The Mummy
Stream
Rent & Buy
Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen 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.
What critics thought
Critics were nearly unanimous in their contempt, finding the film a tonally incoherent, derivative mess more interested in laying groundwork for a cinematic universe than functioning as a coherent monster movie. The central tension most reviewers identified was Tom Cruise himself: his star persona and need to play a clean-cut hero fundamentally clashing with the darker, more ambiguous material the story demanded. Empire stood nearly alone in offering a measured defense, while the overwhelming majority treated it as one of Cruise's worst films and a cynical franchise-building exercise.
“It's one thing to excavate the iconography of old Hollywood, it's another to exploit it. This isn't filmmaking, it's tomb-raiding.”
David Ehrlich·IndieWire
“The problem at its heart is that the reality of what the movie is—a Tom Cruise vehicle—is at war with the material. The actor, at 54, is still playing that old Cruise trope, the selfish cocky semi-scoundrel who has to grow up. ... The trouble is that Cruise, at least in a high-powered potboiler like this one, is so devoted to maintaining his image as a clear and wholesome hero that his flirtation with the dark side is almost entirely theoretical.”
Owen Gleiberman·Variety
“I found something almost admirable about the film's cheek. It's [so] amazingly relentless in its naked borrowing from other, better horror and sci-fi movies that I was able to keep occupied making a checklist of the movies referenced.”
Glen Kenny·RogerEbert.com
“a mish-mash of wildly varying tones and plot strands, from its convoluted beginning to its shameless non-end. Tom Cruise's new film barely qualifies as a film at all. None of it makes sense.”
Nicholas Barber·BBC World News Culture
Parents guide
- Violence
- moderate
- Sex
- mild
- Profanity
- mild
- Substances
- mild
- Intensity
- moderate
Genres
Fantasy, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Horror
Cast & Crew
Alex KurtzmanDirector
Tom CruiseNick Morton
Annabelle WallisJennifer Halsey
Sofia BoutellaAhmanet
Jake JohnsonChris Vail
Courtney B. VanceColonel Greenway
Russell CroweHenry Jekyll / Edward Hyde
Marwan KenzariMalik
Neil MaskellDr. Whemple
Javier BotetSet
Andrew BrookeMr. Brooke
Selva RasalingamKing Menehptre
Shanina ShaikArabian Princess
Brian TylerComposer
Dylan KussmanWriter
Christopher McQuarrieWriter
David KoeppWriter
Ben SeresinCinematographyThe Mummy
Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen 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.
What critics thought
Critics were nearly unanimous in their contempt, finding the film a tonally incoherent, derivative mess more interested in laying groundwork for a cinematic universe than functioning as a coherent monster movie. The central tension most reviewers identified was Tom Cruise himself: his star persona and need to play a clean-cut hero fundamentally clashing with the darker, more ambiguous material the story demanded. Empire stood nearly alone in offering a measured defense, while the overwhelming majority treated it as one of Cruise's worst films and a cynical franchise-building exercise.
“It's one thing to excavate the iconography of old Hollywood, it's another to exploit it. This isn't filmmaking, it's tomb-raiding.”
David Ehrlich·IndieWire
“The problem at its heart is that the reality of what the movie is—a Tom Cruise vehicle—is at war with the material. The actor, at 54, is still playing that old Cruise trope, the selfish cocky semi-scoundrel who has to grow up. ... The trouble is that Cruise, at least in a high-powered potboiler like this one, is so devoted to maintaining his image as a clear and wholesome hero that his flirtation with the dark side is almost entirely theoretical.”
Owen Gleiberman·Variety
“I found something almost admirable about the film's cheek. It's [so] amazingly relentless in its naked borrowing from other, better horror and sci-fi movies that I was able to keep occupied making a checklist of the movies referenced.”
Glen Kenny·RogerEbert.com
“a mish-mash of wildly varying tones and plot strands, from its convoluted beginning to its shameless non-end. Tom Cruise's new film barely qualifies as a film at all. None of it makes sense.”
Nicholas Barber·BBC World News Culture
Parents guide
- Violence
- moderate
- Sex
- mild
- Profanity
- mild
- Substances
- mild
- Intensity
- moderate
Genres
Fantasy, Thriller, Action, Adventure, Horror
Cast & Crew
Alex KurtzmanDirectorTom CruiseNick MortonAnnabelle WallisJennifer HalseySofia BoutellaAhmanetJake JohnsonChris VailCourtney B. VanceColonel GreenwayRussell CroweHenry Jekyll / Edward HydeMarwan KenzariMalikNeil MaskellDr. WhempleJavier BotetSetAndrew BrookeMr. BrookeSelva RasalingamKing MenehptreShanina ShaikArabian PrincessBrian TylerComposerDylan KussmanWriterChristopher McQuarrieWriterDavid KoeppWriterBen SeresinCinematographyStream
Rent & Buy