When The Mummy was released in 1999, I didn’t think much of it. I felt it was trying to hard to be an Indiana Jones-style adventure that didn’t find its right style. However, when I watched The Mummy Returns a few years later, I actually liked the original more because I understood what director Stephen Sommers, who also co-wrote the script, was doing. It was supposed to be as silly and fun.
Sommers who had made the underrated creature feature Deep Rising was making a movie that blended it all together. That 1998 movie wasn’t flawless but it had some great moments. It had action-adventure, horror and thrills, laughs and romance and a great cast too. The same can be said for The Mummy. Anyone going in wouldn’t have guessed that Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz would be future Oscar winners. I thought there was something a little too off about Weisz’ Evelyn Carnahan. She was supposed to be very intelligent but she was also kinda goofy. But that makes her more three-dimensional.
And Fraser has the heroic looks of a Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn mixed with the Steve McQueen toughness which goes along with the 1920s era of which most of the movie is set but also keeps it more common to viewers at the time. A prologue shows that in 1290 B.C. Thebes, Egypt, high priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) is tortured and buried alive in a sarcophagus with flesh-eating scarabs covering his body. This was revenge as Imhotep had killed the Pharaoh but got caught trying to resurrect Ank-su-namen (Patricia Velasquez), the Pharaoh’s future bride. Imhotep was having an affair with her and she kills herself after he kills the Pharaoh.
Flash forward to 1926 and Evelyn has been given an intricate box and a map from her playboy brother, Jonathan (John Hannah), as she works at the museum in Cairo. They believe the box and map might lead to the lost city of Hamunaptra. The box was stolen from adventurer Rick O’Connell (Fraser) who was working for the French Foreign Legion three years earlier. Rick is in prison and set to be executed but Jonathan and Evelyn get him released.
Eventually, they discover that Rick’s cowardly acquaintance, Beni Gabor (Kevin J. O’Connor), has been hired by Dr. Allan Chamberlain (Jonathan Hyde) and three cowboy adventurers, Isaac Henderson (Stephen Dunham), David Daniels (Corey Johnson), Bernard Burns (Tuc Watkins). Chamberlain and his people discover an ancient book while Rick, Jonathan and Evelyn discover the sarcophagus with the still decomposing body of Imhotep inside.
Later, while he sleeps, Evelyn steals the book from Chamberlain and reads it aloud, summoning the 10 Plagues of Egypt as well as reviving the body of Imhotep. As locusts descends and water turns to blood, Imhotep is able to suck the life out of Chamberlain, Henderson, Daniels and Burns with the help of Beni who is promised riches for being a servant. Imhotep’s goal is to kidnap Evelyn and use her body to help suck the life out of her so it will revive Ank-su-namen’s body by to his healthy form.
It’s a silly chase horror movie but it works. Fraser and Weisz play off the sexual tension between the two with great flair. It doesn’t have to be a really smart movie. And there’s been issues with its portrayal of Middle-Eastern people. Vosloo has roots in South Africa and Velasquez is Venezuelan. Israeli-born Oded Fehr portrays Ardeth Bay, chief of the Medjai, in a positive light. The Medjai are Muslim-based bodyguards of the city of Hamunaptra. But Gad Wassan (Omid Djalili, an Iranian) is portrayed as a greedy buffoonish character.
It’s a rarity for a mixture of actors that the movie doesn’t just portray the white actors as the heroes. I think there was some concern that’s why Fehr’s role was improved for the sequel. And one could argue that Imhotep targets mostly white characters to steal their souls. I don’t think Sommers had any racist intent. Like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, he’s trying to make an homage to the old-fashioned action-adventure movies.
It’s a loose remake of the 1932 original that starred Boris Karloff in the title role with Imhotep remaining the same character. There’s a lot of fun and action in a movie. It’s what a summer blockbuster should be with just enough scares to get past the PG-13 rating. I know a lot of people weren’t too big of a fan of the 2017 Mummy featuring Tom Cruise. The movie’s failure pretty much killed the planned Dark Universe before it could get off the ground. I think it was too ambitious.
This, on the other hand, doesn’t take itself too seriously. And for a movie like this, you need something for two hours that is just entertainment. Unfortunately, while I enjoyed The Mummy Returns, that CGI of the Scorpion King is pretty terrible, considering that the CGI and special effects in the 1999 movie are impressive for its time. But it’s still better than the forgotten The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor which was set about 25 years after the events in this movie and had Maria Bello coming in to replace Weisz, who wasn’t happy with the script.
However, there is word that Universal is wanting to bring both Fraser and Weisz back for a fourth Mummy movie, but it’s still early. Considering how many people came out and said they preferred the 1999 version over the 2017 version and it seems Fraser is riding high again thanks to his Oscar-winning role in The Whale, it’s possible.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 