The Mummy (2017)

The Mummy is a 2017 American horror action-adventure film directed by Alex Kurtzman and written by David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie, and Dylan Kussman.

It was intended to be the first film of a Dark Universe compromised of Universal Studio's classic monsters.

Plot
In 1127 A.D., several English crusader knights bury an Egyptian ruby within the tomb of one of their number. In present-day London, a construction crew discovers the tomb and a mysterious man is authorized to investigate the site.

In a flashback to the New Kingdom era, Princess Ahmanet is first in line to succeed her father Menehptre until his second wife gives birth to a son. Determined to claim the throne for herself, Ahmanet summons Set, who agrees to help her if she uses a dagger to transfer his spirit into a corporeal form. After killing her family, Ahmanet attempts to sacrifice her lover to Set but is captured by her father's priests and condemned to be mummified alive for eternity. Her sarcophagus is buried in Mesopotamia and submerged in a pool of mercury so that her monstrous form will not escape.

In present-day Iraq, Sergeant Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) & Corporal Chris Vail while on Long Range Reconnaissance for the U.S. Army, discover the tomb of Ahmanet after calling in an airstrike on an insurgent stronghold. Jenny Halsey, an archaeologist who had a one-night stand with Nick, arrives and investigates the tomb, correctly concluding that it is a prison. After extracting Ahmanet's sarcophagus from a pool of mercury, Nick's superior, Colonel Greenway, places the sarcophagus on a transport plane headed to England. During the flight, Vail becomes possessed by Ahmanet's power after being bitten by a camel spider while inside the tomb. After attempting to open the sarcophagus, he stabs Greenway and tries to attack the group, forcing Nick to kill him. A huge murder of crows then assault the plane, causing it to crash and kill everyone on board except for Jenny, who is parachuted off the plane by Nick.

Nick awakens a day later in a morgue in Oxford, and learns from Vail's ghost that he has been cursed by Ahmanet, who seeks to use him as a replacement vessel for Set. Ahmanet's mummy escapes from the sarcophagus and begins feeding on rescue workers to regenerate her decomposed body. Turning the workers into zombie minions, she lures Nick and Jenny into a trap, forcing the two to fight off the minions as they unsuccessfully try to escape. Ahmanet also recovers the blade of the Dagger of Set from a reliquary in a nearby church. At the last second, unknown soldiers appear and subdue Ahmanet. Their leader, Dr. Henry Jekyll, explains that Jenny is an agent of Prodigium, a secret society dedicated to hunting supernatural threats. He confirms that Nick was cursed when he unlocked Ahmanet's tomb and reveals his intention to complete her ritual and allow Set to possess Nick in order to destroy Set and end his evil forever.

Meanwhile, Ahmanet summons a scarab beetle to possess a Prodigium technician and frees herself from captivity, wreaking havoc, death, and destruction in the process. Jekyll is also seen to be succumbing to his own dark impulses and transforms into Edward Hyde, his murderous and psychotic alternate personality while Ahmanet wreaks havoc outside unbeknownst to them. And when Nick rebuffs Hyde's offer of an alliance between them, Hyde attacks him. Nick manages to stop him with the serum Jekyll uses to suppress his evil side. He and Jenny then escape from Prodigium while Ahmanet steals back the dagger, summons an army of deceased English crusaders to serve her, and creates a massive sandstorm that ravages London. The undead knights slaughter the Prodigium soldiers in the tomb, allowing Ahmanet to recover the ruby and set it in the dagger's pommel, granting her all she needs to free Set.

Guided by Vail, Nick and Jenny flee into the London Underground tunnels, but are attacked by Ahmanet's minions. Ahmanet captures Jenny and drowns her, hoping to break her hold over Nick. Nick puts up a fight, but gives up and lets himself embrace Ahmanet, using it as a ruse to steal the dagger and tries to destroy the ruby. However, he sees the lifeless Jenny and bets on stabbing himself. His body is possessed by Set, who proceeds to join Ahmanet to uphold his end of the bargain until he sees Jenny's dead body, at which point Nick regains control and uses Set's powers to overpower and suck the life out of Ahmanet, turning her back into a shriveled mummy. Nick harnesses Set's powers to resurrect Jenny, saying goodbye before becoming overwhelmed by Set's power and disappearing. Soon, Jenny regroups with Dr. Jekyll and they discuss if Nick, now fused with Set, will be good or evil. Ahmanet's corpse is lowered into a locked pool of mercury within the Prodigium base for safekeeping. Later on in the desert, Nick resurrects Vail, and the two set out on an adventure.

Why the Dark Universe is Wasted

 * 1) Despite this film being called The Mummy, it focuses more on setting up the Dark Universe than on being a movie of its own by shoving in pointless side characters such as Dr. Jekyll that exist only to tease sequels, as a result it loses focus on its own plot which becomes incomprehensible and at times stupid (Ahmanet makes a deal with an evil god... to kill people with a knife? She didn't need selling her soul for that).
 * 2) *The movie obnoxiously flashes the Dark Universe logo at the beginning despite it being the first (and only) movie in the franchise with nothing properly setup. By comparison, mh:greatestmovies:Marvel Cinematic Universe movies didn't start showing the MCU stylized Marvel logo until the franchise was properly established years after it began.
 * 3) *Despite that however, the Dark Universe was eventually resumed, with Renfield, a film centered around Count Dracula's henchman of the same name, was in works.
 * 4) On the topic of Ahmanet, her motivations are very convoluted. She wants revenge against all mankind... just because a baby brother was born?
 * 5) The movie incorrectly states that Set is the Egyptian god of death.
 * 6) *This is an even weirder mistake when you consider that the 1999 remake more accurately gave this title to Anubis.
 * 7) The opening is too drawn out, starting with the Crusades, then there are the modern times and finally ancient Egypt to explain the plot.
 * 8) Poor and laughable dialogue, the most infamous line being "Thanks for bringing me back from the dead!"
 * 9) Poor grasp of the original source material (e.g. it does not take place in Egypt like any other versions).
 * 10) Bad acting from actors like Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis and Sofia Boutella.
 * 11) Most of the characters are poorly developed.
 * 12) The pacing is not very good.
 * 13) The dead friend that acts as a spiritual adviser is a rip-off of An American Werewolf in London.
 * 14) The tone is wildly inconsistent, just like Alien: Covenant.
 * 15) *One moment it's a dark horror, the next it's an action/comedy.
 * 16) The movie can get rather dark and disturbing for it's PG-13 rating, where Ahmanet slits her baby brother's throat. Maybe it could've been rated R instead.
 * 17) Sub-par special effects.
 * 18) The ending of the movie is anti-climactic.
 * 19) Nick's love interest Jenny barely has any chemistry with him and doesn't really contribute anything to the movie.
 * 20) Terrible direction by Alex Kurtzman.
 * 21) The soundtrack, while decent, isn't too memorable.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Some of the action scenes are passable.
 * 2) Ahmanet, the main villain has a cool design and an intimidating presence.
 * 3) *Not to mention, the idea of a female mummy rising from the dead was actually an original and interesting idea, but executed very poorly.
 * 4) As useless as Dr. Jekyll is as mentioned above, Russell Crowe (despite being wasted) was clearly enjoying himself and made his performance entertaining (even though most of the acting was bad as mentioned above).
 * 5) Decent soundtrack, even though not very memorable as mentioned above.
 * 6) The Book of the Dead from the 1999 movie of the same name made an Easter egg appearance.

Reception
The Mummy was panned both by critics and fans alike, with criticism aimed at its narrative tone, acting, and unfocused plot with shoved-in story elements for the sake of sequel-baiting future Dark Universe movies. The movies generally described as "The perfect way to screw up a Cinematic Universe before it starts". On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 16% based on 310 reviews, with an average rating of 4.22/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Lacking the campy fun of the franchise's most recent entries and failing to deliver many monster-movie thrills, The Mummy suggests a speedy unraveling for the Dark Universe.". On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 34 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". However, audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported filmgoers gave it a 70% overall positive score.

Due to the poor reception of the movie, Universal held back the filming of The Bride of Frankenstein that was supposed to be another Dark Universe installment. By November, the producers of the Dark Universe, Alex Kurztman and Chris Morgan, left the project; placing the future of the franchise in doubt.

The movie was nominated for multiple Razzie Awards and won the "Worst Actor" award to Tom Cruise.

On January 28th, it was announced that Universal based production company Blum House is starting a standalone movie based on the universal monsters and are to be director-driven, starting with the Invisible Man directed by Liegh Whannel, produced by Jason Blum but will not cast Johnny Depp in the role. The Dark Universe was effectively scrapped by Universal Studios. However, following the critical and financial success of Leigh Whannell's The Invisible Man (2020), development of the Dark Universe was eventually resumed. Renfield, a film centered around Count Dracula's henchman of the same name, has been in development since November 2019. It is based on an original pitch by Robert Kirkman. The film will be a joint-venture production between Universal Studios and Skybound Entertainment. In May 2021, Chris McKay was attached as director, while Kirkman described the film as an "extremely violent comedy." The cast includes Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, Awkwafina, Ben Schwartz, and Adrian Martinez.

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Trivia

 * 1) The IMAX trailer of this movie was incomplete, making a scene where Tom Cruise screams so laughable that it became an internet meme.
 * 2) The Mummy was the second movie that they tried to start off the Dark Universe franchise. The first was Dracula Untold but it received negative feedback, forcing the studio to cancel it.