The Mummy Reviews: Our Verdict on Every Film

The Mummy reviews on Cinvibe are opinion pieces, and my pick of the six films is The Mummy (1999). The verdicts below are my own, written without borrowing scores or review text from Variety, Roger Ebert's site or any other outlet. Each film gets a short verdict now, with a full review to follow. For a full ordering, see the mummy movies ranked, and for the series as a whole, start at the the mummy movies hub. One note on names: Lee Cronin's The Mummy (2026) is a separate film and not part of this franchise, so it sits outside this Universal series.

I judge these films on the creature first: how it moves, what rules it follows and whether the scare lands. A mummy film can have the best jokes in the world and still fail if the monster feels like a delivery system for set pieces. The curses and legends in these films are story devices, and I report what the films claim about them without suggesting any of it is real. I will be critical where a film earns it, but never cruel to a cast or a filmmaker.

The Mummy 1932, directed by Karl Freund, is a restrained horror film that leans almost entirely on Boris Karloff. In 1921 an expedition digs up the mummy of Imhotep, and Ralph Norton reads the Scroll of Thoth aloud and goes mad at what he sees. In my opinion the film is at its best when Karloff, billed as Imhotep and Ardath Bey, simply stares. It runs 73 minutes, so there is little padding, and it suits a viewer who likes atmosphere over action.

The Mummy 1999, directed by Stephen Sommers, is the entry I would watch first, and I rank it as the best of the Brendan Fraser films. In 1926 the librarian Evelyn Carnahan, her brother Jonathan and the soldier of fortune Rick O'Connell head into the desert toward the lost city of Hamunaptra, where a rival team of American treasure hunters is also digging. The story is built around Imhotep, the priest cursed in ancient Egypt, and Arnold Vosloo plays him as a genuinely menacing figure. Jerry Goldsmith's score keeps the adventure grand. Paradoxically, the comedy helps the horror, because the film lets you relax before the next scare. At 124 minutes it earns its length.

The Mummy Returns, also directed by Stephen Sommers, is a larger film that is easier to enjoy than to be frightened by. It jumps to 1933, where the O'Connells are raising their son Alex O'Connell in London, and a cult led by Baltus Hafez brings Imhotep back. Dwayne Johnson appears as Mathayus, the Scorpion King, and The Scorpion King followed as a spin-off. It could be argued that this is the series at full volume, and I enjoy it, but it spreads its menace across too many villains. The soundtrack includes "Forever May Not Be Long Enough" by Live.

The Scorpion King, directed by Chuck Russell, is a swords and sorcery adventure rather than a monster film. Dwayne Johnson plays Mathayus, an Akkadian assassin hired to kill a sorceress who helps the warlord Memnon, played by Steven Brand. Michael Clarke Duncan and Kelly Hu are a good part of the fun. My verdict: a decent action romp, but it holds little fear.

The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, directed by Rob Cohen, moves the story to 1946 and to China. Maria Bello replaced Rachel Weisz as Evelyn, a change reported by Variety, and Luke Ford plays Alex. The emperor, played by Jet Li, is cursed into clay along with his army, and Michelle Yeoh is credited as Zi Yuan. In my opinion the clay army is the strongest creature idea of the later films, and the film deserves more credit than it usually gets. It also cleared Chinese censors before release, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The emperor is less scary than Imhotep, though, and the humor is thinner.

The Mummy (2017) is worth watching once, mainly for Sofia Boutella as Ahmanet. The Mummy 2017, directed by Alex Kurtzman, follows Tom Cruise as Nick Morton, a soldier who loots antiquities on the side and uncovers her tomb in Iraq after air strikes expose it. Russell Crowe plays Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde. Ahmanet made a deal with the god Set and was buried alive, which gives her a real grudge, and she is the best thing in the film. It is rated 15 in the UK and PG-13 in the US.

In my view the franchise is a commercial hit overall, with one debatable entry. According to Box Office Mojo, The Mummy (1999) earned about $418 million worldwide on an $80 million budget, and The Mummy Returns (2001) earned about $444 million on $98 million. The Scorpion King (2002) took about $181 million on $60 million. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008) made about $403 million on $145 million, and The Mummy (2017) made about $409 million worldwide on $125 million, with only about $80 million of that in the US. The Numbers lists a larger budget for the 2017 film, which is why people argue about its status. Details are on the the mummy box office page.

The next film in the series is The Mummy: Book of the Dead, due October 15, 2027, according to Variety. Radio Silence directs, with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz returning. See the mummy 4 for the release status, and the mummy movies in order if you are planning a marathon.