Stephen Sommers is an interesting person. He 'homaged' the Mummy films of old and many other horror classics in his 'Mummy' films and 'Van Helsing.' Van Helsing was good, the Mummy Returns was shite... but The Mummy was a classic.
Not because it was original - hardly - but it didn't try to be more than it was, had time for a romance, great special effects, John Hannah (a brilliant actor) and Rachel Weisz (a fantastic and beautiful actress), Brendan Fraser doing Indiana Jones, amazing action sequences, good humor... and didn't have the snot-nosed kid from the sequel.
But if there was one scene that truly pulled it away from 'Indiana Jones'-ripoff, it was the Museum of Antiquities scene, with the hoard of Imhotep-zombies attacks. This is more in the vein of horror films - but it works spectacularly here.
7/10 - minus three stars because Arnold Vosloo isn't menacing enough as Imhotep, we don't see all of the Ten Plagues of Egypt (which are fascinating), and we don't see Beni die.
Not because it was original - hardly - but it didn't try to be more than it was, had time for a romance, great special effects, John Hannah (a brilliant actor) and Rachel Weisz (a fantastic and beautiful actress), Brendan Fraser doing Indiana Jones, amazing action sequences, good humor... and didn't have the snot-nosed kid from the sequel.
But if there was one scene that truly pulled it away from 'Indiana Jones'-ripoff, it was the Museum of Antiquities scene, with the hoard of Imhotep-zombies attacks. This is more in the vein of horror films - but it works spectacularly here.
7/10 - minus three stars because Arnold Vosloo isn't menacing enough as Imhotep, we don't see all of the Ten Plagues of Egypt (which are fascinating), and we don't see Beni die.