The Mummy (2017)
Watch my video review below :
3D
The biggest weakness of 3D is with dark environments. Sadly this movie is designed with many dark scenes and it makes it difficult to see what the 3D is supposed to distinguish. The movie does have some scenes of effective 3D. One of those scenes has birds flying out at the audience, which makes for a fun use of pop out 3D. The movie also shows scenes of darkness and have sparks of light fly out which again does look nice. Other times the camera will zoom into a sarcophagus and it will look nice and pop out. The best scenes of 3D within this movie are recycled and repeated a few times within this movie. I have a big problem with this lazy style of filmmaking. They literally copy and paste the same exact 3D scenes over and over again. Look these scenes look nice in 3D, but it’s really pathetic for them to recycle the scenes. Other "new" 3D scenes are few and far between and are mostly forgettable, which is probably why they recycle the scenes that do look good. If the movie wasn't so dark and didn't recycle scenes I might be able to recommend the 3D. I cannot justify people spending money for this 3D because it would reward lazy filmmakers who just copy and paste. This movie does not have enough "new 3D content" to justify spending money on it. The people who made the 3D for this movie should be ashamed of themselves.
Final Verdict:
WEAK 3D 2D RECOMMENDED
Movie
"The Mummy" movie franchise has been around for nearly a century. This movie is set up to be the beginning of a new monsters cinematic universe for Universal Studios. Sadly this long-standing franchise should not have been resurrected and should have been allowed to rest in peace.
This movie begins in northern Iraq, as Nick Norton and Chris Vail are treasure hunting. Nick and Chris eventually come in contact with the character of Jenny Halsey. Jenny has extensive knowledge of ancient Egypt. Jenny and Chris are supposed to have a preexisting romantic relationship, but they have zero chemistry on screen. The dynamics are weak and I didn't connect to a single character. These three characters explore a newly found tomb and find a cursed mummy. The mummy eventually comes back from the dead and starts to wreck the modern world. The mummy character herself is sadly under developed. The movie has flashbacks from ancient Egypt that attempt to give the mummy some backstory. These scenes are interesting but contain massive plot holes and only leave the viewer asking more questions. They give the Mummy motivations but not a personality. The powers of the mummy are not full established so it can be confusing to understand what she can and cannot do. Understanding what the mummy can and cannot do matters regarding the action scenes. Some of the smaller scale action scenes were enjoyable and fun. However the larger scale bigger special effects action scenes were totally forgettable and poorly executed. It’s hard to care because I don’t understand what powers the mummy actually has. The movie has many plot holes and under explained story elements, which becomes frustrating make sense of everything. The story of The Mummy does try to be inventive, but ultimately it becomes convoluted, cliché and just doesn't work.
The biggest issue I had with this movie was with its comedic element. Specifically I had major issues with the character of Chris Vail. Chris is supposed to be comedic relief and a silly friend for Nick. Unfortunately I didn't find his comedic style to be funny at all. The character of Chris Vail is one of those characters that can't stop talking and is incredibly annoying. Unfortunately he is a main character and is integral for the plot of this movie. I really hated every single line of dialogue that he said, both in the delivery and how it was written. Chris Vail is simply an insufferable character and is worse than Jar-Jar Binks in Star Wars Episode 1. This character is the answer to the question; can a single character ruin an entire movie? Overall the movie is really cheesy and corny and is just trying too hard to be funny. Whoever wrote this movie doesn’t know how to make silly corny comedy work on screen. Part of the problem is with the use of stronger adult cursive language. I don't mind adult cursive language in movies, but it has to fit the tone and style of the movie. Unfortunately for this movie the adult language sticks out and seems very inappropriate. The movie also jokes about sexual performance of a main character. The sexual jokes are really unnecessary and feel totally out of place. Corny adventure movies like this should be more family friendly and not include excessive cursive language and unnecessary sexual jokes. Comedy is very subjective so some people may enjoy it within this movie, but for me it was horrible and painful to watch.
As I mentioned earlier this movie is attempting to start the "Dark Universe" monster movie franchise from Universal Studios. This inherently is a massive cinematic mistake. Marvel Studios has set the modern standard for having a connected shared cinematic universe, so it's logical that other movie studios would try to copy this idea. The problem for other studios is that Marvel studios slowly built up to a shared universe and carefully planned and connected the characters and stories. Sadly this movie forces the idea of an extended larger universe of monsters. The middle of the movie is all about the secret monster society and it inorganic and unnecessary. Universal Studios crowbarred this idea into this movie, and totally fails its execution. The head of this secret monster society is a monster himself (which I won't spoil). This character has some ridiculous and amateurish computer graphics. The visual design and graphics for this character look awful. To make things worse the acting performance of this character is cringe worthy. It just seems so convenient that a monster society exists and apparently they have the exact information needed for this specific story. This monster cinematic universe is not earned and doesn't make sense and is a pathetic and awful attempt to copy the Marvel cinematic universe.
So what exactly did I enjoy of this movie? The early exploration of the tomb where they found the mummy was engrossing and set things up nicely. I do appreciate that they tried to give a backstory of the mummy and explained her motivations. Some of the smaller action scenes were well done and are fun to watch. One joke with a parachute was fantastic and actually made me laugh really hard. So I did have some enjoyment from this movie but the bad parts of this movie vastly outweigh the good.
I can enjoy cheesy comedy movies, I can enjoy fun summer adventure movies, but sadly I couldn't enjoy this movie. I didn’t enjoy the convoluted story and worthless characters. I barley enjoyed the action scenes. I really didn’t enjoy the comedy and I really loathed the character of Chris Vail. In conclusion I really hated this movie. The Mummy (2017) movie is a terrible movie and any hopes for a shared monster movie universe are all but destroyed.
Final Verdict: 3/10
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