This may shock you but here’s a opinion that is different from the mainstream.
With a 15% on rotten tomatoes and reviews saying it’s not worth your time, I’m here to offer an opinion that this is actually a good film and gets a bad wrap (no pun intended) Let’s look at a couple of the most common complaints.
“It sets up a cinematic universe instead of focusing on the mummy”
The mummy is the first of a planned cinematic universe called Dark Universe and because people know about this they say it focuses too much on setting up a cinematic universe. When really this film doesn’t spend much time on setting up it’s cinematic universe, It dedicates about 10 seconds on it where you see outlines of the wolfman and creature from the black lagoon but if you didn’t know this is the first in a cinematic universe, this wouldn’t be a problem. This makes sense in the context of the film and prodigium mission.
“This is nothing like the Brendan Fraser movies”
Why should it be? This is a fresh take on the mummy and a reboot. Why should a reboot be like the previous movie in the series which was also a reboot. I bet there were people in the 90’s going “This is nothing like the Boris Karloff movies” A reboot is a chance to do something new. Take power rangers for example that was a reboot of a cheesy 90’s kids show which got turned into a moody teen angst film. That film didn’t get bad reviews for not being like the old show, it got bad reviews for failing to do what it set out to do which was a moody teen movie, it didn’t have enough character development and didn’t go as far as it could have.
The mummy set out what it achieved to do which was an action adventure horror, more action adventure than horror although there are some very creepy scenes. There are only a couple of jumpscares but I feel that nowadays if a horror film doesn’t have jumpscares the people say it isn’t a horror film where the mummy does have some horror.
Why is it good and not bad? It’s fun. Right from the start you know you’re in for a fun ride and it keeps that momentum up for the whole movie. It uses tropes in creative ways. The ghost of a dead guy trope is normally used to be a supportive character and a motivational figure. Here he’s a sarcastic jackass. The look of Tom Cruise’s character, Nick when he’s being sarcastic says it all. The look says “If you weren’t dead already I would kill you.”
The Mummy isn’t as bad as people say, I feel like people were expecting something but they didn’t get what they expected so the reviews are based on what people expected and not what the movie actually is. The movie is fun, keeps the momentum going from start to finish and is a good movie.
I give the mummy a 3/5.
