Indiana Jones meets classic Universal horror in the fantasy blockbuster The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. The 1999 adventure film has joined Netflix’s catalog this week and offers impressive effects for that time as well as a delightful chemistry between the squabbling stars.
In The Mummy, one of the first film universes rises from the dead
The mummy caused havoc on the big screen as early as 1932. Back then, horror legend Boris Karloff played it Priest Imhotep from ancient Egypt, who rises mummified from the grave. The film was part of Universal studio’s classic monster universe, which was home to Dracula the Invisible Man, the Wolf Man and many others. Cinema creatures survived into the 1950s.
Decades later, the studio ventured into a revival. Director Stephen Sommers sends Fraser to 1920s Egypt as adventurer Rick, where he meets nerdy Egyptologist Evelyn (Weisz). This time Darkman Arnold Vosloo plays Imhotep, who wears a rotten zombie face instead of gauze bandages.
Universal
The Mummy
He also has a lot more power than in the original. So the mummy twirls sandstorms with their likeness up, bringing down the biblical plagues on Evelyn and Rick and sucking out people’s life energy. The result is a fantasy adventure for young and old that throws a bit of horror, lots of adventure and a pinch of romance into the Blockbuster mixer and entertains throughout. The Mummy falls short of the quality of Spielberg’s Indiana Jones films because the script ran out of ideas in the third act. However, if you are looking for old-fashioned blockbuster entertainment, you will get your money’s worth.
To date, The Mummy remains the most successful revival of Universal’s monster universe since it launched its own franchise. The blockbuster spawned two sequels. In contrast, imitators such as Van Helsing (2004) and Wolfman (2010) disappointed either qualitatively or financially. Reboot fantasies hit rock bottom in 2017.
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The Mummy reboot turned out to be a disaster
Back then, The Mummy with Tom Cruise was in theaters, and it was supposed to be the so-called Dark Universe unleash. Universal’s response to the MCU featured stars like Sofia Boutella, Russell Crowe, Javier Bardem and Johnny Depp playing legendary horror characters in blockbuster format.
Universal
The stars of the “Dark Universe”
Only Boutella and Crowe came in The Mummy. The action blockbuster, which had nothing to do with either the Karloff classic or the Fraser adventure, crashed. According to the deadline, the cruise vehicle is said to have lost $ 95 million Dark Universe dealt the deathblow.
The better The Mummy movie definitely came out in 1999. If you haven’t seen it yet or want to indulge in nostalgia, Netflix offers you the opportunity now. Alternatively, you can stream the adventure by subscribing to Amazon Prime Video.