Movie Monday’s will see me reviewing movies both NEW and old (but new to me) and today I want to discuss the highly anticipated, though perhaps not for a good reason, Mummy remake starring Sofia Boutella and Tom Cruise. Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!
I personally was very much looking forward to this film as I had high hopes and the trailers had impressed me a lot. I loved the idea of a female Mummy as its different to the original films and her look seemed so cool. I just love the female villains these days looking dirty and possessed (look at Enchantress from Suicide Squad and Hela from Thor: Ragnarok) and Sofia actually looks like she could have belonged in Ancient Egypt. Despite my excitement for this film I was very much upset that they did not even offer a small cameo to Brendan Fraser. I know that the film takes place in the present and not the past like in the original films but it still would have been nice to see them at least nod to the original cast. In fact, the only nod to the original films they gave was a quick glimpse of the Book of the Dead as it fell to the ground near the end of the film.
Despite it being, technically, a sequel to the Brendan Fraser films it was nowhere near as exciting or well written. It seemed rushed and character development was weak apart from Ahmanet though they could have done more with her too. Tom Cruise was a poor substitute for Brendan Fraser and I don’t even remember the other female co-star all that much, sadly.
In The Mummy and the Mummy Returns Imhotep was just as much a main character as the O’Connell’s but I feel like the script’s idea of making Tom Cruise’s (insert character name) an “extremely important” and “one of a kind” vessel for the God Set put Ahmanet and the other characters in a grey second-best-not-really-important-to-the-movie cloud which was disappointing because as the film’s title suggests it’s about the Mummy, not Tom Cruise.
The film took an interesting turn after Ahmanet was captured and we were introduced to Dr Jekyll played by Russell Crowe. It was soon discovered that he was in fact the Dr Jekyll from the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde tale. This was teased while Tom Cruise and his female co-star (the one no one will remember) ventured through the facility Ahmanet was being held in as they passed ancient artefacts such as the skull of Dracula’s. I found this plot twist very silly and unnecessary as it didn’t really go anywhere specific. Dr Jekyll injected himself with serum to stop Mr Hyde from surfacing (though that failed at one point) but it had nothing to do with the story. Any sort of character who wanted Ahmanet for any purpose would have done and had the same effect. Perhaps if he wanted Ahmanet as part of his creature collection it could have worked but he wanted to destroy her, not keep her. I just felt it was all very silly and unnecessary to the story as a whole.
Overall it was a barely fun film made slightly interesting by Ahmanet’s character design but it is not a movie that can or should be held equal to the original movie franchise. I would like to pretend this was not a sequel and just a failed spin off because that’s all it came across as. Ahmanet’s character design, as stated, was interesting and I wish they had done more with her. It felt like the movie was very much rushed. I give this movie a 4/10 and that’s only because of Sofia and how she managed to work with a character not 100% thought out.
I have in fact done a very rough cosplay of Ahmanet as part of my first episode of "Cosplay on a Budget" on my YouTube channel. Below are links to the DIY and the make-up tutorial.
DIY Princess Ahmanet Costume on a Budget
Princess Ahmanet Make-Up Tutorial
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