Welcome to a New World of Gods and Monsters
Welcome to a New World of Gods and Monsters
Soooooo wow. This wasn't what I was expecting. Chalk it up to another case where the trailers do not represent the tone of this movie AT ALL. The trailers make it out to be an action movie. The actual tone is more adventure comedy- just filmed in Chris Nolan dark tones. I'd say it's pound for pound similar to Brendan Fraser's Mummy, only with good CGI. In short, this was fun as fuck. After the vanilla intro, with the Russle Crowe voice over and backstory, it becomes chaotic. I'd put it similar to how the Lego Batman movie opens. There's so much going on, the action scenes blend with each other but it's not setup like a set piece. It moves quickly. There's good comedic timing, a lot of fighting and running away from mummies. But it strikes the same chords I felt during the 1999 Mummy. It has a journey. It has stakes. It has fine acting. And I'd watch it again.
Funny thing is- after the movie was over, I have no idea where they are going with Tom Cruise in this franchise.
Saw this days ago and didn't even remember to make a thread. I could talk about it endlessly, but it just isn't a very good movie at all (and I say this as a fan of a large majority of Cruise's filmography: It is among his worst), or even one that seems to know what it wants to be to judge as a tonally cohesive thing with any point of view or style. It sporadically takes on the identities of other (better) movies and then never, ever ties them together as any one complete, discernible unit.
Studio exec: "What about The Mummy, if the mummy was, I dunno.. kinda sexy?"
Tom Cruise: "I'm in! But only if I get to smooch her!"
Studio exec: "Obviiiii!! Also, what if Dr. Jekyll was Nick Fury?"
And here we are.
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
This movie was meh.
So bad. The part where they actually find the mummy's prison is actually full of dread, and it looks as if this could turn out to be a dark horror, but for some inexplicable reason the screenplay keeps throwing in quips and bits of physical comedy that aren't ever funny ("It's not me, it's definitely you" has to be one of the flattest, most ill-advised attempt at a kiss off ever attempted) and then the actual plot kicks in, and you realize that they have not given the main villain a single thing to do and most of the plot machinations are simply variations on "Because she made me with her...thoughts!".... It simply gets worse and worse and worse as it goes along.
Last 10 Movies Seen
(90+ = canonical, 80-89 = brilliant, 70-79 = strongly recommended, 60-69 = good, 50-59 = mixed, 40-49 = below average with some good points, 30-39 = poor, 20-29 = bad, 10-19 = terrible, 0-9 = soul-crushingly inept in every way)
Run (2020) 64
The Whistlers (2019) 55
Pawn (2020) 62
Matilda (1996) 37
The Town that Dreaded Sundown (1976) 61
Moby Dick (2011) 50
Soul (2020) 64
Heroic Duo (2003) 55
A Moment of Romance (1990) 61
As Tears Go By (1988) 65
Stuff at Letterboxd
Listening Habits at LastFM
Only watched this because I got into an early free preview.
It's awful. Just flagrantly driven by corporate impulses and completely derivative of other "universe"-building movies. I don't think I've ever seen anything that so thoroughly felt like it was created by a bunch of old white men in a high-rise boardroom. The whole movie is simply two parts mind-numbing backstory, one part shamelessly cribbed universe setup. I'm generally a fan of Tom Cruise, the movie star, and he is almost unrecognizable here in that familiar role. The lack of chemistry he shares with the rest of his costars is almost palpable, and I'm inclined to believe that lazy direction and editing is the primary culprit for this. Bottom line, we know people do things for paychecks. That lack of passion and interest doesn't always manifest itself in the movie, but boy, it sure does here.
letterboxd.
A Star is Born (2018) **1/2
Unforgiven (1992) ***1/2
The Sisters Brothers (2018) **
Crazy Rich Asians (2018) ***
The Informant! (2009) ***1/2
BlacKkKlansman (2018) ***1/2
Sorry to Bother You (2018) **1/2
Eighth Grade (2018) ***
Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) ***
Ant-Man and The Wasp (2018) **1/2
It is shameless. And it does represent everything terrible with Hollywood right now- such as structuring the plot around regions where it will likely succeed, but it's watchable. And hell I enjoyed it. I'd gladly take this over another Fast and Furious movie.Quoting DavidSeven (view post)
Lolsame.Quoting DavidSeven (view post)
I know there were moments in it I found passingly involving at the time, but boy oh boy, only a week since I saw it (with no films or much TV in between, I should emphasize) and most of that has already faded from my memory.
For many of its similarities of being another potential franchise non-starter, it has only confirmed that I will feel compelled to defend King Arthur in the future. It may be its own type of mess too, but that type is a wild one full of gripping stylistic choices and an actual identity.
Last 11 things I really enjoyed:
Speed Racer (Wachowski/Wachowski, 2008)
Safe (Haynes, 1995)
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Parker, 1999)
Beastie Boys Story (Jonze, 2020)
Bad Trip (Sakurai, 2020)
What's Up Doc? (Bogdanovich, 1972)
Diva (Beineix, 1981)
Delicatessen (Caro/Jeunet, 1991)
The Hunger (Scott, 1983)
Pineapple Express (Green, 2008)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
Being a fan of the Universal monsters growing up, I was intrigued by the concept of a shared universe centered around them and wanted to see The Mummy solely out of curiosity over how they would pull it off. Unfortunately the result is just a lame derivative of what other tentpoles have done before, complete with a cocky protagonist that exchanges fast-paced banter before being led to a secret government organization and does this sound like Iron Man yet? Not to mention that it tries to be both an action-comedy and a horror movie but the two genres and tones never merge together cohesively, and no matter how good Tom Cruise’s performance is, it’s difficult to root for his character because his motivations are all over the place and inconsistent. Plus Russell Crowe’s character was the one thing I was most excited to see portrayed on-screen, given that it’s an iconic character which I won’t spoil here, but long story short, the way he’s pulled off is lazy and cheap. It’s frustrating because the elements are there for something entertaining: the action sequences are fun, the special effects look good, the horror elements are effective, and a ton of iconic characters are in the sandbox of this shared universe. Sadly, The Mummy sets Universal’s next nine summers off on the wrong foot. I can only hope that the Dark Universe lasts so we can see modern-day adaptations of Frankenstein, The Phantom of the Opera and the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and pray that Universal fixes their mistakes as they go along as Marvel did to their benefit, so that they’re not as underwhelming as The Mummy was.
Last Five Films I've Seen (Out of 5)
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse (Mackesy, 2022) 4.5
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish (Crawford, 2022) 4
Confess, Fletch (Mottola, 2022) 3.5
M3GAN (Johnstone, 2023) 3.5
Turning Red (Shi, 2022) 4.5
Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) 5
615 Film
Letterboxd
This was great! I was skeptical of this Dark Universe but now look forward to what it has in store. Once again the critics and general public show how conditioned they are to overwrought self-important drivel (*cough* Wonder Woman), missing out big-time on what is simply a good, old-fashioned popcorn-chomping romp of a adventure movie. Doesn't take itself too seriously! Great action! Real chemistry between characters who seem human! Original designs and creature concepts! An inspired take on familiar properties! Genuinely unsettling moments of PG-13 horror! And all at a svelte 2 hours!! I just couldn't believe it ended when it did in this world where 2 1/2 hours has become the norm. Magic. Cruise does it again.
EDIT: More magic: I actually agree with Dukefrukem.
Last edited by Milky Joe; 06-19-2017 at 06:29 AM.
The severed arm perfectly acquitted itself, because of the simplicity of its wishes and its total lack of doubt.
Nothing for or against the film, but I had to check what you voted to see if this is a sincere or parodic post.
Midnight Run (1988) - 9
The Smiling Lieutenant (1931) - 8.5
The Adventures of Robinhood (1938) - 8
Sisters (1973) - 6.5
Shin Godzilla (2016) - 7.5
Excellent! Was beginning to be worried I was the only one here.Quoting Milky Joe (view post)
Not as bad as I thought it would be, but also not good. It occupies a strange blurry area of empty Hollywood proficiency. There are persistent problems, like the film being too monochromatic and dark (that might've been the projector at the theater, though), and the action rarely given the space through editing and camera use to really sing, excepting the well-done airplane crash. The highlight was when the film had enough whimsy to make the Mummy check out his Hollywood abs, feel them, and let Tom Cruise giggle because it tickles. That made me laugh out loud. Russell Crowe also has a lot of fun when he's allowed to flip into Hyde mode. It doesn't have much bearing on the rest of the movie, but his eagerness to join forces with Evil Incarnate suggests a parallel that could've been pressed more (Jekyll/Hyde and Nick/Set).
Cruise uses all the charisma he has, but there's an issue with his character playing the rogue but not really given the time to earn that title - the film opens too loudly, with him trying to survive, and I think it would've been much better to actually see him seduce the woman and steal the letter (because we don't really see his "edge" dramatized). He's called a thief, but do we actually witness him thieving? This follows with people persistently telling him that he's self-serving, but apart from maybe the ambulance moment (where he seemingly leaves the blond behind), this doesn't really come into play.
Kurtzman doesn't get enough chance to demonstrate style, although the first catacomb scene (with the inward-facing Anubises) highlights the film's effective production design. And the ambulance chase with the mummies popping in needed a better sense of traffic control. They can't all be the truck chase from Raiders, but some earlier shots to explain how many mummies were chasing, more cuts-to-wide, etc. would've helped. Too many action scenes feel second-unit assembled-in-post. And again, I really wish the film was shot with more light and contrast. It's just too dark, and there's not enough shadowplay during the scenes that are intentionally dark to play with mood.
The film isn't terrible, because it doesn't take enough risks to be terrible. Instead, it comes off like unseasoned oatmeal.
So it sounds like Dracula Untold lol
Not too far off, though I preferred Dracula Untold to this.Quoting Skitch (view post)
Agreed with TGM, I liked Dracula Untold more. It did more with its main character's journey.Quoting Skitch (view post)
I enjoyed this shit outta this. I liked it more than Dracula Untold, and I certainly didn't expect to. It has blatant faults that are undeniable so I'm not gonna die on The Mummy 2017 Mountain, but there was easily enough to entertain. Russell Crowe tried his damnest to steal the whole damn movie, and it works if you love or hate Tom Cruise because he gets the ever loving shit kicked out of him for 90 minutes. Can't wait to see where it goes from here.