That might be moot anyways if The Mummy is any good, but I’m here to tell you that, yep, you guessed right, it’s hot garbage that squanders the significant talents of its leads in service of a deeply boring and generic plot. It might be the biggest case yet of putting the franchise cart before the horse, given that Universal’s already put out several press releases about how this is the start of their “Dark Universe” imprint, for which they have a fucking title logo and a Danny Elfman-composed theme already prepared for it, regardless if this movie completely and totally flops at the domestic box office.
Aside from having two of the funniest advertisements of any movies in the past year, there’s been a significant lack of excitement from any quarter about the new movie The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise and directed by long-time hack screenwriter Alex Kurtzman, here separated from his 9/11 Truther writing partner Bob Orci. Not content to sit idly by and watch other studios lose money on their worn out properties, Universal’s stepping up to the plate and looking to bunt. It’s already been a pretty difficult summer for franchise revitalization: The list of massive flops grows week by week (RIP King Arthur, Baywatch, Alien, Smurfs…), and despite the one crowning achievement of it all ( Wonder Woman, which gave the struggling DCEU life last week and blew up the box office), it definitely looks like it’s going to claim more victims before the end of the summer.