Well, thanks to The Mummy, the 1999 summer movie season officially arrived with a bang.

Rating: 7/10 (17 June 2002)

The Mummy is your typical special effects movie. It's got good looking stars, great special effects, a plot that is there to move the special effects along, and you leave the movie feeling a little bit dumber than when you went in.
The movie opens 3000+ years in the past. The Egyptian priest Imhotep is put to death in the most inhumane way possible. But for some reason, if a person is put to death in this way, if for some reason he manages to come back to life, at any point in the future, he'll have the powers of a God. So why even give him that chance? Why not kill him in a little bit nicer way and not give him the chance to come back as a God? That's what I was thinking. So anyway, as you may have guessed, in 1925 a group of treasure hunters and archeologists stumble upon the tomb of the priest, and manage to bring him back to life. He then reigns terror upon the people and brings with him the 10 plagues. But with the help of a cat and a book Brendan Fraser and his crew manage to save the world, and get some treasure at the same time.

The one thing to remember when going to see this is that there is a lot more comedy involved that you may expect. It almost seemed at times that they wanted to do a parody of Indiana Jones films. So while it wasn't really scary, it did have a lot of humor. And like I said before, plot isn't really the reason to go see this movie. I went because of the special effects and the scenery. What I really thought of this movie was that it was a low-rent Indiana Jones film. Indy has better acting and a better story and a little more adventure. This one had pretty faces, some adventure, and good special effects. I for one am a fan of Brendan Fraser, even if other people aren't. Absent George of the Jungle and Encino Man, all of his films have been pretty good, no matter what anyone says. And he plays his character well here too. He does subtle humor very well. The leading lady, Rachel Weisz was attractive in a strange sort of way. Something is wrong with her face, I just couldn't figure out what. And the rest of the cast did their stock parts well. You knew pretty early on in the film who was there to die and who was going to live.
The special effects were good as well. The problem with special effects these days is that we've pretty much seen them all. The trick is making them a little different. A movie like The Matrix takes special effects to a new level. In The Mummy, they use sand as their little difference. I don't recall seeing a movie use sand as their special effect before, and this one pulled it off well. The creature effects were pretty good, but reminded me of the Evil Dead movies at times. What I did like were the sets that were used. I thought they looked pretty cool. The opening scene looked amazing, even though they were using CGI to create it. The only real problem I had with the movie was that it slowed down in a lot of places. They would rev up the engines for a few minutes, and then slow it down. I realize that special effects movies are expensive, so they can't have these huge effects all the time, but it is possible to keep the energy level up without using effects, and I wish they had done that a little more.

So overall The Mummy was entertaining if slow at times. The special effects were good and a little different that normal. The faces are pretty and the scenery is cool, so if you're looking for a movie that won't make you think and will deliver a good time, this is one to see.