Universal Pictures’ Dark Universe off to a solid start with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy

REVIEW: Nobody was screaming out for another Mummy movie but it kicks off Universal Pictures’ Dark Universe in entertaining style.

The Mummy is about to be unleashed. Picture: Universal Pictures

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THE MUMMY (M)

Director: Alex Kurtzman (People Like Us)

Starring: Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance.

Rating: three stars

Verdict: Boom, boom, boom, don’t go back to her tomb

NOW wait just a minute. They are rebooting The Mummy? Again? Afraid so.

And while you won’t be so afraid of what transpires in this highly-strung horror-action hybrid, it does deliver solidly as a contained burst middle-of-the-road escapism.

Before we move any further, there are some significant administrative matters that explain the possibly unwarranted return of The Mummy.

Come on, it wasn’t as if the world was exactly crying out for more? Particularly after three cheesy Brendan Fraser movies stretched the whole sand-and-bandages thing way past its logical snapping point.

The entertainment conglomerate Universal Pictures thinks otherwise, however. This blockbuster reactivation of The Mummy is merely the first in an extensive series of exhumations from a tomb full of ancient fright franchises for which they hold exclusive rights.

Annabelle Wallis and Tom Cruise in a scene from The Mummy. Picture: Universal Pictures

The studio’s overall strategy has been badged as The Dark Universe, and in coming years you can expect the dust to be blown off long-shelved fright-fests such as The Wolfman, Dracula, The Invisible Man and The Creature From the Black Lagoon.

While The Mummy marks a relatively conservative, play-safe start to an initiative designed to give Marvel and DC a run for their money, it certainly gets the job done. Especially when accessed as an easy entry point to all The Dark Universe promises to be in future outings.

Tom Cruise heads up proceedings as Nick Morton, an ex-soldier-turned-relic-hunter who uses his military background to help himself to any priceless treasure he can.

While on an expedition to the modern-day Middle East — one of the bits where there happens to be a generic war of some kind going on — Morton and his team open a crypt housing the malevolent evil spirit of the notorious Egyptian princess Ahmanet (a movie-stealing display from Sofia Boutella).

Cruise with Russell Crowe, whose Dr Henry Jekyll character will appear in other Dark Universe films. Picture: Universal Pictures

As expected, all hell breaks loose. Quite unexpectedly, Morton finds himself increasingly possessed by the terrifying force he has unleashed.

Actually, it’s quite a curse that Morton has contracted: it has this immortality booster shot that allows him to survive normally life-ending calamities like a plane crash.

Though the movie gets off to a very sluggish start — and ends with an ever-so-slightly ungainly stumble — it is for the most part an entertaining, if kind of silly adventure flick.

Russell Crowe is heard to both narrate and orate in his poshest, deepest “actor’s voice” (you know the one) in the key supporting role of Dr Henry Jekyll (clearing the launch pad for a coming Dark Universe reboot of — yep, you guessed it — Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde).

Originally published as Universal Pictures’ Dark Universe off to a solid start with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy