The Mummy
10/06/17 Filed in: Cinema
We saw The Mummy yesterday on its cinema release date, a rare occurrence for me. I had decided to see it based on the trailer and wasn't disappointed, although judging by the reviews a lot of people haven't felt as charitable. Tom Cruise is one of those actors that people either like or not, and many people may have judged the film on this basis. Personally, I find Cruise an extremely dedicated actor who puts everything into a role, to the extent of inhabiting the character and training himself to carry out whatever stunts are involved. In a recent interview on the Graham Norton Show he divulged that he has been training two years for something that we are hopefully going to see in a forthcoming Mission Impossible movie - if whatever it is comes off!
Back to The Mummy. This is an updated version of an idea that's been around since the 30s. However, this time instead of a clunking male mummy we have a lithe young woman, Princess Ahmanet, who was mummified and entombed alive after making a pact with the god Set, following which she murdered her family. Set gives her a special dagger with a ruby type jewel at the top of the handle, which will allow Ahmanet to transfer Set's spirit into the body of a human, but she was prevented from doing this when captured and entombed after her killing spree.
We now move forward to present day Iraq where we have Cruise, as Nick Morton, with his partner Chris Vail, chasing down a 'treasure' that he believes exists based on a map he stole from the attractive archaeologist Jenny Halsey after spending a night with her. Nick and Chris become pinned down by insurgents and look to be in serious trouble, but Chris has summoned a drone strike that sees off the insurgents and opens a large hole, in which we see an Egyptian statue that signifies the presence of a tomb. The treasure Nick was looking for? Jenny arrives and tears Nick off a strip for stealing the map before the three of them descend into the hole to investigate further.
They find an elaborate chamber with a pool of mercury and it doesn't take Jenny long to decide that what they've found isn't a tomb but a prison, the mercury acting to keep the evil at bay. But Nick doesn't go for all this and shoots a chord that is part of a counterbalanced weights system, the result being that a sarcophagus slowly emerges from the pool. Almost immediately Nick starts to have visions that take him back to ancient Egypt and reveal Ahmanet to him. Meanwhile Chris is bitten by a spider, although is assured by Nick that it isn't poisonous.
The duo's superior officer, Colonel Greenway, tells them that they need to evacuate because of the danger from insurgents returning, so the sarcophagus is quickly removed using a helicopter and placed on a cargo plane, which takes off just before being engulfed in a sandstorm. They're heading for England where a 'specialist', Dr Henry Jekyll (yes, that's right, the very same) awaits the cargo. On the way Chris' spider bite proves to be more of a problem than expected, leading to him turning into something like a zombie and wreaking havoc in the process, but no sooner this little episode is resolved (well, sort of) the plane is attacked by a swarm of crows and starts to crash dive. Nick manages to get Jenny into a parachute harness but to all intents and purposes Nick goes down with the plane.
But this is fantasy fiction, so Nick isn't dead. Far from it, there isn't a scratch on him, although the rest of the crew are well and truly dead. He doesn't understand why he survived, but it soon becomes apparent. Ahmanet has selected him as the one who will receive Set's spirit. And the crash site isn't random, Set's dagger is nearby although minus the jewel. That's been found elsewhere, in the Crossrail excavation no less. This then sets up the rest of the plot. Ahmanet is after Nick, Jenny is in mortal danger and Dr Jekyll is the one who's trying to control the real and present danger, although his solution isn't one that Nick strongly favours. Zombie Chris, meanwhile, keeps appearing, although only Nick sees him.
There are some impressive special effects, as you would expect. The plane crash where everybody floats around in zero gravity was, it seems, the result of no less than 64 zero gravity parabolic manoeuvres, wherein not only the actors but the film crew had to avoid spewing up. The CGI is also spot on, with Cruise doing a mini reprise of his breath-holding abilities first displayed in Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation.
I must admit that as baddies go, Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) was scary but extremely attractive, well at least while she retained a body and if you disregarded the hieroglyphics all over her body. Of course, in the end it comes down to a confrontation between her and Nick, the outcome of which nicely sets things up for at least one more sequel. I've read that Universal Pictures are hoping that this will give them a form of super heroes platform that, up to now, they have been lacking.
The duo's superior officer, Colonel Greenway, tells them that they need to evacuate because of the danger from insurgents returning, so the sarcophagus is quickly removed using a helicopter and placed on a cargo plane, which takes off just before being engulfed in a sandstorm. They're heading for England where a 'specialist', Dr Henry Jekyll (yes, that's right, the very same) awaits the cargo. On the way Chris' spider bite proves to be more of a problem than expected, leading to him turning into something like a zombie and wreaking havoc in the process, but no sooner this little episode is resolved (well, sort of) the plane is attacked by a swarm of crows and starts to crash dive. Nick manages to get Jenny into a parachute harness but to all intents and purposes Nick goes down with the plane.
But this is fantasy fiction, so Nick isn't dead. Far from it, there isn't a scratch on him, although the rest of the crew are well and truly dead. He doesn't understand why he survived, but it soon becomes apparent. Ahmanet has selected him as the one who will receive Set's spirit. And the crash site isn't random, Set's dagger is nearby although minus the jewel. That's been found elsewhere, in the Crossrail excavation no less. This then sets up the rest of the plot. Ahmanet is after Nick, Jenny is in mortal danger and Dr Jekyll is the one who's trying to control the real and present danger, although his solution isn't one that Nick strongly favours. Zombie Chris, meanwhile, keeps appearing, although only Nick sees him.
There are some impressive special effects, as you would expect. The plane crash where everybody floats around in zero gravity was, it seems, the result of no less than 64 zero gravity parabolic manoeuvres, wherein not only the actors but the film crew had to avoid spewing up. The CGI is also spot on, with Cruise doing a mini reprise of his breath-holding abilities first displayed in Mission Impossible - Rogue Nation.
I must admit that as baddies go, Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) was scary but extremely attractive, well at least while she retained a body and if you disregarded the hieroglyphics all over her body. Of course, in the end it comes down to a confrontation between her and Nick, the outcome of which nicely sets things up for at least one more sequel. I've read that Universal Pictures are hoping that this will give them a form of super heroes platform that, up to now, they have been lacking.