THE MUMMY Review

One might imagine that Alex Kurtzman, a Hollywood writer often relied upon for studio mandated filmmaking, would have learned a thing or two from watching those he’s written for in the past. Be it J.J. Abrams, Marc Webb, or hell, even Michael Bay. Any one of these aforementioned directors might have shown glimpses of how to stylize, tap into emotion, or leave a unique impression on a certain popular property, but none of this seems to have left an impression on Kurtzman. One might imagine it would, but it seems that if you did you might have more of an imagination than Kurtzman period as his big blockbuster directorial debut is nothing short of a generic action adventure. To his credit, Kurtzman did write and direct the 2012 dramedy People Like Us which wasn’t terrible, but that you probably also don’t remember. Point being, while Universal is now attempting to get in on the cinematic world building game Marvel pioneered and Warner Bros. is following suit on they might have tried to do so by kicking off such an attempt with someone who displayed the opposite qualities of their endeavor meaning a leader rather than listener and obedient follower Kurtzman seems to be. While Kurtzman is at the helm of this mammoth monster movie the direction is not the weakest aspect of this drab blockbuster; that would be the screenplay. As one of six credited writers on the project, Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet (Rachel Getting Married) seemingly outlined the story before Universal brought in the likes of Jon Spaihts (Prometheus, Passengers) to juice up the script, but they weren’t done yet, no, as Dylan Kussman (an actor of bit parts in lots of big movies who seems to have made the right friends) along with Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspect, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) and David Koepp AKA the OG Alex Kurtzman were brought in to add to the screenplay and presumably help map out where exactly this “Dark Universe” might lead. Well, if The Mummy is in fact how Universal is going to kick-off this supposed series of films (it was originally intended to be 2014’s Dracula Untold, but we all see how that turned out) audiences would be led to believe this is going to be a tone-deaf and unoriginal endeavor leading me to believe there might not be much of an audience at all.

KING ARTHUR: LEGEND OF THE SWORD Review

I like Guy Ritchie, I like his style, and I enjoy his approach to storytelling. The writer/director understands the unique ways in which one can convey something as simple as a montage and how such interpretive change can alter the reception and/or investment of an audience in something as simple as a montage. If you've seen any of Ritchie's s previous films, such as Snatch, RocknRolla, or either of the two Robert Downey Jr. Sherlock Holmes adventures, then you'll certainly recognize the marks of the director in his latest film; another re-telling of the King Arthur story. It was inevitable the legend of Arthur and his knights of the roundtable would eventually get their own gritty re-boot, but when it was announced Ritchie would be the one bringing said gritty reboot to the big screen the trend all of a sudden didn't feel so tired. Too bad we spoke too soon for despite the fact Ritchie gets a director, co-writer, and producer credit on this $175 million flick-it reeks of studio intervention and countless pacing issues due to as much. Before we get too far into this though, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword isn't an outright train wreck and has some rather inspired and interesting moments whether that be in character and set design, some of the performances, or of course the notable editing and inventive storytelling. Still, at the end of the day, this is a film whose parts are greater than its (overlong) summation and unfortunately that leaves a rather forgettable taste. Bland. Bland is the word I'm looking for. And while one might have advised Ritchie and the gang against rebooting a brand name no one seemed to be particularly interested in (the last incarnation of King Arthur came just over a decade ago and only delivered $200 million worldwide) there was always that hope Ritchie might put enough of a directorial stamp on the material that this new version might come to be more than justified. There are hints of Ritchie's British blue collar mentality and sense of humor that pop up throughout that hint at what could have been, a medieval Lock, Stock if you will, but more often than not King Arthur: Legend of the Sword becomes a bloated, CGI-fest that is more hollow spectacle than engaging character drama.

Full Trailer for THE MUMMY Starring Tom Cruise

Next year Universal Pictures will begin to expand on the movie universe it somewhat began with 2014's Dracula Untold. Whether or not that Luke Evans dud (at least in terms of quality, though it only made $217 million worldwide on a $70 million budget) will tie into this new incarnation of The Mummy is yet to be seen, but it's clear the studio is placing a much bigger bet on this film hiring big guns like Tom Cruise and Russell Crowe in the cast while being explicitly clear in their intention to see this through to a new cinematic universe a la Disney's Marvel films and Warner Bros. DC Comics movies. All of that taken into consideration it doesn't seem to matter what Universal's long term goals might be to the average movie-goer if this first go-around doesn't work for audiences or give them reason to invest or be excited. Should people even be excited for a movie that re-boots a series that saw its last installment be released in theaters not more than a decade ago? Universal seems to hope that by hiring names such as Cruise and Crowe along with a creative team that includes first time feature director Alex Kurtzman who has written major blockbusters in the Transformers, Spider-Man, and Star Trek franchises as well as writers Jon Spaihts (Prometheus, Doctor Strange, Passengers) and Cruise's current creative partner Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) that audiences very well might. In doing as much there is certainly something of a more inherent pedigree to the material and thus, hopefully, a more imminent need for audiences to see it and be in on the water cooler conversations that would then take place next summer, but right now it's hard to tell. It's difficult to tell whether The Mummy will even be among the most talked about trailers that will debut over the next two weeks that hope to get out in front of Rogue One. The first full trailer looks fun enough and Cruise is on something of a roll with these big-budget actioners at the moment, so it will be interesting to see how far his star power extends past the Mission Impossible series when paired with a high-profile concept, but as for now this can't help but feel like another of the many fish in the sea. The Mummy also stars Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, and opens on June 9, 2017. 

New Trailer for ANNABELLE

It is hard not to be weary of spin-off movies in that they seem like quick cash grabs where there is no possible way a fair amount of thought or development was put into creating it. They simply exist to mine the potential of more money from something that was previously successful and has a distant link to the latest product. Annabelle seems a perfect example of this as The Conjuring barely came out a year ago and introduced us only slightly to the title character here and now we already have a full trailer after the teaser dropped just over a month ago. The teaser was effective in that it was minimal (much in the vein of the first Conjuring trailer). This second clip from the film gives us more insight into the plot of the film and more of an idea of what we can expect story-wise. The film looks to have the same visual style and tone as one of James Wan's horror films, but John R. Leonetti has taken over directing duties here after serving as DP on The Conjuring. While overall, this looks to hit many of the familiar beats of demonic possession films the hook is that we all wanted to know more about this scary little doll after her curse was put on hold by Ed and Lorraine Warren. I actually enjoyed Wan's sequel to Insidious last year more than The Conjuring, but am still interested in this because I like the type of horror utilized in his movies and it looks like that has been mimicked well here. I wish they wouldn't have given away some of the scares we see in the trailer, but hopefully that means they have a good amount left up their sleeves. Annabelle stars Annabelle Wallis, Ward Horton, Alfre Woodard and opens on October 3rd.