by Damien Alarcon
Sports Editor
“The Mummy,” rated PG-13 and starring Brendan Fraser, held the No. 1 ranking at the box office in its opening debut, The Universal Studios picture collected a non-summer record $44.6 million weekend opening gross.
From viewing many of the previews prior to seeing the movie, one can only expect that the movie will be full of horror. Contrary to belief, the film seemed equivalent to a humorous “Indiana Jones” flick.
The movie, directed by Stephan Sommers, is a remake of Karl Freund’s 1932 horror classic. It begins by telling about an ancient tale of an Egyptian priest, Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), who was buried alive for having an affair with a pharaoh’s mistress. He was labeled as pure evil for doing so.
Nearly 3,000 years later, in 1925, a librarian named Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) and her brother, Jonathan (John Hannah), desire to search for Hamanaptra, the ancient city of the dead. The lost city hosts ancient Egyptian pharaohs and their priceless belongings.
Evelyn seeks artifacts while Jonathan wishes to find treasure. The two look to Rick O’Connell (Fraser), who has been to the lost city. The three, along with the company of a few others, embark on a journey to Cairo, Egypt, and encounter a group of American treasure hunters on the way who are also in search for Hamanaptra.
Upon arrival at the ancient city, the group of explorers unknowingly awaken the rotting body of Imhotep and unleash the evil and near unlimited power he possesses.
With the help of a few others, O’Connell must overcome other resurrected mummies, demonically possessed Egyptians, a fire-ball invading storm and of course, Imhotep.
Fantastic visual effects are what makes this movie stick out from the rest. When the mummy was first resurrected, his appearance was scary and gruesome. A power of Imhotep was to transform into sand and transport in that form.
In a huge mass, flesh-eating beetles terrorized the explorers and were also poured into Imhotep’s tomb when he was buried. Imhotep also telekinetically controlled the sand to do his will. When O’Connell tried to follow the captured Evelyn in a propeller plane, Imhotep attempted to crash it in a sand storm with a grim figure of his face in it.
Not much effort was brought to the storyline. The movie was very predictable, and all of the creativity seemed to be only in its special effects. Then again, one cannot expect much from Fraser. “Encino Man” and “George of the Jungle” are not exactly classics. After seeing this film a question comes to mind, when does “Episode I” come out?
