The Mummy

Tom Cruise stars in The Mummy as Nick Morton, an ethically suspect ex-soldier who is illegally searching for Iraqi treasure when he stumbles across an inexplicable Egyptian tomb. The tomb was created centuries ago to imprison Ahmanet (Sophie Boutella), a dark sorceress who tried to take over the world once, and now gets a second chance. The Mummy never connects—it’s both brainlessly simple and pointlessly complex, a film that never starts but never stops. It has the bones of an old-fashioned adventure yarn, but the brain of a bored toddler and the heart of a heartless studio exec. If that’s not bad enough, The Mummy is sloppily positioned as the keystone of a new monster-based cinematic universe meant to compete with DC and Marvel. Remember the scene in Dawn of Justice where Batman sends Wonder Woman an email explaining the plot of the next film? That’s the entire second act here. D.B.