First Take: The Mummy- unplanned, unscripted, and not even that decent

SYPNOSIS: An ancient princess is awakened from her crypt beneath the desert, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension.

Until about 6 hours ago, I had no interest in this film, but when a very good friend of mine invited me to join him, I couldn’t have said no- but unfortunately this new reboot of The Mummy to launch Universal’s new ‘Dark Universe’ of films is nothing but exposition and pure disappointment.

To start with, Alex Kurtzman (best known as the writer of the first Transformers film) as a director left me feeling a little dejected, as he has delivered a film that has several major issues. To start with, the pacing is all over the shop, jumping from pointless action scenes to expositionary sequences that are scripted so poorly (by David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie and Dylan Kussman) that it caters to even the most unintelligent audience members- it is just pure paint by numbers stuff. However, aside from the conflicts behind the camera, the film is shot well by Ben Seresin, and Brian Tyler has created another good, but not memorable score.

And that brings us on to the cast. Tom Cruise puts in some good work as usual, but it feels like he has been horribly miscast as an anti-hero character, and to be brutally honest, his starpower simply does not save this film. Sofia Boutella does put in some great work though, but the really questionable performance is from Russell Crowe. He’s meant to be a key player in this new universe of films, so why they brought him in and revealed some major character details so soon into the FIRST FILM OF A NEW FRANCHISE is beyond me.

THE VERDICT

This is one of those films where I get to say the most damning indictment of any piece of big screen entertainment: everyone involved should be thoroughly ashamed. And sure, whilst it may be early days for the Dark Universe, as a very wise school headteacher once said to me, you never get a second chance to make a first impression.

RATING: 2/5