Silly , Dumb And Only Slightly Entertaining

Rating: 6/10 (28 January 2003)

I remember seeing the trailers for his film several weeks before it was released at the cinema in 1999 and was under the impression it was going to be a breath taking horror film , but when it hit the cinemas and the critics described it as an Indiana Jones type adventure I felt robbed of something
On its own merits THE MUMMY is entertaining enough , there's lot of action , a few rare scary bits but far too much humour which threatens to sink the film . I guess this is down to the producers trying to attract a younger audience and boost their profits but this all leads to a silly film . And I got the distinct impression that he script was written around the FX . For example there's a special effects packed meteor shower but there's no explanation for it , it adds nothing to plot and is never referred to again even though it kills a lot of people . Obviously the scene was written to show off some CGI
THE MUMMY does sometimes have its better parts , mainly when it tries to get back to being a horror film but I often found myself wishing I was watching an often rumoured Clive Barker version of THE MUMMY
As a footnote I couldn't help noticing that THE MUMMY starts with a flash back to several thousand years ago and is followed by a big battle with combatants falling from a great height . Didn't you get the feeling that Peter Jackson might have been impressed with the start of this film ?