The Mummy

***Adventure, thrills, horror, Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis*** Two American soldiers & treasure-hunters (Tom Cruise and Jake Johnson) discover the tomb of evil Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), who attempted to summon the death-god Set but was seized and mummified alive. They and an attractive archaeologist (Annabelle Wallis) fly Ahmanet's sarcophagus to Britain when all hell breaks loose. Russell Crowe is also on hand. "The Mummy" (2017) is the reboot of The Mummy trilogy of 1999-2008 and the first official film in Universal’s Dark Universe franchise, which reimagines & updates the classic universal monsters. The producers flirted with the idea of "Dracula Untold" (2014) being part of the Dark Universe, and the epilogue of that movie set in the modern world suggested this, but the idea was dropped. While “The Mummy” garnered $410 million worldwide, it was considered a disappointment and critics generally lambasted it. I found the modern setting a nice change of environment compared to the late 1920s-40s of the previous trilogy; it prevented it from being the same-old-same-old. I also didn't mind the various locations outside of ancient Egypt, e.g. northern Iraq and England; even Hammer's version from 1959 started in Egypt, but quickly moved to England. I also favored the switch to a female mummy and that the slightly convoluted story kept you guessing. So the flick gets points for NOT being one-dimensional and hackneyed. I enjoyed it for the most part, although it coulda been more compelling in the latter portions. It has the same spirit of high adventure of the 1999 movie mixed with gothic horror (including creepy zombies) and a bit o’ comedy, but not too much. While the curious inclusion of Dr. Jekyll (Crowe) smacked of pushing the new franchise, it didn’t ruin the viewing experience. And winsome Wallis doesn’t hurt. The film runs 1 hour, 50 minutes, and was shot in England; Burbank, California; and the Namib Desert, Namibia. GRADE: B