THE MUMMY (2017) *** ½

Critics had their knives out for this one from the get-go, but The Mummy is just about as enjoyable as any of Tom Cruise’s past summer action tentpoles.  It won’t erase memories of Boris Karloff or Christopher Lee or even Arnold Vosloo any time soon, but it’s enormously entertaining and just plain fun.  It’s just different enough (the Mummy is a vengeful princess this time out) and at the same time familiar (the movie borrows elements from everything from An American Werewolf in London to Lifeforce) to make fans of both Tom Cruise and Mummy movies alike happy.

The idea of a Cruise/Mummy mash-up works better than you think.  The typical big budget action sequences are a lot of fun and are enhanced by some creepy atmosphere (especially early on).  The zero-gravity scene in the crashing plane is great and would feel right at home in a Mission:  Impossible movie.  There’s also a badass car chase in which Cruise’s truck is beset by an army of squishy mummy minions.  The various fight scenes in which Cruise dukes it out with various mummified monsters are pretty cool too.

In some ways, The Mummy is a deft deconstruction of your average Tom Cruise vehicle.  While he is still very much the star of the movie, Cruise is almost continually bested, shown up, and one-upped by his female adversary (and love interest), which is a nice touch.  Since The Mummy is in his head for nearly the whole picture, Cruise is incredibly susceptible and vulnerable to her charms, which also acts a neat reversal on the usual Mummy lore. 

The thing I liked best though was the promised Expanded “Dark” Universe that teases the appearance of more interconnected monsters in upcoming movies.  Some have decried this as nothing more than a cheap rip-off of the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll acting as sort of a Nick Fury to a new generation of monsters.  I dug it though.  Crowe’s performance is actually one of the best things about the film.  In fact, I’d say he probably needs his own Agents of SHIELD spin-off TV show.  I mean just the stuff that was teased in his elaborate monster warehouse alone is promising enough to sustain at least one season of episodes.

Cruise equips himself well as the roguish thief who passes himself off as a derring-do adventurer.  He isn’t simply just coasting on his talent here as he makes his character quite likeable and charming, even when he’s being a total dick.  He especially does well late in the game when he must pull off the old “tortures of the damned” routine that Lon Chaney used to do so well.

Sofia Boutella does a fine job as the new Mummy.  Like in Star Trek Beyond and Kingsmen:  The Secret Service, she proves to be a formidable fighting talent.  What I wasn’t expecting was the tenderness she brought to the role.  Even when she’s doing terrible things, you can’t help but feel a tinge of sympathy for her, which is the hallmark of all the great Universal monster movies.

If there is a flaw, it’s that director Alex Kurtzman isn’t much of a stylish.  The film really needed someone with more flair to make the action sequences cook.  Kurtzman presents the material capably and competently enough, but he lacks the zest of someone like Christopher McQuarrie (who co-wrote the screenplay). 

There was a big to-do recently when Kurtzman said he didn’t make his film “for the critics”.  Although I think that’s a bit of a cop-out, I can see his point.  This is a big budget summer movie we’re talking about, but one that does have enough ghoulish (PG-13) moments to make it worthy of the Universal name.  Regardless of who Kurtzman made it for, my daughter, whose favorite monster is the Mummy, loved it, and for that, it’s OK by me.

I for one look forward to more interconnected Mummy movies.  I particularly hope that the upcoming Mummy sequels will be interconnected to previous Tom Cruise vehicles.  I can’t wait to see Mummy:  Impossible, The Color of Mummy, or Jerry Maguire 2 where Jerry signs a mummy to play football and shouts, “Show me the mummy!”  Of course, if that all pans out, it will eventually lead to the biggest Tom Cruise monster movie of them all:  Jack Reacher from the Black Lagoon.