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The Mummy: COLLECTOR’S EDITION Review
By admin | December 16, 2009
The Mummy Trailer
The Mummy: COLLECTOR’S EDITION Review
COMMENTS
There’s always a certain risk that a studio undertakes when it fools around with titles they’ve already successfully released. Universal’s original THE MUMMY, starring Boris Karloff, debuted in 1932 and was quickly followed by a slew of imitators. No one has ever been able to recreate the terror of the original—until now.
Boris Karloff “The Uncanny” as THE MUMMY, circa 1932
Director Stephen Sommers loved the original movie—the only “mummy” film he had ever seen personally—but he wanted to update the creature for the 90’s. Sommers didn’t want some guy wrapped up in bandages shuffling along—he wanted a fast, vital and dangerous monster to wreak havoc, and with this effort he has succeeded in spades. Today’s MUMMY is more of a cross-genre movie. Not strictly horror, but a blend of romance and adventure as well. It’s a good formula that’s worked well for other action-adventure films of recent vintage.
The fetching Patricia Velazquez as the ill-fated Anck-Su-Namum
Industrial Light and Magic has come up with a truly memorable monster. Organic and complex, he’s striking and horrifying but not gory. Just dry, dusty and rotted. No oozing bodily fluids or blood to get in the way of the taught, decaying sinew. This was a very conscious decision of the director to keep the appearance of THE MUMMY from going “over the top”. The computer-generated creature has sort of a TERMINATOR quality to him. His movements are fluid enough, but he still has enough of a lurch in his stride that serves to remind us that this is, in fact a Hollywood apparition and not a semi-solid mass of tendons, bones and putrefied muscle, frayed tendons and crumbling cartiladge. The 3-D quality of the effects truly is remarkable, however. This is one heck of a mummy.
The Mummy menaces Rachel Weisz
Having missed the theatrical exhibition (what can I say, I’m spoiled by home theater), I was totally impressed with the combined efforts that went into this film. The CGI effects are very close to, if not equal in awe and scope to those found in JURASSIC PARK. The depiction of the creepy, mystical flesh-eating scarab beetles — the minions of the mummy characters, was fantastic. Skittling around, burrowing themselves under the skin of unwilling, terrified hosts, these bugs from hell pack a lot of visceral punch in a small package.
The real surprise for me was how sexy this horror/thriller turned out to me. The Mummy? A romantic? Yes and a hopeless one at that. Balancing romance with menace is a real tightrope walk, but Arnold Vosloo pulls off the task with disarming ease. The sweeping score and lush cinematography add to the romantic undertones.
The early scenes depicting a thriving, vital, ancient Egypt are breathtaking. Industrial Light and Magic makes an immediate impact in the opening scene of the film with some CGI work that’s a real treat for the eyes. In order to make the story fly, we have to believe that the Pharaoh’s mistress is desirable enough for the high priest Imhotep to risk certain death for, and she is. Amazingly, the character of Imhotep (the mummy) is suave and commanding in his own way — at least, when he’s not in some state of torture or decay (blechh). Brash, supremely confident and in control, Arnold Vosloo makes the perfect villain for this film.
On the flip side, it appears obvious that the character of Rick O’Connell was written with a younger Harrison Ford/Indiana Jones character in mind, complete with the sardonic one-liner quips — something that the affable and perhaps overused Brendan Fraser just can’t really pull off without drawing somewhat unfair comparisons.
Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser in THE MUMMY
Attempts at humor were hit and miss—usually a miss. Fraser gets very high marks, however, for his incredibly skilled performance of fighting a dozen mummies (none of which are actually there during filming, of course) in a very convincing choreographed battle which pays homage to JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS near the film’s finale. This scene in particular is brilliantly exectuted, and examined in fine detail in one of the special added features on this disc (more on that in a moment).
Fraser’s co-star, Rachel Weisz, has a delicate beauty in an old-fashioned way and her look seems to fit in well with the 1920’s time period that the film is set in. Though at times her performance is slightly overdone at times, this is in keeping with other peformances in the film and can probably be attributed to direction more than anything else.
Going native: Rachel Weisz as Evelyn in THE MUMMY
Kevin J. O’Connor gets perhaps his meatiest role since playing the moody, enigmatic Michael Fitzsimmons in PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED. In THE MUMMY, O’Connor plays a real sleazeball, a comical character who would rather “be the right hand of the devil than in his path”. Some might consider his whining, needy performance with the bad Arabic accent a bit annoying. Others may feel that it’s one for the books.
Kevin J. O’Connor tests his linguistic skills with THE MUMMY
Though THE MUMMY doesn’t quite measure up to other contemporary films which it could fairly be compared to (again, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK comes to mind), it certainly does justice to the original Universal monster flick that bears its namesake and succeeds with dazzling images and sounds rarely encountered on DVD. It’s THE MUMMY for the new millennium.
THE MUMMY delivered more than I was expecting, and the incredible value-added features included on the disc make this a true collector’s edition that will delight anyone who enjoyed the movie.
J.M. Kenny’s 48-minute “Building A Better Mummy” documentary is outstanding in every respect. Kenny, who has directed several featurettes for Universal DVDs, just seems to be improving with each supplement he directs. Extremely informative, loaded with interviews and featuring great behind-the-scenes footage of the ILM effects, this feature is an outstanding addition to the film.
Other great extras abound, including two back-to-back theatrical trailers, a feature-length commentary with director Stephen Sommers and editor Bob Ducsay, who recorded their comments together. We can eavesdrop as the two discuss various scenes, minor plot holes, locations, etc. It was interesting to learn from the duo that each special effects shot (and there are plenty) cost about $125,000 each. Only one such sequence was left on the cutting room floor. The special features also include cut scenes (the aforementioned CGI scene was not among them).
It’s funny to note that this is the second Universal DVD I’ve seen recently,in which the director is critical of the new Universal logo, wishing they could have used the older “classic” logo instead. Ouch.
One of the special features deserves special mention here. The “Visual and Special Effects Formation” is actually a submenu which details in a step-by-step process, how some of the greater effects of the film were achieved. Each of the four scenes examined takes you from plate photography to visual effect elements to composite scenes to final sequence. This fascinating look is accompanied by the narration of Visual Effects Supervisor John Berton and was very enjoyable.
THE MUMMY is easily another “must have” reference disc for those wanting the full “DVD experience”. I was also thrilled to see theatrical trailers for films not yet released in the theaters. For a long time, I’ve wondered both privately and publically, why there isn’t more cross promotion between home video and theatrical releases. Universal has apparently caught onto this concept and it’s only a matter of time before everyone else does. I believe that Trimark Pictures was the first to venture into this area and I applaud the studios that do it. If there’s one thing that DVD owners love, it’s theatrical trailers. Bring ‘em on, baby!
SYNOPSIS
When the Pharaoh’s mistress, Anck-Su-Namum (Patricia Velazquez) is caught in an affair with Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), the Pharaoh’s high priest, the ramifications are dire.
Forbidden love: Arnold Vosloo and Patricia Velasquez in THE MUMMY
Breaking into her crypt and stealing her body, Imhotep takes his love to Hamunaptra, The City Of The Dead, an ancient burial site for the sons of Pharaohs and other wealthy families of Egypt.
Tempting the fates by taking the black book of the dead from its holy resting-place in an effort to resurrect his love from the dark underworld, Imhotep’s attempts are thwarted by the Pharaoh’s guards, who had followed the high priest and his followers to the ancient city. For their part in this crime, Imhotep’s loyal legion of priests were ordered to be mummified alive, while Imhotep was forced to endure the Hom-Dei, a curse so horrible that it had never been bestowed upon anyone before.
Imhotep takes the wrap for his unspeakable crimes against the Pharaoh
Condemned to an eternity of the undead, Imhotep could never be released from his sarcophagus. If he was, he would arise as a walking disease; a plague upon mankind; a flesh-eater with the power of invincibility. For 3,000 years the magi—descendants of the Pharaoh’s sacred bodyguards, kept watch over the tomb to ensure that this traitor to the Pharaoh would never walk the earth again.
During a French Foreign Legion skirmish with the Bedouin in present day (1920’s), Rick O’Connell (Brendan Fraser), deserted by his cowardly compatriot Beni (Kevin J. O’Connor), accidentally discovers the burial site of Imhotep and gets an Egyptian wake-up call from beneath the sand. Although he survives his ordeal, he wanders off into the desert to face an almost certain death.
A clumsy librarian with a strong knowledge of ancient Egyptian language and culture, Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), and her brother Jonathan (John Hannah) discover the key to Imhotep’s tomb on an ancient dig. Within the key casing is a map to Hamunaptra, where the earliest Pharaohs were told to have stored their ancient treasures as well as their dead. The library’s stuffy curator “accidentally” burns the part of the map that contains the lost city when Evelyn and Jonathan share their discovery with him.
Evelyn and Jonathan seek out a prisoner that they’ve heard had been to Hamunaptra and this marks their introduction to Rick O’Connell, who has been condemned to death by his captors.
Evelyn secures O’Connell’s freedom on the day of his hanging by bribing his prison warden with a stake in the buried treasures of Hamunaptra. Only O’Connell can lead them there. O’Connell’s jailer comes along to protect his investment.
On board a Nile river boat, the quartet run into a group of American good ‘ol boys who are also on the way to discovering Hamunaptra and the two groups make a bet on who will find it first. Evelyn is interested in finding the golden book of Amun-Ra, containing all the ancient incantations of the Egyptian civilization. Everyone else wants the treasure.
Also on board the boat is O’Connell’s Foreign Legion accomplice-turned-traitor, Beni, who is leading the American group to Hamunaptra—for a price. Throwing Beni off the boat, O’Connell and his party soon join him over the side when the magi raids the boat to secure the map and key to Imhotep’s sarcophagus. Though the map is lost in a fire, the key is retained and the two competing groups make their way towards Hamunaptra, based on O’Connell’s recollection. They may have lost the paper map, but O’Connell already knows the way.
The two competing groups converge on Hamunaptra at the same time, but even though O’Connell’s party discovers Imhotep’s sarcophagus, the Americans are the ones who incur the wrath of the ancient curse. They do this by opening a box containing “the book of the dead”, unleashing Imhotep’s unspeakable ancient evil upon them, including the ten plagues of Egypt.
Fire rains down from the sky in one of the plagues from THE MUMMY
Once Imhotep is brought back to life, he seeks to regenerate his flesh by consuming the flesh and fluids of those who were cursed by opening the box containing the book of the dead. After his own regeneration, his goal is to resurrect his long lost love, Anck-Su-Namum.
The sleazy Beni winds up becoming the henchman of Imhotep, serving his new master in Imhotep’s efforts to find immortality through flesh regeneration. Imhotep, in order to resurrect the soul of Anck-Su-Namum, needs to sacrifice Evelyn in a macabre ceremony attended by Imhotep’s loyal, mummified priests, who have also returned from the undead.
It’s up to O’Connell and the magi to try and figure out a way to save Evelyn and stop Imhotep before he can totally regenerate and bring about the destruction of the world with his cursed plagues.
IMAGE
This is a beautiful transfer from Universal that earns our highest honors. Though much of the picture is dark with lots of shadows and firelight, detail is excellent and consistent throughout. The cinematography is simply outstanding. Sweeping and dramatic, it’s larger than life and takes on feel of a great epic.
Black level is outstanding, as is shadow detail. Contrast balance is perfect and colors are well saturated but never bleeding. Even the detail of the black scarabs with their slight blue iridescent qualities can be appreciated on this exceptional transfer. My only awareness of anything unusual is that much of the film has a golden cast to it, which I’m sure is intentional to tie in with the desert and Egyption treasure theme, but fleshtones take on a bit of the yellowish tones as well as a result. This doesn’t distract or detract in any way — it’s just an observation. The transfer is free from any blemishes and I’m certain that it looks better on our home theater screen that it could have ever looked in the majority of theaters. I tried looking for compression artifacts like pixelation in the sand explosions and so forth, but couldn’t find even one. To tell the truth, it was difficult to analyze the film quality with any lasting scrutiny because I was drawn into the story and magnificent effects. Way to go, Universal.
SOUND
The soundstage of this Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is full, deep and wide with excellent spatial integration and channel separation. All 5.1 speakers get a good workout during this film. The moaning, howling winds of the desert mesh splendidly with Jerry Goldsmith’s lush and complex score. This is some of the best work that Goldsmith has done in years. With obvious Middle-East overtones, the rich, expansive score fills the entire room. There are good, low end rumbles from the growling monster as well as innumerable, well-placed and highly directional sound effect elements. Creaks, groans, skittles, whooshes — it’s all here — and it all sounds magnificent. Our highest honors also go to the sound mix.
FEATURES
Chapter accesss to 18 scenes
Director and editor’s feature-length commentary
Alternate Dolby 2.0 surround French language track
English captions
48-minute “Building a Better Mummy documentary
Visual and special effect formation clips with commentary
Egyptology 101 - a printed history lesson of ancient Egypt
Deleted scenes (just a few, and only mildly interesting)
Universal Showcase (theatrical trailers for upcoming films: END OF DAYS and FOR LOVE OF THE GAME
DVD-ROM features include an interactive Mummy game, 2 screensavers and electronic postcards