When Universal announced the Dark Universe, the world rejoiced at the thought of a new dawn of horror. Since the early days of terror, Universal have been the grandfathers of fear but outside of its core faction of monsters the studio is long forgotten to the horror genre with the likes of Hammer and Blumhouse now taking the mantle, but for a time the studio was untouchable.

The first staple in the Dark Universe is THE MUMMY, promising to be more akin to the fearful Boris Karloff vehicle than the Brendan Frasier movies cinema goers are more familiar with; and for the most part, it succeeds.

 

Nick Morton (Tom Cruise), a thief and chancer buddied with Chris (Jake Johnson) who whilst based in the middle east come across the location to some hidden treasure. Unbeknownst to them, the treasure they are about to uncover has been buried for millennia and contains an evil like no other, the mummified remains of a scorned Egyptian, Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella). Luckily, Morton is accompanied by archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) and as the discovery is made, the action is swiftly shifted to London where the true nature of the Mummy is unleashed.

 

THE MUMMY is a good, bad and ugly start to Universals shared Universe of monsters and there is no better summary of where THE MUMMY falls short than that given by Mark Kermode. This is a film in three parts. The first being an action packed tomb raiding blast of Tom Cruise doing what he does best. The second brings the horror and this is certainly the most grotesque Mummy film ever, from Ahmanet’s motion and development from corpse to living being as well as the raising of the dead that comes with her power, there’s more familiar to EVIL DEAD than INDIANA JONES here. Unfortunately, chapter three take all that has come before it and somehow loses the plot completely.

 

The film works best when it’s centred on the title character. The chase between Ahmanet and Morton is by enlarge the highlight of the film. It’s when the Universe building begins that the cracks begin to open. As soon as we are formally introduced to Dr Jekyll (and the least we say about Hyde the better), the focus is taken back from the central character to the wider story of Gods and Monsters that detracts too much from the drama. Even the dark ending comes across as a birth of a superhero than the terrifying conclusion it should be.

 

It’s difficult not to compare with the superhero genre and world building of studios like Marvel and DC have monopolised in recent years but there’s very little to compare this to. The Dark Universe is not simple a bunch of sequels, it’s a series of films that interconnect at different timelines so something hinted at in THE MUMMY was there because of events in THE INVISIBLE MAN and such like. This web of storytelling detracts too much at this early stage and while the piece might all add up, as the first entry in Universals universe, it comes in with a whimper but no big bang.

 

That’s not to say that THE MUMMY has no redeeming factors, Sofia Boutella is criminally underused, the dark tone is welcome and big budget horror has died over recent years so to criticize such a needed film would be to bite the hand that feeds. At its best it’s a thrilling popcorn flick with action and darkness thrown in for good measure, at its worst it’s a parody of everything that came before but unlike most films, there is a saving grace, depending how the next films (if any based on the poor reception) perform and THE MUMMY could actually get better over time.