[Review] The Mummy (5.5/10)

The Dark Universe has begun with the opening of The Mummy. And it really was mixed feelings coming out of it.

What was good about it was the quality of the action sequences and setups leading into them. This was definitely a typical Tom Cruise type of action, and with Cruise doing his own stunts once again added to the quality of the way they were shot by director Alex Kurtzman.

The horror factor was definitely appreciated as this was The Mummy after all. There has to be the horror element, otherwise it would have been a mistake.

However, that's also where the negatives starts. The whole movie played out more like an action-adventure a la Indiana Jones and not enough horror.

But the biggest mistake here was the same type of missteps by the likes of The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 or Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice.

The need to sprinkle in certain factors just to build on the fact that this was part of a bigger, shared universe; they did not flow well at all in the entirety of things.

There was a useless scene with Russell Crowe in the middle that was completely unnecessary. The ending of the movie was badly written. The sudden love factor shoved into the middle of things with Annabelle Wallis had no business being there. Furthermore, Wallis' character was poorly written and her performance here did not do her justice. And finally, Jake Johnson was wasted as well because his character development made no sense whatsover.

However, the sparkle here was Sofia Boutella as the titular character. She brought the horror element, the performance and the physicality required to play the part.

But as an entertainment piece, it did satisfy. There was a lot of aesthetics to see, some well crafted suspense; and as a setup to the Dark Universe, it's probably better than Darcula Untold.