The Mummy

The period adventure genre, consisting mostly of tales of white heroic men out to exploit people or land, has been untouched for years. The exception being Indiana Jones and its cinematic clones, which have never been able to stand on their own. The Mummy attempts to lift the curse, by trying to display something old mixed with something new. This is not simply an adventure film, it also serves as horror. Needless to say it is not quite similar to it's predecessor, the 1932 Boris Karloff film.

The film's plot (give credence to it's existence, let alone it's originality), resorts to the typical list of people, places, and scenarios: a hero, an archaeological dig/treasure hunt, a villain, a curse, a damsel in distress, booby traps, expendable secondary characters, and special effects.

The film begins with a visually stunning sequence in ancient Egypt, revealing the mummy's origin. The time shifts to approximately two thousand years later when Rick O'Connell, an American hero played by Brendan Fraser, accidentally discovers Hamunaptra, the city of the dead, buried beneath the sand - its location undiscovered for a millennia. We then meet a stereotypically vulnerable feminine librarian whose brother is supposed to represent a comically bumbling epitome of everything wrong with Britain (and these banalities don't end there). The two come across an ancient map that should lead to Hamunaptra where the famed book of incantation is to be found. The book of the dead is also coincedently (of course) located in the city. During the trip they encounter a rival group of Americans who are after the vast treasure to be found there. Soon somebody accidentally unleashes the mummy, and the havoc begins. The sands rise, the plagues begin to spread, and soon enough the logic starts flying away as well.

This film is amazingly ignorant of logic. Why the librarian character played by Rachel Weisz suddenly does not need glasses later into the film, is ridiculously unexplainable. The fact that she is able to read hieroglyphics is made known, yet she accidentally reads from the book of the dead absent of consequence. Perhaps the chapter should have read: If you can read this, you are raising the dead. What the mummy had to do with the ten plagues God unleashed on the Egyptians to save the world, is inconceivable to even correlate. This is not a cheap list of potshots. Rather, it is an indication of the lack of thought brought to it's presentation. Even though the film involves the supernatural, viewers always want the 'down-to-earth' to retain the movie's sensibility. The idea behind the special effects to point out that as long as a creator can make something believable (remember that word), the audience will permit its intrusion into their private escapist world. When a movie does not seem believable, the audience never grants it credibility.

The film itself encounters an immense presentation problem. The film is seemingly split between being an adventure and a horror film, and even the adventure aspect is riddled with quips and a plethora of one liners. As an afterthought, one may wonder what the film was trying to accomplish. Was it a spoof of the genre? An imitation of Indiana Jones? A horror film? Those who expect only one and not all of the aforementioned types of films may not enjoy this movie. Others, will be thoroughly pleased, as the film through all of its flaws and characters is incredibly entertaining. The film is extremely predictable - one knows that the mummy will be unleashed and that the heroes will win, but the film tries to very effectively visually deceive the audience (courtesy of Industrial Lights and Magic) into thinking that this film must be different on the grounds that it is a mummy movie. To say that the cast's acting is cartoonish would be doing the film a favor. However, to its credit, not one of the jokes falls flat. As a production, there is nothing awkward about the film's design, photography or action sequences. The movie even includes a propulsive score from Jerry Goldsmith, giving it an epic feel. Brendan Fraser can give a sigh of relief, as he is extremely bankable as an action hero. He's no Harrison Ford, but he isn't given much time to develop, and when he tries to spread some talent, the other cast members resort to quips reminding us of their emotional maturity or lack thereof. Stephen Sommer's writing and direction are impressive, in comparison to his earlier work which has been regarded as compost. The film is a popcorn film, and that's all it'll ever be.