Everything a royal adventure should be!

Rating: 9/10 (20 March 2008)

9 may seem way too much for an adventure film with not many under-the-surface messages if any at all, but believe me folks, it is well deserved! Since I was a little boy, anything and everything pertaining to Ancient Egyptian culture intrigued me like did nothing else. That is not really a very rare trait I had. But pitifully, it has never been much exploited by the almighty Hollywood. Other than cheap B-movies that dealt with cursed ankhs giving archeologists (who look like Peter North) a heightened libido, Egypt was not a context of mainstream film-making. Not many gifted directors tried to look into the real deal. Just like the concept of vampires, the concept of mummies coming back to life to take care of unfinished business (as funny as that may sound) has mostly been a context of derision, until Stephen Sommers.
Unlike the old fashioned directors with a patriotic agenda, modern America has produced a handful of gifted directors such a Stephen Sommers and Gore Verbinski. Instead of sweating their brains over ridiculous conspiracies inside CIA and FBI, Stephen Sommers made something which can be loved and enjoyed 100% by a person of just about any age group and ethnicity. He made use of beliefs and fantasies that were around for hundreds of years, if not thousands, but were never properly utilized before. It is a very difficult task to make a film which promises absolute entertainment in every single scene. To accomplish that, the director needs to be obsessed with the myths and legends himself. No one made TITANIC before James Cameron because they could not relate to the theme at the core of their heart. For exactly the same reason, The Mummy is truly the first of its kind.
Many people said this is more like the return of Indiana Jones. But is it truly? Indy had been to Egypt. We saw some real state-of-the-art camera work in there. But can anyone recall feeling even remotely fascinated about Egypt after watching Raiders of the Lost Ark? Egypt was more like a ground where Indy beat the Nazis in their own game. It could have been Madagascar instead and there would be no basic difference. It also had many not-so-sublime messages of communalism, which I did not dislike personally, but drastically lowered the cinematic value of the motion picture.
With once-in-a-lifetime performances from Brenden Fraser, Rachel Weisz and Oded Fehr, backed by a truly mindblowing musical score from Jerry Goldsmith and awe-inspiring photography and art direction, The Mummy is a film for those who are in love with Egypt, dying to get a true flavour but annoyed and bored with the cheap ideations. It is also for those who love no-nonsense memorable adventure films with the perfect balance of humour. Humour plays a very crucial role in just about any film. Filmmakers often seem to overdo it or leave it out of the equation. This film shows a wonderful balance of seriousness and humour. A little more humour and it could be sadly comic, a little less could make things a little less entertaining.
There is no point in trying to explore if everything shown in this film has historical significance or value, though some of the things indeed do. Watch this film to seek true charm, and charmed you shall be! What better background can there be to embellish the story-canvas of obscure passion and exotic desires with than ancient Egypt? This is one of the 10 most memorably entertaining films I have seen. After watching it a hundred times over, I feel childishly thrilled to watch it from the start again. Same goes for the sequel "The Mummy Returns", though I would not rate it so high. There is no time like the first time!
A timeless exotic adventure classic.