"The Mummy" (2017) Deserves a Big Applause

Princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella) is jubilant as she anticipates her father's throne during the New Kingdom era in 1127 A.D. However, her dream of being the successor ceast to exist as her father Menehptre's second wife bears a son. Ahmanet's greed of claiming the throne triggers her to kill the entire family and she sacrifices her lover named Set through a decision of transferring his spirit into a corporeal form. Her plan is disrupted by her father's priest by condemning her for eternity. She is mummified alive and her sarcophagus gets submerged in Mesopotamia. To make sure that her monstrous form will not escape, she is buried in a pool of mercury.

In the present day, a Sergeant in U.S. Military named Nick Morton (Tom Cruise), along with Corporal Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) fortuitously discovers Princess Ahmanet's tomb while they are on a big time investigation for the U.S. Army. Nick unintentionally reunites with his one-time lover and archaeologist, named Jennifer Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) as they team up to investigate the uncovered tomb. Nick, Jennifer and Chris finds a way to pull out Ahmanet's sarcophagus from its grave which is surrounded by a pool of mercury. The sarcophagus gets transported via plane by Colonel Greenway (Courtney B), Nick and Chris' superior officer but as they head towards England, Chris is suddenly bitten by a camel spider and gets possessed looking like a zombie. In an attempt to have Ahmanet escape from the sarcophagus, he stabs Greenway and attacks the group. Nick's end result to protecting the group kills Chris but then a swarm of crows suddenly invades the plane. It crashes and kills everyone except Jennifer, whom Nick saves by sacrificing the one and only parachute.

While Jennifer mourns for Nick's death, he suddenly awakens in a morgue in Oxford and sees Chris Vail's ghost. Chris tells him that he is cursed by Ahmanet and further explains Ahmanet's goal which is to become Set's replacement. Jennifer enters the morgue, shocked to see Nick fully exposed with his nude body and very much alive. As Jennifer, Nick and Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe) contemplates and do some research to understand what is happening, Ahmanet's mummy escapes from the sarcophagus and starts preying on human flesh to return to her form. The victims transform into zombies and become Ahmanet's followers. Together, they hunt Nick and Jennifer and the seemingly endless chasing leaves them with their main goals to survive and defeat Ahmanet for the sake of humankind.

The Mummy might've been a box office failure for approximately $95 million losses against its production and marketing costs but it definitely achieved any film's main goal which is to entertain.

Tom Cruise portrayed Sergeant Nick Morton as an immature guy yet to grow up, and this is just like how he has portrayed some of his old roles. I agree with Variety's Owen Gleiberman when he wrote that at 54, Tom "is still playing the old Cruise trope, the selfish cocky semi-scoundrel who has to grow up" though I don't see that this has an overall impact on the film itself because it is actually what made it entertaining. Had Tom played a mature guy with a sense of responsibility on women, there wouldn't have been an amusing conversation between Nick and Jennifer. The lines may have been simple and childish but the reality is that there are so many guys his age who are still acting like youngsters, trying to push back on the growing up part simply because they don't want to feel that they have grown old.

Nicholas Barber from BBC World News Culture quoted that the film is a "mish-mash of wildly varying tones and plot strands, from its convoluted beginning to its shameless non-end. Tom Cruise's new film barely qualifies as a film at all. None of it makes sense. The film delivers all the chases, explosions, zombies and ghosts you could ask for, and there are a few amusing lines and creepy moments, but, between the headache-inducing flashbacks and hallucinations, the narrative would be easier to follow if it were written in hieroglyphics." I didn't see anything that was convoluted about the story's beginning. In fact, it was very easy to understand that there is a flashback from way back during A.D. times and it was just exactly right to start it off like that, followed by the present day in London where a tomb is uncovered. "The Mummy" as the title itself, calls for this kind of overview. The film also doesn't deserve to be given a comment about barely being qualified to be a film at all given that despite its loss, grossing over $407 million worldwide just goes to show that the audience around the world liked the movie.

"The Mummy" surely deserves an applause.I give this movie a big thumbs up for its entertainment value, amusing lines, action and chase scenes, plus the awesome collaboration of the actors and the post production effort, making its cinematography and effects worth the cornerstone of its Hollywood quality.