The only things anyone remembers about 2017’s The Mummy are the sound effects-free trailer and how it destroyed the Dark Universe. R.I.P. the Dark Universe. That’s not a great legacy. It was hubristic of star Tom Cruise and director Alex Kurtzman to think that they could top 1999’s The Mummy, a perfect movie (it says so right here).
In an interview with Variety, Brendan Fraser, who starred in the good The Mummy, offered his explanation for why the bad The Mummy was a critical and commercial failure. “It is hard to make that movie,” he said. “The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.” Fraser’s The Mummy is a theme park attraction (that’s a compliment, not a derogatory term); Cruise’s The Mummy was a chore.
As for whether Fraser would return for a fourth Mummy movie, The Whale star said, “I don’t know how it would work. But I’d be open to it if someone came up with the right conceit.” The Rock might be interested.
(Via Variety)