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The Mummy (2017)

In 2017 Universal tried to do it all again, only bigger, darker and joined up. The Mummy was meant to be the cornerstone of a whole shared "Dark Universe" of classic monsters, with Tom Cruise drafted in to carry it and Russell Crowe waiting in the wings as Dr Jekyll. On paper it had everything a blockbuster could want.

In practice it had a problem, and the Dark Universe collapsed almost the moment this film landed. Here is what went wrong.

The Mummy (2017) is a textbook example of how not to reboot a beloved franchise. Intended as the launchpad for Universal's failed "Dark Universe," this version trades the swashbuckling fun of the 1999 original for a grim, joyless tone, a convoluted plot, and a confused identity.

Tom Cruise plays Nick Morton, a treasure-hunting soldier of fortune who accidentally unleashes an ancient Egyptian princess (Sofia Boutella, underused but striking) with godlike powers. The visual effects are slick (there's no denying the budget on display) but spectacle can't save a film with zero charm or momentum.

The story lurches from horror to superhero nonsense, trying to tie ancient curses into secret military organizations and post-credits teases for other monsters. It's not scary, not exciting, and certainly not fun. Russell Crowe shows up as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde in a role that feels like a parody of itself, and Annabelle Wallis spends most of the film unconscious or screaming. The pacing is all over the place, the dialogue is clunky, and the dark tone clashes completely with what made The Mummy legend compelling in the first place: adventure, wit, romance.

It's a messy, soulless reimagining that forgets the heart while chasing cinematic universe dreams. A darker reboot but also a needless one.

It's a lifeless corpse of a film that should've stayed buried. The Dark Universe died before it began, and this was its tombstone.

What really stings is that the ingredients were all there. A game cast, an enormous budget, a property people genuinely adore, and the film squanders every last one of them chasing a franchise that never arrived. I came out feeling nothing at all, which for a monster movie might be the worst crime of the lot. Go and watch the 1999 one again instead.

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The Mummy (2017)

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