Ever since Marvel found success in Movie universes, almost everybody seems to want to do it. Case in point: there is an upcoming "Dark Universe" franchise from Universal Pictures. Now, the first entry in this would-be series of films is the reboot of "The Mummy," a 1999 classic that starred Brendan Fraser. In the reboot, Tom Cruise will be playing the lead.
As exciting as this prospect is, early criticisms of the film brand it to be a movie that is not worth creating a universe for, sadly.
A force 'not worth resurrecting.'
In an article by the Hollywood Reporter, the blurb is that "The Mummy" was "a force not worth resurrecting.
" Or, at least not in the way director Alex Kurtzman intended. The movie garnered an overall negative reception from critics and was even dubbed by some as the worst movie Tom Cruise was in.
THR's John DeFore panned the movie, saying that it will be hard to get audiences to clamor for another film from Dark Universe. Being that the introduction to it is a film that is a little less than ideal, it is not hard to see where the movie reviewer's comment is coming from.
DeFore also noted that one of his biggest issues with "The Mummy" is its action. Instead of drawing attention to the film, he felt like the action sequences made audiences nostalgic for the 1999 version.
He adds that certain moments in the reboot "prompts one to ask if [the original film] wasn't maybe more fun than we gave it credit for."
'The Mummy' — worst Tom Cruise movie ever?
It was IndieWire's David Ehrlich who put the final nail in the coffin: he dubbed "The Mummy" as "the worst Tom Cruise movie ever." He further justified this point, saying that it was an "irredeemable disaster" from the get-go.
The critic was responding negatively not because the movie was bad, but because the movie "never could have been good."
Chris Nashawty of Entertainment Weekly found that the the movie's storyline was a little "bloated," saying that the script felt like it was written by a committee. "It all feels a little derivative and unnecessary," he adds.
The majority of the comments for the film were just negative; however, there are some who believe that the movie is not without redeeming qualities. In the same review by Nashawty, he also admitted that he enjoyed Cruise's performance along with his co-star Sofia Boutella. Meanwhile, Brian Truitt of USA Today found that the film is full of action-packed "guilty pleasures."
"The Mummy" may be spelling dark days for the future of the Dark Universe, but it is too early to judge whether the franchise will be a flop as a whole. However, this recent bouts of criticism does prove that the universe is not off to a great start.
