The Mummy Blu-ray Review

By: Lynn Barker

In The Mummy, chasing antiquities to sell on the black market can be dangerous. Just ask soldier of fortune Nick Morton (Tom Cruise). When he and buddy Chris Vail (Jake Johnson) accidentally uncover the prison/tomb of ancient Egyptian princess Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), all hell breaks loose including Ahmanet’s reconstituted mummy who has romantic, power-grabbing plans for Nick.

Chris blames Nick for getting him in trouble...againCourtesy of Universal Studios

Knights and Murderous Mummy

It is England in 1127 A.D. and Knights Templar protect a powerful red stone from an ancient dagger and bury it with one of their members. Centuries earlier in ancient Egypt, Princess Ahmanet is supposed to inherit the throne but her dad has a baby boy with a new wife and she is cheated out of her destiny. Really ticked off, she makes a deal with Set, the Death God and gets the power to murder her dad and baby brother but her plan to make Set a mortal man at her side is dashed when she is found out. For her crimes, she is mummified and buried alive far away from Egypt.

Princess Ahmanet plans her revengeCourtesy of Universal Studios

Thieving Adventure

In former ancient Mesopotamia, now modern-day Iraq, Army reconnaissance men Nick Morgan and his buddy Chris Vail secretly search for antiquities they can sell on the Black Market. Their commander Colonel Greenway (Courtney B. Vance) is wise to them and when they call in an air strike on an ancient village, basically to help them escape, they open up a giant sink hole. When archeologist Jenny Halsey (Anabelle Wallis) arrives, she realizes the “hole” is the opening to an ancient tomb with Egyptian markings….in Persia. Weird.

Entering the tomb/prisonCourtesy of Universal Studios

Trouble at the Tomb

Nick, Vail and Jenny enter the tomb to find it more of a prison to keep something in than a shrine for the dead. Nick carelessly chops a chain that frees a mummy sarcophagus. He then starts seeing visions of a beautiful princess who announces that, since he has freed her, he is her “chosen” one. When the cargo plane carrying the mummy to London crashes, Nick has given Jenny a parachute and she lives. He should be dead but he doesn’t have a scratch on him. At the crash site, the grotesque, now freed mummy starts sucking the life out of people to “re-flesh” herself and thus builds her undead army.

Ahmanet captured by Dr. JekyllCourtesy of Universal Studios

In the Morgue and Beyond

On the plane, Vail, under the mummy’s power, killed Greenway. Nick had to shoot him but is he dead? Nick wakes up in a morgue with a tag on his toe. Why isn’t he dead?  “Zombie” Vail is there telling him he’s not dead but he’ll wish he were. Mummy Ahmanet looks more human as she sucks more life essence and searches for the dagger and the red stone that can bring Set to life. After several confrontations with the Mummy, including her attempts to use Nick as her human vessel for Set, Nick and Jenny end up with the dagger but no red stone.

Jenny supervises the mummy's loading onto the planeCourtesy of Universal Studios

Enter Dr. Jekyll

Dr. Henry Jekyll (Russell Crowe), who is Jenny’s secret boss, has Jenny and Nick brought to him. He’s a monster himself when he becomes Mr. Hyde but he’s trying to stop monsters worldwide. Jekyll has Ahmanet chained up but she keeps trying to control Nick. Meanwhile the red stone that belongs on the dagger is found in the Crusader’s tomb. It’s a race to get and destroy the stone before Ahmanet can put it back in the dagger, kill Nick and have the Death God Set take over his body forever. Who will die? Who might live forever and who will make the ultimate sacrifice?

Nick (Tom Cruise) confronts Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe)Courtesy of Universal Studios

Special Extra Features

There are a ton of extras on this Blu-ray set. All are quite entertaining.

• Deleted and Extended Scenes- There are four that are a nice watch but none enhance the story that much.  
• Cruise & Kurtzman: A Conversation is a lot of fun. The director and Tom remember the original Universal “Mummy” with Boris Karloff in the title role. Tom admits he loved all those old monster movies growing up. Working out the story and casting various characters are discussed and the guys have a lot of laughs remembering fun on set. Well worth a watch.
• Rooted in Reality features Kurtzman talking about his desire to pay tribute to all the original Universal movie monsters like Frankenstein, Dracula, Creature from the Black Lagoon, etc. and bring them to our modern times, keeping all creepy but grounded. Russell Crowe is on the huge sets and the “look” of the movie is discussed. Cool.
• Life in Zero G: Creating the Plane Crash – We learn that Tom has wanted to do a Zero G sequence on a plane for a long time. We see the preparations for free fall and the actors discuss the physical demands and we see how the stunt was put together. Pretty fool. For some, the plane was the “Vomit Comet”. Yuk.

Real Zero G on the planeCourtesy of Universal Studios

• Meet Ahmanet focuses on actress Sofia Boutella playing the ancient princess who becomes a frightening mummy. Tom just loves her in the role and she discusses the princess and her motivation to kill etc. Interesting.
• Cruise in Action is a close look at Tom doing all his own stunts. Various stunts are explored in detail. A hoot if you love to see how these are done with Cruise laughing all the way.
• Becoming Jekyll and Hyde presents Russell Crowe who tells us that he and Tom have wanted to work together for a long time. He had fun creating two separate personalities in one character. We see Jekyll’s cool office, classy wardrobe and see Crowe and Cruise in their big fight scene. A lot of fun.
• Choreographing Chaos examines creation of the big CGI dust storm in central London and inside the Museum of Natural History. Both live action and CGI blended to make this work. Fun to watch.

Ahmanet launches a dust storm over LondonCourtesy of Universal Studios

• Nick Morton: In Search of a Soul closely examines Tom’s character Nick as Tom talks about his bad guy with a good center, Nick’s relationships with the two lead ladies (mummy and Jenny) and how he discovers his humanity by the end by becoming a monster himself. Interesting.
• Ahmanet Reborn: Animated Graphic Novel looks very cool and is nicely drawn as the princess turns to evil.
• Feature Commentary with Director/Producer Alex Kurtzman, Sofia Boutella, Annabelle Wallis and Jake Johnson is worth watching for details, cinematic tips and behind the scenes tidbits, some funny although the gang sometimes get excited and talk over one another.

Cruise and Director Kurtzman on setCourtesy of Universal Studios

Wrapping Up

As we said when reviewing the film in theaters, The Mummy is entertaining but kind of uneven due to trying to insert comedy, create big scares and throw in romance and inner conflict for the Tom Cruise lead character.

Nick begins seeing visions of AhmanetCourtesy of Universal Studios

On the Blu-ray as well as in the theater, some of the scenes involving the mummy’s transformation are shot a bit too darkly to see just how cool the CGI really is…thus not as scary as they could have been.

The beautiful sets, costumes and production design are still looking great on Blu-ray and sound is crisp.

Extras cover many behind-the-scenes subjects and filmmakers and actors share a lot of production tidbits that are well worth watching. Because of the loaded extras and how well the movie translates to Blu-ray, we can go four stars. 

The Mummy Blu-ray Rating:

The Mummy Blu-ray CoverCourtesy of Universal Studios Home Entertainment

You can buy The Mummy in stores now!

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