Review of The Mummy

By Dave B.

In The Mummy (2017, currently on HBO), Tom Cruise plays Nick Morton, a corrupt U.S. soldier who smuggles valuable artifacts out of Iraq. On one such mission, he discovers the hidden tomb of a long-forgotten Egyptian princess, Ahmanet, who was mummified alive and buried far from her homeland for her heinous crimes. When she is released from her sarcophagus after a harrowing plane crash, Ahmanet chooses Morton to be the vessel of Set, the Egyptian god of death, forcing Morton to battle an army of the undead in order to prevent the world from succumbing to darkness, and in the process, save his own soul.

For the record, The Mummy reboot was widely panned by most critics and viewers. Fair enough. But I can say that, objectively, most of what you may have heard about this movie is an exaggeration or a straight-up lie. It’s not Tom Cruises worst movie, it’s not boring, and it does have redeeming qualities. A blockbuster monster movie has one job: to be entertaining. And The Mummy does that job well. For most of its 112 minute runtime, it’s fast-paced, with near constant action, more than a little bit of humor, and an inviting energy, despite being darker in tone than Brendan Fraser’s version of this franchise.

My biggest complaint about this version of The Mummy is that the end drags on longer than necessary. I would’ve enjoyed this movie a lot more if it had been about 15 minutes shorter. Ending fairly weakly is a valid criticism of The Mummy movie and I won’t claim otherwise, but to claim the weaknesses of the end of the last act are weaknesses throughout the entire film is grossly unfair, in my opinion. 

​In short, I genuinely liked The Mummy. Yes, I could go on and on about some of it’s flaws (Russell Crowe’s character was largely unnecessary, for example), but the fact of the matter is that this movie had me fully engaged for 75% of the time that I was watching it. Therefore, I recommend it, especially for anyone who needs some quality, low-commitment escapism for a couple of hours. 

Rating: 6/10