Legends and myths have found a profound space in the cinematic universe since its inception and given birth to some of the most thrilling adventures. One such fable is that of Egyptian Mummies and their curse, which has attracted filmmakers since the 30s when the first Monster franchise came into existence. Who can forget the iconic act pulled by Boris Karloff as the Mummy, followed by Lon Chaney Jr. and later by Eddie Parker? These actors gave a definition to a character considered a myth, which resulted in another successful and exclusive franchise by Stephen Sommers.
Inspired by 1932 predecessor, the new franchise had Rick O'Connell as an explorer who has to fight a resurrected corpse of Imhotep to stop the curse and save the world. While the first two films were received well, the third lacked the spark and eventually resulted in the end of the franchise. Now the mummy is back with a reboot and this time it's Tom Cruise who is carrying the weight of all the expectations.
Much darker and grittier than Sommers' series, the reboot is the first instalment in the Dark Universe film series, which aims to revive old monster-tales like Mummy, Frankenstein and Dracula among others. In the world which has been obsessed with superheroes and their spin-offs for more than a decade, Universal Pictures is trying their hands on a lost genre of Monsters who reigned the Box Office from 30s to 50s. The studio already has flashy talent lined up in front of and behind the camera for this expanded universe, including Johnny Depp as The Invisible Man, Russell Crowe as Dr. Henry Jekyll, Javier Bardem as Frankenstein's Monster and Angelina Jolie as Bride of Frankenstein. The Dark Universe has a Danny Elfman-composed theme and a nostalgic trailer looking back at the days of Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi.
And the first and major step to bring the attention to the supposed universe has been handed over to the man of action - Tom Cruise. The Hollywood superstar is known for is action-driven films like Top Gun and Mission Impossible franchise, thus the makers of The Mummy didn't forget to inculcate lots of blasting automobiles and chasing sequences even in the horror genre. While the curse is cryptic and spine-chilling, the thrill is still expected out of Cruise rather than the resurrected evil Mummy Princess.
Now a generation that has grown up watching exaggerated scientific and alien stories, bringing the fabled monsters back is a huge risk in itself. Moreover, starting the series with a creature who has already been buried cinematically nearly a decade ago, might not interest the viewers like the way it did in 2008. However, the makers of the Dark Universe have tried to stay true to their name and has kept things as mystical as possible, with dark magic, evil Mummy princess monster who is indestructible and an entire cult set up to find such monsters (much like S.H.I.E.L.D). Either the Mummy Reboot may give us our first Monster-fighting Avenger in form of Cruise or everything might just go downhill right from the start if a perfect balance between Cruise magnanimous action image and franchise's horror theme is not achieved.
Overall The Mummy reboot is testing water for protagonist Cruise, who needs to cash in his already overused action-hero image with a refreshing horror twist, and for the Universe makers who are relying heavily on monster geeks and Cruise's fan following at the same time, finding a bench amidst Marvel and DC Universe.
The only way to make this thing work is to make a bunch of good and crowd-pleasing star-driven monster movies that will get audiences excited outside of their existence in a shared universe.
Will The Mummy prove to be the stand-alone movie that'll shape the cinematic monster universe before Jolie and Depp step in? The answer will be out on June 9.
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