The film took me by Surprise I was entering expecting a PG film with
all the good old Gothic Romance taken out. Well no it didn't take me by
surprise. I'll look at the film in couple of different ways. Story, Technique,
Sequences, characters and context of viewing which most reviewers leave
out to all to often and can really add to the experience of a film.
The film opens in ancient Egypt 1719BC when High Priest Imhotep takes
a liking to ANK-SU-NAMUM the Pharaoh's born and bred mistress who is not
to be touched by anyone but the Pharaoh. Well tut-tut Imoptep breaks this
basic rule as his love for Ank-Su-Namum grows to strong. They go out like
Romeo and Juliet with their forbidden love. Imhotep kills the Pharoah,
the bodyguards of the Pharoah spring into action and Ank-Su-Namum commits
suicide. Imoptep steals into the night vowing to ressurect his forbidden
lover. During the ceremony Imhotep is caught and is mummified into one
of the lving dead and the worst torture, locked in and sealed in a sarcophagus
and entombed. With the powers of a High Priest he remained and a curse
was put on him to stop anyone from ever digging him up. He is buried in
Hamunaptra- The City of the dead. Imhotep is the MUMMY. When his sleep
is disturbed 3000 years later he is not happy and the 10 plagues of Egypt
explode on the screen, while Imhotep tries to build up the strenght to
ressurect An-su-Namum and regain full strength, a bunch of treasure hunters
and Egyptologists try to stop him.
Stephen Sommers writes and direct this film in a style that would be
an amalgamtion of George Lucas and John Woo. The two guns firing the abundance
of gunfire in this film I haven't seen since "The Killer" but
the films gets a PG rating because the gun fire doesn't make holes in the
victims it takes. The Sword fighting and swashbuckling , and costuming
are very Indiana Jones meets Star Wars. Sommers has captured adventure
and managed to put it into what is essentially a Gothic Romance and still
maintain a essence of horror clearly visible in his early special FX film
"Deep Rising". But also palys into the hands of industry execs
in the way his films like "Tom and Huck" and "The Jungle
Book" tried to but failed financially to do so. The humour he uses
to levitate the characters is a lot like that of "gunmen" (Christopher
Lambert, Mario Van Peebles) that he wrote.
From the outset of the trailer I was hooked on the way the FX would
work and fit into specific sequences in this film. The breathtaking opening
Vistas of Ancient Egypt are breathtaking and spelt out load 80 million
bucks. My favorite sequence was not an entirely FX based. It was very similar
to one in the recent "Legionnaire" there is a line of Foreign
Legion soldiers lead by Col. Rick O'Connell up against an on coming army
on horseback. The line stretches along the wall of the City of the dead.
The Bullets start flying what ensues is a very John Woo gun battle. Something
that the director Sommers has gotten down PAT.
Characters were fairly easy to pick the Good Guys were likable and comical
the traitor was clumsy and Imhotep was and evil romantic. I found myself
thinking of the old Republic serial "Shazam" and the way you
coudl tell what was what by the characters likableness. Okay so the actors
as a rating from most annoying upwards. Beni is played by Kevin J. O'Connor
(recently in Sommer's DeepRising), was by far the mot irritating when will
this guy with the bad accent die. The next worst would have to be Anck-Su-Namum,
played Patricia Velazquez although not in it much you coudl not really
get a reason other than eye-candy behind the reason that Imhotep died for
her and I envision Imhotep as being a liitle more intelligent than to have
a visual infatuation. Next would be Johnathon played by John Hannah, the
character was extremely well polished and worked in well with the film
to add levity his ability to paly to a PG audience was clearly deonstrated
here again as it was in "The Love Bug". Evelyn would come in
here Rachel Weisz played up an intelligent vultuousness in the construction
of this character. Next in line would be Imhotep played by South African
Arnold Vosloo. Glad he finally got a BIG SCREEN role after his protrayal
of Darkman in 2 sequels Vosloo has managed to scare the crap out of the
audience that I was with using gesture and a foreighn tongue, yet was still
able to handle the opening romance. Rick was an all round great character
by Brendon Fraser, although Fraser is likely to beocme typecast as adventure
hero type do gooder. Best character was Ardeth Bay played by Oded Fehr
who was one of the protectors of the city, can't wait to see what he pulls
out in "Texas Rangers" 2000.
Well I saw the film at cinema 2, a medium sized cinema at the Carindale
8. The 2 large cinemas were taken by Austin and Star Wars so the experience
was watered down along with the dts sound. There is a rip in the screen
half way down that casts a 20 cm shadow and a gummy bear stuck to the screen
which distracted me every now and than. I sit front row center and the
screen in not in teh right position. It seemed to high and the top right
was out of focus. Personally not a big fan of the new look Carindale shopping
center that I saw the film in.. I thought they'd taken away the TOY sTORE
look to the place.. But not it feels like Wonderland and the colour of
the cinema wall made me vomitus. BCC should really think of shutting down
Carindale 8, espeacilly when there is a Megaplex in the same bus zone and
Buses don't run to the Carindale cinema from where I am after 6 pm. I choose
to use public transit so I can choose to drink. go figure.:) The receptiopn
of a free poster at the box-office with a lovely timeline and methos of
the film was quite pleasant.
But the film still stirred a B+ reaction.
, 1998-1999.