Kathryn Bigelow’s Detroit has scenes and sequences that would potentially build to a powerful film about the disturbing incident of police brutality at the Algiers Motel on the night of July 25-26, 1967.  The central sequence that depicts this event is certainly as harrowing and unsettling as it could possibly be and cries out for justice for the victims who died at this event.  The problem with the movie is that the depiction of the background surrounding the pivotal event is confused and frustrating.

About that central sequence that lasts about an hour, director Bigelow and writer Mark Boal (who previously collaborated on two previous brilliant fact-based films, The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty) depict the incident as harshly and unsparingly as possible.  This section is punishingly claustrophobic as we see the white cops, fueled by blatant racism, abuse their authority and terrorize the primarily black residents in the motel looking for a sniper’s rifle that was not there (it was actually a starter’s pistol fired as a joke).  The residents, including Vietnam War vet Robert Greene (Anthony Mackie) and Larry Reed (Algee Smith), are lined up against the wall, physically beaten, and psychologically tortured with venomous racist attitudes.  The presence of two white women, Julie (Hannah Murray) and Karen (Kaitlyn Dever) triggers further racism among the cops.  Mock executions are staged to make the others talk about the “gun” until a few of them were done for real, ultimately leading to the deaths of three black men.

This is an urgent story that is still sadly relevant today and, with the right focus and clear structure, would have made a singularly impactful film.  The film’s central problem, however, is that, in its portrayal of the 1967 Detroit riots in the background, it does not lend the riots the gravity it deserves as a whole.  I believe the filmmakers will argue that the first third of the movie leads up to the central Algiers motel incident to make it stand in for the systemic issue of racism and police brutality.  However, the movie is unfocused and oversimplified in outlining the mechanisms behind the racially motivated clash between the African-American citizens and the predominantly white police and army troops.  Worse, while the movie goes on to tell the incident’s aftermath, including what became of the survivors of the incident and the subsequent trials of the police officers, the movie fails to mention the total number of 43 deaths in the riots.  I find it uncomfortable that the dozens of other deaths (many of them in circumstances of excessive police force as well as one who was a police officer) are unnamed and ignored by the wayside.

In the movie’s attempt to supply context, it opens with an animated tapestry-like montage composed of illustrations by Jacob Lawrence, which provides some abbreviated history on the migration of African-American to the northern cities and the Caucasians to the suburbs.  The movie then recreates the pivotal event that incited the riots on July 23, 1967.  A group of 82 African-Americans were celebrating in an unlicensed drinking club to celebrate the return of two GIs from the Vietnam War (although the movie does not really explain this context either).  The police raided the club, unfairly arresting all of them, and a group of onlookers started looting the places nearby.  As the riots grew out of control, troops from the National Guard and the US Army were brought into the situation.

With a relentless, handheld faux documentary approach (too relentless, in fact, which I will get to), the movie’s first third tries to capture the escalating riots in a dizzying fashion.  As the looting continues, police officers are in constant alert for fear of sniper fire.  One of the most disturbing moments of the film, which made me literally gasp in the theater, is one in which a young girl looks outside a window, is mistaken for a sniper, and shot by a National Guard soldier on the street (which actually happened to a real girl named Tanya Blanding).  We also meet a fictional composite character, a white police officer named Krauss (Will Poulter), who shoots an unarmed looter on the street running away with his shotgun.

Poulter, as Krauss, has been praised by many reviews that I have read, but I think his character really is a key to the problem of the movie being so confusing and facile in its deconstruction of the events.  He is the one who becomes the ringleader to the other terrorizing white cops in the Algiers Motel (one willing named Flynn, played by Ben O’Toole, and one more reluctant named Demens, played by Jack Reynor).  However, as written by Boal, after we see Krauss shoot and kill the looter, we see him being questioned by a superior officer about excessive force.  In showing how he merely gets a strong verbal warning for his actions, that scene is meant to illustrate the systemic lack of consequences for murdering an unarmed man.  However, it also telegraphs the character to make him seem like a singular, crazed person and thus undercuts the issue from feeling like a systemic one.  It also does not help that Poulter plays his character in constant bug-eyed fashion to make him appear so one-dimensionally villainous.

There are thankfully other performances that stand out, including John Boyega as security guard, Melvin Dismukes, who must helplessly witness the horrific treatment at the motel.   Mackie is reliably formidable as Robert Greene, who displays calm under duress simply to survive the night.  As an aspiring singer, Algee Smith also makes a strong impression.  There are some early scenes with him as part of the up and coming Motown group, The Dramatics, performing on stage, which provide some warmth to the movie.

Even the warmth of these scenes, however, is undermined by the aforementioned relentless camerawork by Barry Ackroyd (who also shot other “you are there” films like Captain Phillips and Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker).  The handheld shooting style with whip pans and zooms is appropriate for the harrowing scenes to heighten the visceral tension, but using the same approach for the warmer scenes actually normalizes and blunts the impact.  The musical scenes serve to highlight the cultural values and talents that a few African-Americans possess and a visual contrast would have served better to underscore what they lose at the tragic incident.

Even with significant flaws, there is some merit in a movie like this, which can encourage people (myself included) to learn and think more about the Detroit riots.  I may be torn in separating the significance of telling the Algiers Motel incident and criticizing the film’s shortcomings to portray the riots as a whole (and I would strongly recommend Spike Lee’s 1989 film, Do the Right Thing, as the definitive movie that illustrates the mechanisms of racism that build to a tragic riot).  However, a useful, if uncomfortable, discussion born out of a flawed movie is a valuable one.

Rating: 63/100

USA.  2017.  Directed by Kathryn Bigelow.   Written by Mark Boal.  Starring: John Boyega, Algee Smith, Anthony Mackie, Will Poulter, Jacob Latimore, Jason Mitchell, Hannah Murray, Kaitlyn Dever, Ben O’Toole, Jack Reynor, John Krasinski, and Jennifer Ehle.  Presented by Annapurna Pictures.  Rated R for strong violence and pervasive language.

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk may be the director’s most single-minded film.  All the sensory effects of a cinematic experience, visual and auditory, are marshaled to reproduce the barely endurable tension and fear of the Allied soldiers stranded by enemy attack at the isolated beaches of Dunkirk in 1940 during WWII.  In other words, rather than the cinematic spectacle being driven by an emotional story, the amazing spectacle here becomes the story.  The movie’s primary purpose is to put the audience right into the middle of the escalating danger that the over 300,000 British, French, and Dutch troops faced with growing dread and hopelessness of rescue until the miraculous evacuation took place.  In achieving that purpose to gruelingly moving effect, it mightily succeeds.

Thus, while the movie is available in a variety of different formats including 70 mm, 35 mm, or digital projection in IMAX or non-IMAX, this movie must be seen in 70mm IMAX for maximum impact (read here for a better explanation of different formats).  All sorts of credit and awards recognition must go to the cinematographer, Hoyte Van Hoytema (also responsible for shooting Interstellar and 2008’s atmospheric vampire film, Let the Right One In).  I cannot fathom the lengths Nolan and Hoytema must have gone through to install those lugging IMAX cameras at the back of plane wings and above the seas to capture those shots realistically plowing through the clouds in the air or swooping through the seas (those prone to motion or air sickness should be forewarned).  It is an astonishing accomplishment that furthers Nolan’s consistent argument that 2D can be more immersive than 3D and that 70 mm film stock is still a valuable resource in the age of digital projection.  In addition, Nolan, who avoids CGI when he can, opted for greater physical reality by using real naval destroyers for the sea battles and practical effects of cardboard cutouts of soldiers on the beach for distant background shots.

All of this is not to suggest that the movie is necessarily lacking in story, as writer/director Nolan employs his trademark nonlinear storytelling technique to tell three disparate accounts of the Dunkirk evacuation.  The first, which stars Fionn Whitehead, Damien Bonnard, and Harry Styles as Allied soldiers, takes place on the beach in the span of one week (chaptered “The Mole”, which is actually referring to the small isolated beach harbor).  The second (chaptered “The Sea”) takes place in the span of one day and features Mark Rylance as a civilian boat captain with his teenage son (Tom Glynn-Carney) and a local boy (Barry Keoghan), setting out from home on his boat to rescue soldiers stranded in Dunkirk.  Finally, the third (“The Air”) happens in the span of one hour in an aerial battle of British RAF pilots headlined by Tom Hardy against German pilots.

In telling the three accounts that finally intersect near the climax, there are no detailed backstories of individual characters, as the movie, without much dialogue, is entirely concerned with capturing the hellish anxiety of war in the moment.  The relative experiences of anxiety would be different, however, between the fear of potential air strikes and torpedoes on the ground, which would be like a prolonged and unbearable crawl, and the fear of drowning or heights being more sudden and instantaneous.  Nolan’s regular editor, Lee Smith, conveys that rather elegantly in the movie’s crosscutting between the different passages of time.  The structure also allows for small, significant character turns and revelations, whether they be heroism, trauma, or cowardice.

The movie is not geared to be an actors’ showcase but it is nonetheless tricky for the performers to behave convincingly in the moment to make us care for their predicament.  The veteran Oscar®-winning British actor, Mark Rylance is a crucial standout as the boat captain in “The Sea”, symbolically expressing the can-do spirit responding to the desperate military call from Dunkirk for civilians to rescue them.  Playing opposite him in a fierce battle of determination is Cillian Murphy, a shell-shocked soldier that Rylance rescues from another near-sinking boat.  As the ranking commander on the beach, Kenneth Brannagh also provides great facial reaction shots that Nolan can hold on to underline the mounting weight of enemy oppression in the shores.  Hardy may be building a running joke in playing roles that require him to wear a mask over his face all the time (after The Dark Knight Rises and Mad Max: Fury Road), but is as reliable as always, while Whitehead, Bonnard, and Styles provide fitting empathy as the desperate soldiers.

A special mention must also go to Nolan’s regular composer, Hans Zimmer, who comes up with yet another unique musical score.  Reportedly, Zimmer made recordings of the tick-tock sound of Nolan’s pocket watch as the background for his score.  The music builds on that sound with increasing, high-pitched crescendo sounds to emphasize the feel of a countdown ticking in the desperation of survival.

In its skillful joining of sheer spectacle and story, the movie that I was most reminded of was Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, which is the only movie that I felt was actually improved by seeing it on 3D.  Both movies fully exploit and immerse us into all the inherent drama of survival in the face of seemingly inevitable doom and, though Nolan is more of a traditionalist in technique, both films try to push the envelope of visual technologies to achieve the immersive effect.  Much like Gravity clocked in at just 91 minutes, I am also particularly happy that Nolan, after the slight bombast of Interstellar (which I still liked for its vision but found too simplistic in its ideas), made his second shortest movie to date at 106 minutes.  The movie has a singular purpose and achieves it in a most efficiently brilliant way.

Rating: 92/100

USA/UK//France/Netherlands.  2017.  Written and directed by Christopher Nolan.  Starring: Fionn Whitehead, Damien Bonnard, Mark Rylance, Cillian Murphy, Tom Hardy, Harry Styles, Tom Glynn-Carney, and Barry Keoghan.  Rated PG-13 for intense war experience and some language.

Both in movie watching and writing, these last two weeks have been catch-up time.  Several were re-watches including the Guardians of the Galaxy series and I have finally gotten to familiarizing myself with the reboot of the Planet of the Apes series.  Without further ado, here are my capsule reviews of movies I saw in the last two weeks.

 

The Villainess (2017) – dir. Byung-gil Jung

Rating: 62/100

If this Korean action film had a story to match the impressive action sequences on display here, it would have really amounted to quite something.  The action scenes are certainly memorable, right from the opening brutal knife and gun fight filmed as the POV shot of its lead female assassin more than ably played by Ok-vin Kim (it is reminiscent of 2015’s Hardcore Henry, though thankfully the POV dizziness doesn’t last for the whole film to become tedious).  The final action sequence set in a city bus, as the camera goes in and out of a desperate and violent melee like a participant in the action, is also very impressive.  Also, it is not often you get to see a woman in a wedding dress with a sniper rifle.  However, the story in between gives you the sense that the filmmakers took you around a long, convoluted route to drive up the storytelling taxi meter.  The trip just adds up to a tale of an assassin confused between the loyalties of a government agency and a secret criminal faction.  Convoluted storytelling might work if there is enough of an emotional anchor to latch on to, but nearly all the characters (played by accomplished actors like Ha-kyun Shin and Seo-hyung Kim) are set up to be distrusted that the main protagonist comes off as foolish for believing anyone at all.  The action sequences may make it worth seeing anyway but you may find yourself itching in between those sequences.

 

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) – dir. Jon Watts

Rating: 71/100

Even though I knew Marvel had taken control of the character, I still found myself asking, “Do we need yet another Spider-Man movie?”  While this does not displace Spider-Man 2 as the best Spider-Man movie for me (I know many will disagree), Spider-Man: Homecoming at least avoids rehashing the origin story (unlike The Amazing Spider-Man series, which was perfunctory for that very rehashing) and brings enough fresh character and story touches to make it worthwhile.  Like the way Tom Holland breezily plays Peter Parker, the film doesn’t take itself as seriously as the Tobey Maguire series (though I think the first two of those have the dramatic weight to support it) and the humor often hits the bull’s eye for laughs.  An action sequence in the middle set at the Lincoln Monument is tense and very well done, but the climactic action sequence with the plane is sadly shot in a dark and disorienting fashion that I could not tell what was going on most of the time.  However, there are some clever character touches with familiar characters from the comic universe such as Flash, among others, who is not made to be a physical bully, but a verbally insulting one.

 

Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016) – dir. Joon-Ik Lee

Rating: 83/100

This film tells the story of the famous Korean poet, Dong-ju Yoon, who wrote in the period when Korea was under Japanese colonization.  Some of his famous artful poetry is integrated nicely with the film’s elegant black-and-white cinematography, giving it a historical feel.  The black-and-white palette of the film reminded me how the removal of color forces us to pay more attention to shapes and geometry in a scene (which is fitting, I think, with the theme of colonial oppression, as the characters often appear to be boxed in).  Joon-Ik Lee is a director that I have liked for picking rather humanistic stories like The King and the Clown and Wish but I have found his visual style to be rather stale.  This is certainly his most visually striking film to date, however, and through the duality of Yoon (Ha-neul Kang) and his cousin, Mong-gyoo Song (Jung-min Park), the film conveys the tragedy of a people without national sovereignty and whether writing in literature is a means to fight against the oppression or run away into the wilderness of intellect.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vols. 1 (2014) and 2 (2017) – dir. James Gunn

Rating for Vol. 1: 81/100

Rating for Vol. 2: 78/100

So I guess I got into bit of a Guardians of the Galaxy kick, as I re-watched Vol. 2 in theaters the first week of July and then caught the first one playing on FX with special behind-the-scenes footage and interviews the following week.  The humor worked for me as well as it did the last time, and It is always fun to be dazzled by how the directors and actors have to imagine the CGI effects that will be filled in later.  The niftiest details that I was realized this time were in how they imagined the characters of Rocket and Groot, which points to how actors who serve as the model for motion capture do not get enough credit (which is also true of the Planet of the Apes series, more on that later).  Bradley Cooper does a fine job of voicing the sardonic Rocket, but it is the director James Gunn’s brother, Sean Gunn that provides the physical movement.  For Groot, it is the motion capture performance of Krystian Godlewski who provides the real substance to Vin Diesel’s repeatedly saying, “I Am Groot” (and you know the other line).

 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) – dir. Rupert Wyatt

Rating: 72/100

So I finally got to catch up with this much-praised reboot trilogy of Planet of the Apes and, while it is yet another tale of humans playing God against nature and losing, the movie nicely updates the elements for a modern retelling.  Best of all, it has Andy Serkis, who, after bringing Gollumn from Lord of the Rings and King Kong to life, imbues yet another character with vivacious heart in the form of the intelligent ape, Caesar.  Caesar is a product of experiments done by a scientist, Will Rodman (James Franco), who is trying to find a cure for his father’s (John Lithgow) degenerating Alzheimer’s disease.  While Will and Caesar form a bond, Caesar is taken away in a locked in a cage and mistreated by other humans, as he eventually brings together a race of apes to rebel against the mistreating humans.  The elements are familiar but director Rupert Wyatt enlivens the action sequences with swooping cinematography by Andrew Lesnie and the aid of CGI to capture and follow the apes’ paths of climbing from limb to limb.

 

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) – dir. Matt Reeves

Rating: 82/100

I still have to watch the second part of the reboot trilogy, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, but this third one really improves on the elements of the first.  The opening title cards get the audience up to speed with the events of the first two and a human army is sent to eradicate the rising species of intelligent apes led by Caesar.  More than Avatar or District 9, this movie really has us rooting against the human species, and Serkis once again imbues ample heart and humanity to Caesar, who starts out on a personal path of revenge against the unnamed Colonel (Woody Harrelson) leading the army.  I should also point out that the story that seems to be in the trailers is not what is in the movie (it is much more interesting than a one-dimensional war between apes and humans).  While some may read into possible political parallels in the movie (e.g. the Colonel is trying to build a wall to keep his enemies out), given the length of time in filmmaking, I usually see such parallels as coincidence and take the director, Matt Reeves at his word when he says “it was unintentional”.  It is also to the film’s credit that, with the exception of one crucial scene of exposition, it propels the story forward with action, suspense, and not much explanatory dialogue.  To be fair, with the oppressive humans being painted as villains, the climax resorts to some of them acting not so intelligently and the ending catastrophe feels somewhat arbitrary.  However, the movie conveys its symbolic messages and parallels (such as the biblical Exodus) lightly and subtly enough in the mix of a rousing entertainment.  Also, it has become a cliche to say that motion capture performances like Serkis’ are undervalued and it is time for some actual awards recognition to end the cliche.

 

Police Story (1985) – dir. Jackie Chan and Chi-hwa Chen

Rating: 76/100

I personally find good repeat value in the best of Jackie Chan’s action comedies and Police Story is certainly one of his most exhilarating.  As a caveat, I do find this one troubling to watch in one sense because Chan, the actors, and the stunt players are really getting injured.  Well, okay, Chan has gotten injured making a lot of his movies and he got one of his worst here as he slides down a long pole in a shopping mall surrounded by electric lights.  However, this one in particular has so many people getting cut by glass throughout (and many of the cuts are real) in the final mall melee and I get a slightly queasy feeling that we may be a few steps shy of watching a live death video.  Still, it is better to praise the actors for the risks they take to deliver the sensational action throughout.  This movie also has one of my favorite comedic sequences by Chan when his character, Ka Kui tries to take on multiple telephone calls coming into the police station including his girlfriend, Amy (Maggie Cheung).  As a side note, she has got to be one of the most understanding girlfriends in movie history considering the increasing amount of misunderstandings and peril he puts her through in the Police Story series.

 

The Big Sick (2017) – dir. Michael Showalter

Rating: 85/100

It turns out I saw the best movie for last.  This was the independent film that broke out as the sensation from the Sundance Festival this year and I can understand why.  The movie, directed by Michael Showalter and written by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily Gordon, is Kumail’s own real life story of balancing romance and stand-up comedy.  As Kumail, who is an immigrant from Pakistan aspiring to be a stand-up comedian, meets a Caucasian American woman, Emily (Zoe Kazan), the movie goes through some familiar territory in dealing with obvious familial and cultural differences.  Once a pivotal event happens, however, and Emily’s parents (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) enter into the picture, the movie becomes highly fresh and original in navigating different facets of a growing but awkward relationship.  It was a particular thrill for me to see Hunter and Romano again in memorable roles that remind us how they can balance quirkiness with dramatic heft. I didn’t know much about the particulars of this story, so I hesitate to say much more.  But Kumail’s story, as co-written and acted by himself, is sweet without being too cloying and serious without taking itself too seriously (especially thanks to many of Kumail’s hilarious zingers in his routine).

I didn’t see any movies for more than a week.  However, the next week, I caught up with more.  Going on vacation often means sightseeing during the day and re-watching movies on HBO in my hotel room.  So I got to re-watch a few movies while watching a couple of new ones in theaters.  Here are the movies I watched this past week:

 

Sister Act 2 (1993) – dir. Bill Duke

Rating: 53/100

This movie does have some childhood nostalgia value from when I saw it as a kid enjoying the gospel soundtrack including great renditions of “Joyful, Joyful”, “His Eye is On the Sparrow”, and “Oh, Happy Day”.  However, it is not a very good film.  The first Sister Act failed to live up to the comic potential of its premise about a lounge singer, Dolores (Whoopi Goldberg), who is hidden in a convent under the witness protection program.  After Dolores is accepted as a proper nun, this second one trades in on the old teacher-student clichés without a lot of heart, originality, and conflict in between.  I have always thought that Hollywood never quite figured out how to exploit the unruly comic potential of Whoopi Goldberg and this one does not either.  Pitting someone like her against a disorderly class could be interesting.   However, the movie resolves that conflict way too quickly and conveniently in the first third of the movie (with the exception of one student played by Lauryn Hill).  The actors playing them, which includes a few future (and some eventually faded) stars like Hill and Jennifer Love Hewitt, are certainly musically talented but the mediocre script does not give them much in the way of personalities to create a real class dynamic.  I’ll still always enjoy the soundtrack for this movie including the closing finale of “Joyful, Joyful”.

 

Live Free or Die Hard (2007) – dir. Len Wiseman

Rating: 71/100

In the tradition of the 4^th of July, this is probably as prime time as any to watch this fourth Die Hard movie.  It is the last of the action film series that I enjoyed even though, as a computer programmer, I know that little of the techno terrorism set around Washington, DC makes any sense.  What I look for in a Die Hard film is good action and the wise-cracking attitude and bravado of Bruce Willis as John McClane, who is still deep down a good cop.  Many felt that the film was diluted by the language and violence being toned down for the film’s PG-13 rating but that was until the fifth film, A Good Day to Die Hard came out, which proved that having a higher R rating is not necessarily what captures the essence of a character.  At least McClane is recognizable as McClane in this one, there is good chemistry between him and Justin Long as a hacker who aids him in his quest, and the action here is directed by Len Wiseman in a clean, crisp fashion so that we can follow it.

 

Catch Me If You Can (2002) – dir. Steven Spielberg

Rating: 81/100

Aside from big action blockbusters, I sometimes have trouble trying to come up with a response when someone asks me for a suggestion of a light, entertaining film that is skillfully made.  This film by Steven Spielberg, however, is one of the first movies that would come to my mind.  It tells the kind of story that would only be told because it happened in real life.  The main character, Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio, in probably his last youthful role) is a teenager who became a con artist to impersonate a Pan Am pilot, a doctor from Harvard Medical School, and a lawyer, all while forging millions of dollars in checks.  The movie could have been made into a serious crime story or, worse, have the story become an ungainly fit for the film’s breezy tone to become morally problematic, but it strikes a delicate balance to celebrate Abagnale’s brazen charm over his criminality.  I also think of this as a very good Christmas film, as Abagnale and his FBI agent pursuer, Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) always talk to each other during Christmas, eventually building something resembling a father-son relationship.  There is also a great supporting performance by Christopher Walken playing the actual father, Frank Abagnale, Sr.

 

Baby Driver (2017) – dir. Edgar Wright

Rating: 76/100

This is probably the movie I most anticipated watching this summer and, while it is not the masterpiece I hoped it would be, it is still a very musically entertaining ride.  Writer and director Edgar Wright always had the directorial knack for literally directing and editing his scenes with a musical beat (where scenes on set would be acted to the beat of the background music).  Here, that approach takes center stage to turn this film really into a musical in some ways.  All the action scenes are directed to be set to musical beats, whether it is the mix of screeching tires set to memorable 80s tunes or the timing of gunshots in a warehouse shootout.  The directorial touch is also driven narratively by the central character, Baby (Ansel Elgort), who listens to music on his MP3 player to drown out his tinnitus with his music while working as a getaway driver for armed robberies.  The movie is filled with good supporting performances from Kevin Spacey, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Hamm, who deliver clever speeches surrounding pop culture references from the music of the 80s to Monsters, Inc., sometimes even turning them into veiled threats.  It is too bad that the overall crime story and character motivations turn out to be generic, predictable, and occasionally nonsensical, but the movie is still worthwhile for appreciating the musical direction.

 

The Mummy (2017) – dir. Alex Kurtzman

Rating: 40/100

So I had already heard the terrible reviews for this film and I was hoping it wouldn’t be as bad as they said (Rotten Tomatoes has it at 15%).  It wasn’t as bad but that also means it is not memorably bad.  There are a couple of nice scenes like the realistic depiction of the plane crash that is shown heavily in the trailers.  The issues, however, are numerous including how the points introduced in the story remain merely as plot points, disconnected and underdeveloped, and thus the jump scenes throughout the film do not add up to any scares.  The plot lapses could be forgiven if the characters had some personality but they do not (and there are several points when I felt I had to really “guess” the character motivations).  Tom Cruise may have had more substantial dramatic roles than Brendan Fraser from 1999’s The Mummy did, but Fraser had the goofy sense of bumbling and foolhardiness that would fit the adventure and Cruise is really too green for the role.  Annabelle Wallis fares worse, as she is there to stop and spout plot exposition.  Sofia Boutella as the titular mummy and Russell Crowe as Dr. Jekyll come off a little better, but even their more intense moments are sabotaged by the film’s failure to establish the rules of the premise very well.  Overall, this will hardly work as a launch pad for Universal’s plan to launch the Dark Universe franchise, mainly because it is forgettable and without a personality.

 

Happy 4^th of July!