The Mummy (2017)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2017
	Director: Alex Kurtzman
	Actors: Tom Cruise (Top Gun, Mission: Impossible 1-6), Sofia Boutella (Kingsman: The Secret Service, Star Trek Beyond), Annabelle Wallis, Russell Crowe (Gladiator)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 04.06.2019, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: While scouting during a military operation in Iraq, Nick (Cruise) stumbles upon an Egyptian tomb, or rather as he later discovers: the prison of a cursed undead princess.
Review: After the huge money-making success of Marvel, other studios try their chance at building a Cinematic Universe, like DC Comics, the Kaiju/Godzilla/Monarch franchise and, as I learned only after watching this movie, Universal Studios with their so-called "Dark Universe". It is supposed to assemble many classic "monsters" from the studio like Frankenstein's bride, the invisible man, the Wolfman... and should have been kick-started by The Mummy after the tepid results of the 2014 Dracula Untold which belonging to the Universe is yet unclear. All those guys could ultimately have teamed up "Avengers-style" to fight a greater evil, but not under the denomination of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as the rights apparently belong to somebody else. Unfortunately for Universal, The Mummy was only saved by the Chinese box-office in spite of the presence of mega-star Tom Cruise and has thus put on hold future projects involving Angelina Jolie as the Bride or Johnny Depp as the Invisible Man (that would have been fun). Following in the footsteps of classic Hammer and Universal movies, this movie is however in fact more like a remake of the 1999 The Mummy with Brendan Fraser, especially in the attempt to include humor, but not as exaggerated. Like in other of his movies Cruise is not the classic hero but still saves the day in the end. I found the movie in itself not too bad, the little twist in the end welcome, and in particular I loved the addition of Dr. Jekyll played by Russell Crowe. However my appreciation or the movie is limited by some story points that fall flat or don't make much sense. It is even worse when you think that this is an attempt at building a coherent Universe. For example I find that it is always hard for the MCU and DCEU to include the general Earth population in their stories but they somehow manage (especially the former) while in The Mummy half of London is destroyed with the population as simple by-standers...  I am not sure this was a useful remake, especially if it doesn't lead to a sequel or a larger Universe.
Rating: 5 /10