By Travis Johnson
We get a sense of world-spanning scale and a bit of background detail in the latest marketing salvo for Universal’s The Mummy. We also get a smidge more horror – that shot with the rats is pretty great – although, as we noted previously – this still feels more like an action thriller than a horror flick.
As the official synopsis tells us, “Thought safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient princess (Sofia Boutella of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension.
“From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters.”
Obviously debut director Alex Kurtzman and company are going for the sweeping magical power that Stephen Sommers tapped into for his 1999 version of the film, and maybe that’s fair enough – it’s hard to get sweaty over the thought of a rag-wrapped Boris Karloff strangling trespassing tomb robbers in this day and age. Still, you would hope that the big moments are balanced by more personal, tactile horror, which is hinted at when our man Russell Crowe, playing Dr Henry Jekyll, mutters about some kind of connection between Tom Cruise’s gun-happy soldier and Boutella’s ancient monster.
The Mummy is in Australian cinemas from June 8, 2017.
