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Capping off our Halloween reviews, let’s go back to the class of ’99 with one horror revival that still gets highly regarded by many 25 years on—let’s dust off this one as I take a look at why The Mummy holds up for many.
This one was in effect a revival of the old 1930s-40s Mummy films (themselves resurrected for a bit by Hammer Studios in the 50s, though those are somewhat more obscure), but instead of straight horror went for a pulp bent, akin to Indiana Jones but with the gruesomeness notched up. Funnily enough, even some of the older Mummy movies went for a similar sort of thing for the time as opposed to the stereotype image of a guy in bandages shambling about at the speed of an asthmatic snail—there were a few shots in this one that harken directly back to them, like our titular cadaver to be Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) being wrapped up in his sarcophagus alive.
As to why this one still works well? The cast and characters, while not knocking it out the park, all do their jobs well. Our lead is Branden Fraser, playing deserted soldier turned mercenary Rick. Another actor would’ve made him seem like an arrogant ass, but Fraser manages to inject just enough down to earthiness that he comes off more of an everyman in over his head. Rachel Weisz actually gives an interesting lady counterpart with Emily, and I even enjoyed Oded Fehr as desert tribesman Ardeth Bey who ends up doing a less than optimal job at making sure nobody brings back that mummy.
There’s also some fun side characters, like Kevin O’Connor as the comedically slimy Beni, who tries to hedge his bets by appealing to every god that he can name, and even Bernard Fox giving a surprisingly poignant role as a guilt-ridden WWI pilot that helps our heroes out for one last ride.
The pacing is also solid—not completely breakneck, but it doesn’t dawdle either, as we go between Cairo and the desert tomb complex of Hamunaptra. We do get some fairly shocking moments for the audience as Imhotep steals body parts from the unwilling, escalating eventually to Ten Plagues unleashed from Egypt, keeping it all the more interesting. A lot of the CG looks a bit wonky by today’s standards, but there’s some decent practical costumes and sets for the eyes to feast on too.
Oh, and Jerry Goldsmith’s score is darn solid as well—the main theme is awesome, and every other leitmotif does what it needs to do while keeping that pulpy Egyptian feel. I do sometimes miss genuinely memorable orchestral scores that many a 90s blockbuster had.
Between scarab swarms and enthralled Imhotep-worshipping crowds, The Mummy is indeed pretty well done for a blockbuster of its era—giving us enough fun moments balanced with decent enough characterization and technical chops. A shame then the sequels didn’t replicate that—Mummy Returns went all out on the CG-heavy adventure side, and though it wasn’t a complete dumpster fire, it does seem to get mostly remembered for its rendition of a half-scorpion Dwayne Johnson near the end that looks like a Playstation 2 having a severe case of indigestion.
Director Stephen Sommers tried another hand at going back to old-school Universal horror with Van Helsing in 2004, with Hugh Jackman reimagining the titular character as an old esoteric scientist from the Dracula novel as a much younger monster-slaying badass. While very silly, it did have some nice sets at first and fun throwbacks at first before it degenerated too far into somewhat tiresome videogame-y setpieces at the end, all around a rather convoluted plot--this one lacked that consistent cast and balance once again alas.
There was a third Mummy now without Sommers, Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, taking us to China, which I did see once—I don’t really remember much of it beyond a rather wonky looking dragon thing, and Jet Li seemingly coasting through this one for an easy Hollywood check. Then there was a reboot in 2017, a remake of a remake almost, with Tom Cruise and a female Mummy this time played by Sofia Boutella. I didn’t hate that one as others seemed to…but only in the sense that I thought it was mediocre schlock as opposed to offensive schlock. It had a few decent moments early on, but then spiralled into Cruise showing off, ripping off other movies, and trying to set up a ‘Dark Universe’ because for a time every damn studio was trying to chase Marvel. Boutella tried, alternating between beautiful and creepy, but it was generally considered an example of a tone-deaf reboot.
And that’s why the 1999 film still remains well-regarded, as a demonstration of a big budget film that actually manages to balance its elements without reaching beyond its grasp. Certainly, for the time being, it doesn’t look like it’s set to be one forgotten beneath the sands itself…
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