Fun but Unfulfilling

Rating: Null/10 (11 May 1999)

There are a lot of bad things about this movie, and a few good ones.
Good: The return to the jocular tone and goofball characters of the 30's monster films. I particularly liked the woman and her brother: it's refreshing to see characters who are not desperately begging us to think that they're COOL. It doesn't hurt that the woman looks like Kate Bush when she lets her hair down.
Bad: The movie takes a serious downhill turn once the Mummy is released, turning into a mind-numbing, senseless special effects fest. There is not ONE second of suspense in this film, and nothing the least bit scary. That's fine, but what the film replaces that with is: Special effects! Special effects that don't make sense! You get these plagues that just DISAPPEAR after the characters run from them a little bit. A swarm of Locusts! Then: They're gone! A hail of flaming stones! Then: it's over! A cloud of black flies! Then: they go away! It just doesn't make any sense, and doesn't really do all that much to advance the story, or even thrill the audience. I love special effects, but this movie really could have used LESS of them, and a whole lot more atmosphere. This would have been a much better movie had their budget been $40 million, rather than $80.
Good: Brendan Fraser, who can't quite cut the Indiana Jones thing, so he does something else, and turns himself into a likable, slightly unhinged surfer dude with a mean streak. Go Brendan.
Bad: The Mummy. It's not a Mummy, but a buffed-up corpse, and before you know it looks just like a guy. A not even slightly scary guy. At certain point the story threatens to turn into a Dracula story, with the Mummy turning into sand and slithering through keyholes and such. Great: but that's not a Mummy story. I want a slow walking Mummy who's wrapped in bandages. Oh well.
Bad: These beetles, who really have no bearing on the plot, who either devour people slowly over the course of 1,000 years, or quickly, in the space of a second, depending on the whim of the screenplay. Doesn't it seem to ANYONE in Hollywood that some things should make SENSE?
Bad: The haphazard plotting and absolutely shapeless screenplay. This film truly has an action climax every five minutes. I wonder if, in the mind of the director and screenwriter, this film makes even the least bit of sense. I know, it doesn't make sense that Mummies come to life and kill people after 3,000 years in the ground, but sometimes I begin to think that certain people in Hollywood are literally unable to tell a coherent story.
Good: The pervasive sense of goofy fun, and the lack or gore and violence. A lot of people are killed, but the camera turns away from real, on-screen violence, and is merely suggestive, using shadows and other tricks to convey what's happening. I personally don't miss seeing heads being ripped apart or bodies exploding.
Good: Those GOOFY acrobatic Russian-type guard mummies who show up near the end.
This is a fun, senseless, but frustrating and ultimately unfulfilling movie. I found it refreshing, however, to be in a LOW-TECH environment, where they aren't trying to download this or defuse that or decode this, and there isn't a laptop in sight. You'll get your two-hours worth, but as I said, I wish the filmmmakers had half the budget and were forced to resort to actual CREATIVITY!
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