The Mummy | Rotten Tomatoes

I've talked about nostalgia in the past and I'll talk about it now. Nostalgia is both a good thing and a bad thing. Sort of like how some people who lived through The Great Depression and World War 2 call it the good old days and lament the state of today's world. Or complain about

I've talked about nostalgia in the past and I'll talk about it now. Nostalgia is both a good thing and a bad thing. Sort of like how some people who lived through The Great Depression and World War 2 call it the good old days and lament the state of today's world. Or complain about the younger generation. But I'm not here to talk about that, of course, I'm here to talk about nostalgia when it comes to all forms of the entertainment medium. I have suffered from looking at things through rose-colored glasses, as it were, from time to time. For example, I grew up loving the Naked Gun trilogy (and Leslie Nielsen as an extension) and I re-watched some of the old movies (the second and third) and I definitely enjoyed them, but they weren't great. And, to be fair, the sequels aren't exactly comparable to the original (which I did not watch at the time I watched the sequels). I also loved TMNT and the movies they were in and, of course, now I know that those films are quite likely terrible. To be fair, I also liked the animated show, which was much better. I loved the Power Rangers. In short, in all honesty, I think the only thing that has held up from my childhood, that I still think is great to this day, are the first two Terminator movies. That's what I can think of at this very moment. This brings us to The Mummy. Though, in this case, this is a very different type of nostalgia. I do remember really enjoying this movie and The Mummy Returns (which I'll watch tonight). But it's not like I was in love with these movies or that I was obsessed with them, even as an eleven and thirteen year old (the ages I was when both films came out). The type of nostalgia I'm talking about is the one where I watch the third movie a week and a half ago and it's just not good, like, at all (it's fine, if I'm being honest) and I'm nostalgic for a considerably superior experience, even if nobody can claim that this movie, or its sequel, are any sort of amazing cinematic achievement. The funny thing is that I remember much less about this movie than I do remember of The Mummy Returns. I remember them stopping the movie (the sequel I mean) halfway through because they were having some technical difficulties. I went, or my mom and aunt went, and got me a second bag of popcorn. I remember this vividly, like it was yesterday, before the movie was started up again. It was actually pretty fun. I also remember liking the sequel enough that my mom bought me the DVD when it came out. The funny thing about that is that The Mummy Returns is probably not as good as this one. So, yea, spoiler alert, I legitimately enjoyed my time with this movie. So much more than I was actually expecting. For a movie that actually turns twenty this year (now I feel old), this has held up surprisingly well. I'm not saying it can compete with everything that we've seen since. There are better popcorn movies out there, to be sure. But the fact that the movie is as fun as it is, to this day, is a testament to the quality within it. Again, I'm not suggesting that the film is a work of high art. But I do think that the cast and crew understood what this was meant to be and they worked hard to achieve that goal to make this movie as fun as it could possibly be. Hell, even the special effects hold up better than those in the third movie. Those yetis in the third movie looked downright awful. And yet Imhotep, a high priest who has been cursed for eternity by a pharaoh, looks better when he is accidentally brought back from the dead and he is, quite literally, just very little skin and mostly bones. How in the fuck is this possible? That a movie that is NINE years older than its 2008 sequel has better special effects? Well, that's an answer that is easily answered. Industrial Light and Magic did the effects for this movie while, for Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, was done by two different companies. One of these companies, Rhythm and Hues, has won THREE Academy Awards for their visual effects. They won in 1995 for Babe, in 2008 (the year Tomb was released) for The Golden Compass and 2013 for Life of Pi. Fucking what??? I suppose that's neither here nor there. Everything in this movie is better than anything Tomb of the Dragon Emperor did and I'm not even joking. Name one thing the second sequel did better than the 'original'. With that said, I think we should move on. Like I mentioned earlier, I think the people behind the making of this movie understood that this was meant to be a summer blockbuster. With that said, I am quite surprised with the fact that this movie chose to wait for, just slightly, over half of its running time to finally revive Imhotep. I seem to have forgotten. Either that or I spliced this and The Mummy Returns together in order to create this image in my memory that, at least in this movie, Imhotep was a more constant threat. Having said that, however, I don't think the movie misses a beat in its lead up to Imhotep's revival. The cast is a lot of fun and their interplay definitely carries the load until Imhotep arrives. This is very much the adventure film. Rick is the dashing hero, Evy is not your typical damsel-in-distress, but there's obvious teases of a romance between the two. Johnathan is the comedic relief. Gad is a sleazy prison warden. In short, this, while I made comparisons to Indiana Jones with Tomb, this film feels so much more its own and not necessarily a copy of the action/adventure formula established by Indy. Don't get me wrong, there's clearly some influences of that here and there, but the film manages to stand up on its own feet thanks to its reliance on Egyptian mythology and a larger cast of characters to play with. At the same time, the movie also does not forget its horror roots and they do a surprisingly good job at mixing the action/adventure elements with the horror. Something that Tom Cruise's reboot failed to do. Now, of course, I'm not saying that the movie's horror is on the level of, say, a film like Hereditary. Hell, I don't think it's even on the level of a series like Insidious and others like it (Conjuring, Annabelle, Ouija, etc), which is what mainstream horror looks like. This movie isn't on that level either, but they still do a good job at keeping some of those horror roots in place and I gotta commend them for that, in particular when other franchises have failed to do so, Underworld and Resident Evil, I'm looking at you. It feels like I'm raving about this movie and, in a way, I am. Even with all of that raving, however, I'm still gonna give this just three stars. I don't feel comfortable giving it three and a half. I don't know why, but I don't think this movie ever reaches the level where I feel it should get that rating. Using my own Letterboxd profile, if I gave this three and a half, it'd be getting the same rating as movies like Summer of '84, Revenge, Gerald's Game, among others. And while my reasons for giving a film 3.5 stars is gonna differ from movie to movie, I don't think this movie, once again, reaches those levels. It's better than I was reasonably expecting in my mind and I had a lot of fun, but it's not a very good movie, in my opinion. It's a very good good movie, a term I've used before and that, I'm sure, some of you don't get, but it makes sense to me. Regardless of all of that, I still had a great time with this movie and I'm glad that it held up better than I would have expected. This review might have sucked, as all of my reviews do, but if you're looking for a fun action/adventure film, then this will be a great choice for anyone. Hopeful that The Mummy Returns holds up as well as this one. I'm cautiously optimistic however, it's rare, for this type of summer blockbusters at least, for the sequel to be better. Fingers crossed but, as I mentioned, I'm cautious. Still, I enjoyed this movie and that's a good start.

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