2017’s reboot of The mummy was meant to launch a new franchise for Universal called The Dark Universe, but it failed for several reasons and was ultimately scrapped. It was a huge hit, especially with megastar Tom Cruise in the lead role, fellow A-lister Russell Crowe on board, and a talented supporting cast including Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, and Marwan Kenzari. On paper, the Dark Universe looked like a guaranteed success.
The fact shows that even with a massive budget and big names attached, Movies can bomb if the other basic ingredients are not right – and Cruz The mummy Remake has so many fundamental ingredients missing that it’s hard to ignore them all. If you look at the film objectively, it is easy to see why fans and critics panned it, and why the proposed franchise it was a platform for did not progress. It may even be one of the most disappointing films of the 21st century, especially since it led to the concept of Dark Universe.
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The mummy’s marketing was poor
Posters, billboards, & trailers featured unimportant details
Marketing for 2017 The mummy was quite uninspired and substandard in general, But there was one particularly interesting aspect to it. Whether it was a poster, a billboard, or a trailer, it was all with the eponymous Princess Ahmanet’s eyes, each of which has an extra pupil. It suggested they were important and could give you a mystical ability, but they turned out to be completely inconsequential.
She may also have completely normal eyes.
Viewers have never been given a chance to see what these intriguing eyes have to offer. She may also have completely normal eyes. The marketing was terribly misleading in this regard.
It turns out that Tom Cruise has major control over the movie’s marketing and its release strategy (via Variety), which means The star of the movie was probably the reason people were confused about the film About what it was about.
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The Mummy abandons Tom Cruise
The main actor should have guaranteed his success
An iconic and exceptional actor, Cruz has received three Oscar acting nominations for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry MaguireAnd Magnolia. Although he failed to win, it takes some talent. sad, The mummy totally Waste his involvement with him playing a paper-thin character with very little substance.
He gets little to no chance to showcase his charm, and his talents dissipate in an almost perpetual whirlwind of generic action. Considering The mummy is a cruise vehicle with the superstar at the wheelThe actor may have also taken the keys out of the ignition.
This is especially true since Cruise had full creative control of the movie, and that includes what was in the film. The mummy Is what Cruise thought was the best story and options, but it turned out that he was not really on track with what fans wanted to see, especially from his character.
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The 2017 Mummy characters were heavily criticized
The letters are hard to root
Despite the name of the monster in their titles, monster movies rely on great characters to succeed. JawsFor example, would be nothing without the palpable chemistry between Roy Scheider’s Martin Brody, Robert Shaw’s Quint, and Richard Dreyfuss’ Matt Hooper. so too, Alien And Predator wouldn’t be anywhere near as iconic without Sigourney Weaver’s Ellen Ripley and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dutch and very memorable co-stars.
A big problem in The mummy is poor letters. If Cruise’s Nick Morton is paper-thin, the supporting characters are microscopic. They were considered underdeveloped and uninteresting and unloved. It is actually difficult to want them to come out of the movie victorious.
While Annabelle Wallis was her usual tough self as Jenny and Russell Crowe seemed connected to his character from Dr. Henry Jekyll, the characters themselves weren’t as interesting as the actors who played them. There’s only so much great actors can do. When their characters do not offer anything deeper than their existence.
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Unfavorable comparisons to previous Mummy versions
The 2017 movie could not live up to its predecessors
No reboot, remake or sequel compares unfavorably to its predecessors and 2017 The mummy Always had a tough road ahead in this regard. The classic Universal series starring the likes of Boris Karloff (The mummy1932) and Lon Chaney Jr. (The mummy’s grave, the mummy’s ghostAnd The Mummy’s Curse) and even the horror comedy Abbott and Costello meet the mummy are widely revered. Plus, 1999s The mummy and its first sequel, 2001’s The mummy returnsare popular adventure films.
It seemed that none of the Dark Universe’s monsters matched what had come before, like no Dracula Untold (2014).
The 2017 reboot doesn’t live up to them in any way. It lacks the memorable characters, the scares, the humor, and everything fans want in a Mommy Franchise film. In this sense, it was doomed from the start. It seemed that none of the Dark Universe’s monsters matched what had come before, like no Dracula Untold (2014) or The Wolfman (2010) was better.
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The mommy has too much action
The action overshadows everything else
In a movie like The mummyAction is of course essential. Without any action, the film would be unspeakably boring – more so than it already is – because there would be no sense of urgency or danger. however, 2017’s reboot of The mummy Goes way to overboard with its action. It feels like director Alex Kurtzman believes fans are Only Entertained by action scenes, so it hardly slows down at any point during the film’s run. Eventually, this makes the action seem boring.
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However, it also takes away from some other aspects of the story, like character development, suspense, dialogue and scares. one more time, This may be Tom Cruise’s fault, as he had control over almost all aspects of the movie’s production. With Cruz a master of action movies in the Mission: Impossible franchise, he may have wanted to replicate that feeling with the universal horror monsters, and what resulted was less scary and more of an action movie with a monster in the background.
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The mummy’s comedy is weird and misplaced
Tom Cruise tries too hard and often
Cruz has proven many times that he has perfectly adequate comedy chops. 1983s Losin’ it And Risky business1988s cocktail2008s Tropic Thunder2010s Night and dayand 2017s American Made These are just a few of the movies in which Cruz has shown his funny side.
However, in The mummyOn the few occasions he engages in dialogue, He tries too hard to be funny and does it too often. It doesn’t work – not just because The mummy It’s not a comedy, however, because the rest of the cast play darker or more serious characters and aren’t remotely on the same page. It is misplaced and falls completely flat.
There often needs to be humor in horror movies, and it needs to be well placed, but as someone who hasn’t done much horror in his career, it seems that Cruise never knew when the best time to crack a joke or add some humor was. This movie needs to be more scary and less funny.
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The dark universe is forced and rushed
Henry Jekyll should be introduced later
The mummy was intended to be the opening installment in a franchise, Universal’s Dark Universe. Everyone understood this, but there was no need to force the audience down their throats, or to feel pushed and thought out. To use a common phrase: it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
So it was Deeply unnecessary for Russell Crowe’s Henry Jekyll to be Shawhorn in this movie Like the Dark Universe’s version of Nick Fury. It was even less necessary to see his transformation into Eddie Hyde, which could have been a big reveal at a later time.
The better use could have been saving Dr. Jekyll for the post-credit scenes, the same way Iron Man Nick Fury and the future of the MCU teased. Adding Dr. Jekyll would have been a great way to get people excited for the future of the Dark Universe, which could have saved the franchise even with a lackluster exit here.
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The mummy is not scary
The title character didn’t scare anyone
Probably the most critical factor in The mummy Failure – and his unfortunate failure to launch The Dark Universe – is that it simply isn’t scary. A Mommy Movie does not necessarily have to be scary especially since the beloved Mommy Brendan Fraser films aren’t terrible for the most part.
However, when it is meant to be the platform from which a franchise called the Dark Universe was born, It should have some classic and appropriately scary cinematic monsters. Even Fraser’s movie has a great performance by Arnold Voslo as an intimidating monster.
The 2017 film promised a lot, but it lacks suspense, scares and an eponymous antagonist who is remotely terrifying. Ahmanet offers nothing in terms of scares at any point in time The mummy. What hurts even worse is that Ahmanet picked up comparisons to Cara Delevingne’s Enchantress of Suicide SquadAnother movie that received terrible reviews and also complaints about its lackluster villain.
The future of the dark universe
The mummy May have single-handedly destroyed the initial plans for a Dark Universe, but that does not mean that the idea has been completely abandoned. In the years since the film’s notorious failure, there have been several more movies to bring the classic Universal monsters back to the big screen with mixed results. One of the biggest successes was 2020s The invisible manwhich served as a modern and clever retelling of the classic story.
Post-The Mummy Universal Monster Movies:
The invisible man |
February 28, 2020 |
Renfield |
April 14, 2023 |
The Last Voyage of the Demeter |
August 11, 2023 |
Abigail |
April 19, 2024 |
Wolf man |
January 17, 2025 |
The success of this movie led to rumors that Universal would attempt to bring more of the classic monsters back in projects with a similar serious tone. But, until now, Wolf man Starring Christopher Abbott and directed by The invisible mans Leigh Whannell, is the only movie that continues this idea. In the meantime, there were some other interesting approaches. Dracula made a return in Universal’s Reinfeld With Nicolas Cage in the role. However, while Cage’s performance was well-received, the more comical movie failed at the box office.
While there seems to be a lack of direction for the Dark Universe in terms of the movies, there are some other exciting developments in the works. It is announced that Universal Studios theme park in Orlando will open a Dark Universe attraction which is expected to be open to the public in May 2025. What the Dark Universe world of Universal Orlando will look like is shrouded in mystery, but it is expected that there will be a lot of the iconic monster character and it is described as follows ( by The rap):
Where guests encounter everything from the experiments of Dr. Victoria Frankenstein to the shadowy landscape where monsters roam in a world of myth and mystery.
Directed by Alex Kurtzman and starring Tom Cruise, The Mummy is a 2017 reboot of the cult classic Mummy franchise that originally starred Brenden Freier. This time, the plot turns to a US Army sergeant.
- Director
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Alex Kurtzman
- Release date
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June 9, 2017
- runtime
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1h 50m