The Mummy: Death is just the beginning

Is it important to build a cinematic universe?

Maybe.

But more important than establishing a movie universe is making each independent movie an independent movie.

Since the new century, Tom Cruise, who has been popular for 30 years, has encountered many difficulties, but he is still working hard to expand his own movie legend, such as "Danger", which tried to integrate romantic comedy into an action movie. "Love Spy", such as "Rock of Ages", which debuted with a golden (duck) voice, and "Tropic Thunder", which was full of fat, bald, and arrogant. Although these attempts rarely succeed, and although the market still only responds to his action movies, he is almost never marginalized in these movies-even if Tom Cruise is not the protagonist but just a cameo, you can still recognize him instantly. A passionate, iconic performance. In these movies, his character may be replaced, but he will never be as memorable as him - until "The Mummy".

As the last superstar in Hollywood, "The Mummy" may be the first time in Tom Cruise's decades-long starring career that he has such a weak sense of existence. It seems like the character of Nick Morton could have been played by anyone and there would be no deviation.

Even with Oscar-level male stars joining the cast, "The Mummy" did not demonstrate the value of these actors. The potential for humor and horror is wasted in absurdly futile and pointless running sequences.

Of course, that's not to say that Brendan Fraser's "The Mummy" trilogy is so shocking - especially the negligible last two and a series of side stories. But as a highly entertaining Hollywood production, Stephen Sommers's whimsical ideas, the exotic customs of Egyptian civilization, the design of character creation and chemical reactions, as well as the complementary complementation of CG special effects and soundtrack make this "Captain" The imitators of "Bao Qi Bing" showed an extraordinary temperament.

Although "The Mummy" did not bring Brendan Fraser to such a high level, it is difficult for Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe to bring "The Mummy" and "The Mummy" to such a high level. The entire Universal Dark Universe supports the wall.

Judging from the current public information, the core of the entire Universal Dark Universe is Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan. The latter is responsible for the production of Universal's mainstream movies, but based on Alex Kurtzman's performance in "The Mummy", one has to have doubts about the future of the entire Dark Universe. The script written by five screenwriters can be seen as ambitious and futuristic, but the director himself has not shown a high ability to handle these difficult materials. The whole movie seems monotonous and overfulfilled at the same time, but there is no inherent sense. Integrate and connect.

This is not just the case with The Mummy. Just last month, the new version of "Baywatch" also had similar problems: the processing of the material was superficial, and the performances of the main actors lacked strength, making the final presentation seemingly inconsistent with the inherent temperament of the IP.

At moments like this, the power of the Disney-Marvel system is even more amazing.

The Mummy was a bad start to the Dark Universe as a whole, but Dark Universe itself isn't necessarily a bad idea. The new versions of "Godzilla" and "King Kong" produced by Warner Bros. and Legendary prove that monster movies can be resurrected in a contemporary context, and Universal's classic monster horror movies have their own melancholy tone and ambiguous sense of morality. There is no huge difference from the current popular Hollywood action movies. After all, humanistic monsters are far more interesting than boring superheroes. Dr. Jekyll, Frankenstein and the Invisible Man from the century-old classic novel all have huge potential powers.

But "The Mummy" obviously hasn't found its power yet, otherwise Princess Amanette wouldn't become another witch from "Suicide Squad".

In the entire movie, there may be only a few action scenes that are even remotely exciting. The rest is a long series of lackluster drama, action scenes lacking motivation and purpose, which exposes the unevenness of the film. execution ability.

Of course, the blame cannot be placed on the actors. In a long-running series, either the actor needs to fit the character, or the character needs to fit the actor. But The Mummy is far from either, while putting aside controversy and forgoing treatment. The final result is that Tom Cruise is still Tom Cruise, not Nick Morton, whose look is similar to that of "Uncharted"; Russell Crowe is still Russell Crowe, rather than having a plan in mind The real "Hulk" is Dr. Jekyll.

Alex Kurtzman failed to give the actors enough help in shaping their characters, and he did not pay attention to how to create a real horror atmosphere. Even the concept of "horror" is not possible Dispensable - just like the mummy turning from yellow to gray, in order to follow the fashion, even the most iconic visual impression is not needed.

From "Dracula Year One" to "The Mummy", what we see is that Universal is still not ready, or has thought well about how to build such a diverse motley crew into "The Mummy". "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". You must know that a movie universe is not just about putting people together, but it is about creating logical, regular, and charming interactions between these characters. The narcissism and opportunism of Nick Morton's character were originally the strengths that Tom Cruise was familiar with, but under the poor arrangement, it failed to turn such strengths into a truly brilliant movie.

And a movie universe that is full of potential is gradually turning into a collection of clichés and a nursing home for outdated superstars. It is obviously better not to do this.

And the death of a movie is just the beginning of the dark universe: whether it succeeds or not, let’s keep working hard.