The Mummy was a cultural smash hit when it released in 1999. The horror film had been turned into a swashbuckling adventure reminiscent of an Indiana Jones film. Since then, Universal has been trying to get their monster series back into the mainstream. The Wolfman was a false start and Dracula Untold may or may not be the starting point for a new shared universe of monster films. Regardless, Universal is putting a lot of faith in their reboot of The Mummy. We’ve finally got our first look thanks to a poster and a trailer tease. Let’s give them a look.
Well, that poster certainly looks fairly serious. Does the trailer tease promise something a little more high-spirited?
Sort of? Universal doesn’t seem to know whether these movies should be horror films or big blockbuster spectacles. So, they end up splitting the difference and the result is… okay? What we know about the story is fairly similar to The Mummy: an ancient corpse has their tomb disturbed and starts wreaking havoc all over a contemporary London. Of course, the most noticeable change is turning the mummy into a princess. Looks like they will be dropping the romance angle from the mummy’s story. That’s a good idea since that romance is a remnant from the 1932 original film. There are lots of ways to incorporate a mummy going crazy into a story without falling back on romance.
We’ll see more when we get the full trailer but first impressions aren’t bad. Tom Cruise is one of our few remaining superstars and he’s always fun to watch. The effects work will hopefully be as groundbreaking as the 1999 film was in its time. Tone will be the toughest thing to get right since audiences seem to like their monsters more fun than fierce.
If this is the kickoff to a shared universe involving the Universal Monsters, it has a lot of groundwork to lay. If it succeeds, then we’ll be getting more big budget monster movies. That’s something this monster fan is very happy about. The Mummy hits theaters on June 9, 2017.
