The Mummy (2017) Review

The Mummy (2017) Review

Director: Alex Kurtzman

Screenwriters: David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie, and Dylan Kussman

Story Writers: Jon Spaihts, Alex Kurtzman, and Jenny Lumet

Producer: Alex Kurtzman, Chris Morgan, Sean Daniel, and Sarah Bradshaw

Starring: Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, and Jake Johnson

Composer: Brian Tyler

Cinematographer: Ben Seresin

Editors: Paul Hirsch, Gina Hirsch, and Andrew Mondshein

Production Company: Perfect World Pictures

Part I: Introduction

To be honest, I didn't really care about The Mummy. The trailers that came out for the film didn't particularly excite me either. I didn't know what to expect coming from this movie and I was kinda interested that Tom Cruise hopped aboard this movie. So, did The Mummy surprise me and is it a good movie?

No....actually it's the opposite in fact. It's atrocious. 

Part II: Plot Synopsis

During the ancient times, Princess Ahmanet played by Sofia Boutella was set to rule Egypt after her father, but a son was born before she could rule. After assassinating her family including the newborn child, she was mummified. Now, in present day, two looters named Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) accidentally discover Ahmanet's prison holding and lets her free, cursing Nick in the process. With the mummy on the loose and Nick cursed, Nick and Jennifer played by Annabelle Wallis must find a way to break the curse and stop the mummy from ruling the world.

Part III: Direction & Style

Direction
The direction here is sub-par. There are inconsistent tones being presented here in this film. There are sometimes some serious and dark tones being shown. Other times, it wants to be campy and over-the-top. It doesn't go well together. It's like mixing oil and water. Obviously, this is due to the film having a lot of screenwriters, which I will talk about later in the "Screenwriting" section of this review. I'll at least give the director some credit because at least he tried to put energy into the movie and give it some flavor. However, for the most part, it doesn't work.

Style/Art Style
Like I said before, there are inconsistent tones clashing with each other in this movie. Same thing as with the tones in this movie, the style is inconsistent. It jumps around from campy and silly at times to serious and dark. And it's just a giant mess.

Part IV: Visual and Production Design

Cinematography & Framing
The cinematography is very bland. When it comes to framing, it's okay I guess. Frame shots are okay and I can deal with it. Color palette is not good. I don't like the color palette. There are some instances where the film looks gray-ish and it looks ugly. Even if it doesn't have that gray color palette, it still doesn't look interesting. There's no interesting uses of lighting effects. There's nothing in the movie that makes me go "wow, that's a nice shot". I, especially, don't like the CGI which I will talk about next.

Computer-Generated Imagery
The CGI in this movie is unbelievably terrible. There are moments when the film is trying to scare you at times with monsters but it fails. Because the monsters or zombies or whatever they are just look so ridiculous looking. A lot of shots in the action sequences rely on CGI and it just looks bad. There is a lack of detail on the bodies of deformed and dead bodies (or at least it looks like it). The CGI is even worse than Wonder Woman's CGI usage during the ending. It's that bad.

Camerawork & Choreography
Camerawork, especially when it comes to framing action, is terrible. I guess I'll throw in choreography in here as well since I want to address it. The choreography in action sequences are just freaking ridiculous man. Tom Cruise is an excellent action star. USE HIM! The choreography in the action sequences are some of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen in the movie recently. It's hard for me to describe it other than it's campy and it's terrible. Again, it makes the film look campy yet there are darker tones that conflict with its lighthearted style.

Acting
The acting is generally okay. I'll give Tom Cruise credit. He is a good physical actor and he did try to add some charm to the movie as well by his performance. Everyone else is either terrible or given nothing to do or they were over-the-top. I can't really tell if Annabelle Wallis is just a terrible actress or she was given nothing to do. I'll just assume she was given nothing to do....because she literally just does nothing throughout the movie aside from standing there and looking pretty most of the movie. Jake Johnson's performance was kinda annoying. Sofia Boutella's performance was over-the-top.

Part V: Sound Design and Musical Composition

Sound Design
Sound design is pretty tolerable I guess....except for those annoying jolting ringing noises you hear a lot in horror movies. It's that stupid jolt that happens whenever someone is going around and the sound drains out and when the monster finally appears, they do that loud jolting noise. At least they didn't do it so many times, but it's so predictable. To be honest, I wasn't paying that much attention to sound design, but I was paying attention to the score and musical composition.

Score
The score for this movie is absolutely terrible and extremely forgettable. In fact, I don't remember a single track that played in the movie. I don't even think music was playing for the movie at all. Even if there was, it was just nonexistent and there was no life put into it. There was actually an action scene that if there was music to it, it would have enhanced that particular scene, but for some reason, it either wasn't there or it wasn't good enough for me to listen for it. Also, some of the music I did hear, it just sounds like stock music that you hear in literally ever action/adventure movie ever. Now that I looked up the composer and realized it was Brian Tyler, that kinda explains it because he isn't really a good composer. A lot of the music he writes is very cliched and not that interesting to listen to.

Part VI: Screenwriting & Character Composition

Script & Screenwriting
The script is abysmal and that's really no surprise considering it came from 3 screenwriters and 3 story writers. When I looked up who the screenwriters were, it kinda shocked me to discover that Christopher McQuarrie as a part of the team. At the same time, I wasn't that surprised because I can sense his style and writing in the script. I respect McQuarrie as a writer and as a director. He can make well-written and very entertaining material and I've seen it with his work like Jack Reacher and Edge of Tomorrow. I can also sense his style during in some of the more comical scenes of the movie. Like I said before, a huge reason why the script sucks is due to tonal inconsistencies. Another reason is that the plot doesn't make very much sense. I'm not going to go into spoilers, but even if we're going to accept the logic that this is just a stupid action movie and we'll accept the fact that the plot is ridiculous and doesn't make much sense, it still leaves little entertainment value. The storytelling is just bad. There are moments in the movie where it gets exposition heavy for the sake of expanding a cinematic universe.

Character Composition
Character composition is not very good here as well. The characters are either unlikeable or just lack any charm or anything to follow them. Analyzing Tom Cruise's character, yeah, people will like Nick Morton because it's Tom Cruise. But, aside from that, Nick isn't a well-written character. If you think about it, the whole thing is pretty much his fault. Again, Jennifer just stands around and does nothing aside from looking pretty. Sofia Boutella's character composition is just as dead as her in the movie. Russell Crowe's character is just complete nonsense and doesn't make any sense.

Pacing
The pacing is a bit inconsistent at times. The pacing is at least not completely terrible, but I did think the ending was really rushed.

Part VII: Verdict & Conclusion

All in all, this is nothing more than a cheap and poor start of a new monster franchise for the Dark Universe. On top of that, it's not that enjoyable to watch, especially when you have Tom Cruise in the cast. He tries to give a good performance and I can see the energy there in the presentation, but the technical qualities of the film fail to substantiate its quality. The reason I didn't give it a lower score was because I'll give Alex Kurtzman and Christopher McQuarrie credit for at least attempting to give life into this movie. But, it still turned out to be a bland piece of garbage with little substance. Maybe it will entertain a lot of people because I did hear a lot of people laugh in the theater. But, in my opinion, The Mummy is a terribly constructed film with poor direction, atrocious screenwriting, bland characters, incoherent plot and story, along with some of the worst CGI I've seen in a AAA big-budget movie.

Score: D+

Epilogue
I haven't done an epilogue in my reviews before but I'm doing this to hope that you enjoyed my review in my newly formulated template. I just wanted to have my reviews go more in-depth and into the technical aspects of film. If you enjoyed this more in-depth review, let me know so I can continue to make more. If you think that my review should be improved for more coherency, let me know that as well.