pumped with mercury to keep her evil at a zero. Once back in Jekyll's office, Jekyll is telling Nick that is is fully behind the idea letting the process happen but he wants to be the one to stab him with the dagger. Ahmanet has already told Nick that he would pretty much be a God and be in control of life and death. At this time he's having another transformation into Mr Hyde and as he goes for his serum, Nick grabs it, demanding answers as a worker grabs Jenny and takes her to safety out of the room. She doesn't want to leave an unexpectinrg Nick to what's about to happen. Running around to try and get back in she gets into a library what has a viewing glass of the office and the man is still trying to lead her away as Nick and Hyde start the tussle once a full transformation is complete. There's hardly any change of note, Crowe has put on a few pounds since I seen him last anyway but now his face is veiny and his eyes seems red with a green tone to the skin. Throwing things around with ease, including Nick, his strength is shown until Nick smashes his face with a brief case and then injects him with the serum. Jenny had freed herself by cracking the guy over the head with the book of the living from the Fraser Mummy film, as a little nod to its predecessors. In the meantime, Ahmanet hasn't been quiet and she's summoned a little spider to crawl into a ear of the guard to possess him and free her from the mercury so that she could regain strength. Gradually breaking free she sees Nick and Jenny running across the rafters and has one last attempt to tempt him to become a God but when it fails and Jenny makes him run, she screams the house down. She summons the sands of Egypt to rain a storm through London, throwing buses and smashing all windows are it flies through. She grabs the dagger and jewel before making a break to search for her beloved.
Nick and Jenny are running through the tunnels below London where they encounter plenty of Ahmanet's undead who are the Crusaders that she has brought back to life. Fighting the lot, they head into the flooded part of the catacombs where hey must swim upwards for some air until Ahmanet grabs Jenny's legs and drags her to the depths. Nick fights more minions off him but Jenny has now already drown and Nick takes her body to confront the Mummy. By now it's become predictable, I know that he's going to end up sacrificing himself to bring her back to life. He focuses on trying to smash the jewel but Ahmanet has another go at trying to seduce him instead. This time he seems to be giving in and holds out the dagger, as if he is going to hand it over, until instead he stabs himself. Called it! Now becoming possessed by Set he fights with the Mummy before grabbing her and sucking the life out of her, making her shrivel up into a corpse once more. He runs over to Jenny and brings her back to life with a great technique, he screams at her! Once she wakes he has gone to hide in a dark corner telling her that he has to leave. The film ends by tying up some things and opening others. Jenny and Jekyll watch Ahmanet's body be put back into a sarcophagus and covered in mercury whilst discussing what will happen to Nick now that he is a monster. Jekyll tells her that there is hope as long as he still has a shred of humanity. The whole thing ends with Nick and Chris, the most pointless character who has been now brought back to life, on horse back heading for another adventure as a sandstorm follows them to the pyramids.
Well what can I say? Tom Cruise sucks and I didn't believe in his character at all. He needed a presence on screen and didn't dominate it one bit. Sofia Boutella as the Mummy was a saving grace and I didn't expect to enjoy a female villain as much as I actually did. The role of Jekyll wasn't needed at all in my opinion especially when we didn't even get to see the full transformation. Chris Vail was just a confusing character that tried to add humour, much like Jonathan in the old ones but it was cringe worthy at times and should have simply died and not returned in any form. The graphics for the movie were great and little hints of what is to come from the dark universe could be seen but if this is the showcase of what the want to be a great legacy, it was a very damp attempt at it. It wasn't really the horror it wanted to be, it's cast looked strong but in the end seemed all about Cruise, his jokes fell flat and so did this movie by the end. With a spoon fed plot that you could see coming, it was more orientated to wanted to start a whole new world instead of focusing on this one movie and smashing it. Where's Brendan Fraser at right now?
Nick and Jenny are running through the tunnels below London where they encounter plenty of Ahmanet's undead who are the Crusaders that she has brought back to life. Fighting the lot, they head into the flooded part of the catacombs where hey must swim upwards for some air until Ahmanet grabs Jenny's legs and drags her to the depths. Nick fights more minions off him but Jenny has now already drown and Nick takes her body to confront the Mummy. By now it's become predictable, I know that he's going to end up sacrificing himself to bring her back to life. He focuses on trying to smash the jewel but Ahmanet has another go at trying to seduce him instead. This time he seems to be giving in and holds out the dagger, as if he is going to hand it over, until instead he stabs himself. Called it! Now becoming possessed by Set he fights with the Mummy before grabbing her and sucking the life out of her, making her shrivel up into a corpse once more. He runs over to Jenny and brings her back to life with a great technique, he screams at her! Once she wakes he has gone to hide in a dark corner telling her that he has to leave. The film ends by tying up some things and opening others. Jenny and Jekyll watch Ahmanet's body be put back into a sarcophagus and covered in mercury whilst discussing what will happen to Nick now that he is a monster. Jekyll tells her that there is hope as long as he still has a shred of humanity. The whole thing ends with Nick and Chris, the most pointless character who has been now brought back to life, on horse back heading for another adventure as a sandstorm follows them to the pyramids.
Well what can I say? Tom Cruise sucks and I didn't believe in his character at all. He needed a presence on screen and didn't dominate it one bit. Sofia Boutella as the Mummy was a saving grace and I didn't expect to enjoy a female villain as much as I actually did. The role of Jekyll wasn't needed at all in my opinion especially when we didn't even get to see the full transformation. Chris Vail was just a confusing character that tried to add humour, much like Jonathan in the old ones but it was cringe worthy at times and should have simply died and not returned in any form. The graphics for the movie were great and little hints of what is to come from the dark universe could be seen but if this is the showcase of what the want to be a great legacy, it was a very damp attempt at it. It wasn't really the horror it wanted to be, it's cast looked strong but in the end seemed all about Cruise, his jokes fell flat and so did this movie by the end. With a spoon fed plot that you could see coming, it was more orientated to wanted to start a whole new world instead of focusing on this one movie and smashing it. Where's Brendan Fraser at right now?
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