The Mummy

The first film in Universal's proposed Dark Universe franchise faltered at the box office and effectively put an end to the series. Dr Jekyll (played by Russell Crowe) sends an archaeologist to investigate an Egyptian tomb discovered in Iraq. Turns out it's actually a prison for an evil mummified princess (Sofia Boutella) who intends using soldier of fortune Tom Cruise to fulfil her eternal life pact with the death god Set. Neither exciting action adventure nor chilling horror fantasy, director Alex Kurtzman's soulless spectacle is a grab-bag of steals from far better genre hybrids ending in yet another CGI free-for-all packed with underwater zombies, a collapsing London and ancient rituals. Generic to a fault and lacklustre in every single department, Cruise is clearly miscast in a messy and murky misfire shambling from one creature-feature cliché to the next without any nightmarish atmosphere to call its own, just routine exposition and silly dialogue.