Currently flying high in the box office charts with global mega-smash Top Gun: Maverick, it’s almost inconceivable to think Tom Cruise would ever star in a complete misfire.
But five years ago, the normally untouchable A-lister saw his usually excellent quality control take a real tailspin with the exceptionally badly-received The Mummy.
Widely regarded as one of the 21st Century’s very worst blockbusters, it's somewhat baffling to see such a failed flick rocket to number one on Amazon Prime Video’s global charts.
Online entertainment site We Got This Covered called The Mummy a 'franchise-killing monstrosity', and questioned why so many would watch it when Brendan Fraser’s 'vastly superior' 1999 version is also available to stream.
You see, the Tom Cruise interpretation isn’t just a widely-panned film, it also has the unenviable tag of effectively sinking an ambitious new Universal Pictures franchise before it ever got going.
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The Dark Universe was intended to be a series of big-budget horror/adventure films, each starring a Hollywood A-lister, and each concerning a different well-known monster in the famed Universal canon.
The series began with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, where our hero plays a mercenary tomb raider who inadvisedly battles a mummified sorceress (Sofia Boutella). Our hero ultimately absorbs the mummy's curse, turning him into something of a monster himself.
The film featured Russell Crowe as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, who was pencilled in to be a sort of Marvel's Nick Fury of this burgeoning cinematic universe.
Also planned was a Bride of Frankenstein film, starring Angelina Jolie and Javier Bardem, as well as The Invisible Man starring Johnny Depp. After The Mummy bombed, — the Dark Universe was immediately scrapped.
The movie has a paltry 5.5 on IMDb, and a laughable 16 per cent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Many online reviewers said The Mummy should have remained buried
On IMDB, trublu215 labelled it ‘among the worst summer blockbusters I’ve ever seen’, while iamjacksmoviechannel commented ‘an outright disastrous start for any Universe’.
A common complaint was that the film was so darkly-lit it made it difficult to make out any of the special effects, with one reviewer Visakan Thiruchelvam going so far as to say Tom and the cast were effectively 'voice actors only'.
Elsewhere, others bemoaned the bandage-thin storyline and just general 'meh' vibe to the whole thing.
But to be fair to The Mummy, some more charitable users were more complimentary.
Alanpgini branded it ‘good entertainment’ while pjgs200 almost apologetically said ‘it’s not that bad' (now there's a review for the back of the blu-ray box!)
Have you seen Tom Cruise’s The Mummy? Is it really as bad as most seem to suggest? Why not let us know what you think in the comments below?
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