Disappointingly unoriginal and average.
So here we go, then, Universal begin their rebirth of the Universal Creature franchise (Dark Universe) with a crack at old bandage features, The Mummy, sadly the result is very average at best. You would think that with so many "Mummy" films of the past already on the market this new lease of life would be giving us, well, something new to gorge on, but what we actually get is a painfully familiar.
From a summer blockbuster audience pleaser point of view it has the requisite effects work, it's loud, rambunctious and has Cruise and Crowe for star wattage, but Cruise is going through the motions, Crowe is laughably miscast (with a later dreadful accent issue to compound the misery), while the rest of the cast play second fiddle to the over egged effects work.
It's neither dark enough as a head bothering thinker or witty enough to tickle the funny bone, in fact it at times is very dull. There's also the worrying attempts at crossing over into further creature feature ventures, a big reveal for a main character is sloppily handled, whilst the finale lands as flat as a pancake.
There's some nice touches, the "Mummy" design is sharp (love those eyes), a plane crash is exhilarating and the film's stand out sequence, and the tomb/prison design is neat, but after that you start to scratch around for positives, which in itself tells a story. At least it looks and sounds great in HD, the colours and sub-woofer shakes a treat for the senses.
It's all well and good people asking for it not to be judged by other Mummy films, but the creators here make that inevitable. Lifting the plot from one of the 1940's films, and even stealing a scene from the Stephen Sommers school of Mummy film making. It's unoriginal and as an opening salvo for a franchise it leaves Universal with a hell of a lot of work to do to make it work. 5/10
