My thoughts on why 'the Mummy' failed to launch Dark Universe

[Peyton Westlake]

I think the concept of Van Helsing was amazing, in the sense that it was a whole cinematic universe in a single film that could lend itself to some great stories. Some of it was too hammy for my tastes, but I liked Jackman and David Whenhan in the film quite a bit and I wouldn't have minded seeing another film of them slaying some other random Universal Monster.

I agree. But I would have liked from the very start if Van Helsing, along the way to having a confrontation with Dracula, he came across Frankenstein and battled him a entire movie. Then maybe in a sequel or trilogy fight Dracula last.

 

[Deck Rickard]

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" (the graphic novel, not the God-awful, terrible car-fest of a movie) is what I felt the Dark Universe should have gone for if they wanted to blend a bunch of disparate stories, mythologies, and characters.

That would have been great. Such a great graphic novel and such a horrible movie. That one is up with with Catwoman and Batman & Robin in the “Worst CBMs of All Time” category.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Such a great graphic novel and such a horrible movie. That one is up with with Catwoman and Batman & Robin in the “Worst CBMs of All Time” category.

Definitely.

 

[MurkeNyou]

To me it's simple. Universal always had the best depictions of the monsters. But for some stupid reason, despite being vicious with enforcing its intellectual property for decades, Universal never uses these likenesses of the monsters. The Monsters Cafe at the park is the only indication that they are THAT Universal Studios.

They make a horror movie with the Monsters as they were in the 30's and 40's, it's gonna be better than having Russell Crowe with a rash throwing around Tom Cruise.

 

[Boom]

They make a horror movie with the Monsters as they were in the 30's and 40's, it's gonna be better than having Russell Crowe with a rash throwing around Tom Cruise.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I think using the classic monster designs in an unexpected and subversive, modern context (like Monster Squad) would've been the best move.

You tap into the nostalgia and add some Get Out relevancy and controversey.

 

[Boom]

Decided to watch this last night for my "bad Halloween movie" selection.

It's awful. What's worse, it's boringly awful. I had hoped that it'd be one of those "So bad it's funny" type deals. Nope. Just an absolute chore to get through. Out of two hours, I really only enjoyed one scene, and that was [blackout]the first time the mummy wakes up and sucks the life essence from those two guards, and then proceeds to reanimate their corpses.[/blackout] It was very atmospheric scene and genuinely unnerving.

Everything else? Hard pass.

 

[Filmfan93]

Why it failed to launch the "Dark Universe"?

Because it wasn't a good film. 4 months after seeing it, I have barely thought about it or any particular scenes that I have enjoyed.

It's simply boring and forgettable. Even the "Cruise" factor couldn't save it for me this time. It's perhaps the only Cruise film I haven't enjoyed.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

Why it failed to launch the "Dark Universe"?

Because it wasn't a good film. 4 months after seeing it, I have barely thought about it or any particular scenes that I have enjoyed.

It's simply boring and forgettable. Even the "Cruise" factor couldn't save it for me this time. It's perhaps the only Cruise film I haven't enjoyed.

I think the Cruise factor actually hurt it more than Tommy boy or Universal would dare to admit. I think his star has dimmed since the 80's & 90's [while others' stars from same eras have blossomed] and he has a very hard time of not acknowledging that and he is not top dog anymore.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

To me it's simple. Universal always had the best depictions of the monsters. But for some stupid reason, despite being vicious with enforcing its intellectual property for decades, Universal never uses these likenesses of the monsters. The Monsters Cafe at the park is the only indication that they are THAT Universal Studios.

They have the Monster Makeup Show and while it finally closed last year they were in the Beetlejuice show for some 25 years.

 

[Deck Rickard]

Decided to watch this last night for my "bad Halloween movie" selection.

It's awful. What's worse, it's boringly awful. I had hoped that it'd be one of those "So bad it's funny" type deals. Nope. Just an absolute chore to get through. Out of two hours, I really only enjoyed one scene, and that was [blackout]the first time the mummy wakes up and sucks the life essence from those two guards, and then proceeds to reanimate their corpses.[/blackout] It was very atmospheric scene and genuinely unnerving.

Everything else? Hard pass.

Yeah, it’s lousy. I’m glad I saw this movie on a tiny screen on an airplane. I feel like that’s the format it’s meant to be viewed in.

 

[jfurioso]

I liked the behinds the scenes reel they showed as a promo more than the actual movie.

 

[TheVileOne]

Nostalgia Critic teams with Angry Video Game Nerd to take down The Mummy.

[YT]FCGDi1f4zm8[/YT]

 

[Peyton Westlake]

Nostalgia Critic teams with Angry Video Game Nerd to take down The Mummy.

[YT]FCGDi1f4zm8[/YT]

On spot points and synopsis. I nominate them both to replace Rotten Tomatoes.

 

[OtherwiseKnownAs]

It wasn’t a horror movie, when it should’ve been. When you’re trying to launch a cinematic universe, based on the Universal Monsters, and you call it the “Dark Universe.”, making sure you got the horror/gothic tone is pretty important.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

It wasn’t a horror movie, when it should’ve been. When you’re trying to launch a cinematic universe, based on the Universal Monsters, and you call it the “Dark Universe.”, making sure you got the horror/gothic tone is pretty important.

 

[-JKR-]

It wasn’t a horror movie, when it should’ve been. When you’re trying to launch a cinematic universe, based on the Universal Monsters, and you call it the “Dark Universe.”, making sure you got the horror/gothic tone is pretty important.

Yup, and it was simply a pretty mediocre/bad movie. It didn't deserve to be a hit, and I'm glad it wasn't. I really hope Universal scraps the Dark Universe non-sense, and just focuses on making modern, frightening (adult and R-rated) takes by great directors on these characters.

Something bold and wild and memorable, like Francis Ford Coppola's take on Dracula, for example.

Plenty of filmmakers these days who I could see doing some pretty spectacular stuff with the Universal monsters: Andy Muschietti, Fede Alvarez, Adam Wingard, James Wan, Jim Mickle, The Duffer Brothers, or maybe seasoned directors such as Joe Dante and George Miller.

 

[Heretic]

It's kind of funny how tone deaf the producers of the Dark Universe are. 2017 has been the year of Horror. The mainstream blockbuster breakthrough of the genre is THE box office story of the year...and these out of touch and overpaid execs altered a classic Horror concept (The Universal Monsters) into something that felt more like Transformers (at least from the trailers...I've yet to see the film, despite being a massive horror fan).

 

[Peyton Westlake]

I think Universal should have taken a peek and somewhat copied the moods of Dracula (1992) and our original Thor director Branagh's Frankenstein (1994) for some points.

 

[MadVillainy]

Again I don't think it necessarily had to be a "horror" movie or R rated but yeah more scary. Although I haven't seen the movie, I'm just going off what I saw.

I think they should've made it a period piece, kept the budget relatively low (under 100 mill reported), make it darker, not given it the standard summer blockbuster tone but still keep it "fun"

I'm trying to think of a movie to compare it to but I'm blanking.

They should've done
1. The Mummy, set in Egypt
2. Frankenstein, set somewhere in Europe
3. Creature from the Black Lagoon, set in the Amazon
4. Wolf Man, set in America

and then do a Van Helsing movie to bring them all together that would feature Dracula as the big bad. Next "phase" you can throw in Dr Jekyll/Hyde and Invisible Man movies (although I don't see them as monsters, but still)

The potential was there even if they didn't bring them all together in a cross over

 

[jmc]

I actually think the tone of the film was ok for the most part, I don't think I agree it has to be a straight horror film. I do think it needed to push its genre boundaries a bit more. I know it's a weird comparison but Ghostbusters is a good example of being scary whilst staying within its comedy borders.

 

[godisawesome]

Combining genres probably should be considered as the best move; the Brendan Fraser movie got some immediate mileage and support out of realizing how well the Mummy works with an Indiana Jones style adventure crossbreed in it. Dracula could easily get some more power from a Predator-like cat and mouse game, especially since the latter half of the novel is pretty much explicitly that. Jekyll and Hyde feels like it's always been a serial killer thriller story, though I think to could have some more oomph is they followed the original novella's idea that the Hyde personality only developed after Jekyll has started to dissassociate himself from his actions in his new body. Frankenstein feels like a sci-Fi franchise just waiting to explode.

And if they want to interconnect stories, they could always start out smaller and more subtle. For instance, a younger Van Helsing could be encounter the Creature in the early 1800s, or meet the Mummy in the same time period (Egyptolgy really took off around then), or Dracula could command the werewolf who bites the Talbot-analogue, or even become the Talbot-analogue's master.

 

[Thundarr]

Nostalgia Critic teams with Angry Video Game Nerd to take down The Mummy.

[YT]FCGDi1f4zm8[/YT]

I was going to post this but you beat me to it.

 

[chamber-music]

Yup, and it was simply a pretty mediocre/bad movie. It didn't deserve to be a hit, and I'm glad it wasn't. I really hope Universal scraps the Dark Universe non-sense, and just focuses on making modern, frightening (adult and R-rated) takes by great directors on these characters.

Something bold and wild and memorable, like Francis Ford Coppola's take on Dracula, for example.

Plenty of filmmakers these days who I could see doing some pretty spectacular stuff with the Universal monsters: Andy Muschietti, Fede Alvarez, Adam Wingard, James Wan, Jim Mickle, The Duffer Brothers, or maybe seasoned directors such as Joe Dante and George Miller.

Never would of predicted James Wan's Conjuring shared horror universe would do better that Universals.

 

[Peyton Westlake]

One thing for sure about all this...Universal seems to be eerily quiet with whats going on with the 'Dark Universe'