Bursting from the Crypt
The Mummy Starts the Summer Right

Harken with me now, back to the days of yesteryear...

As a kid, I grew up on a steady diet of adventure movies. From Raiders of the Lost Ark to The 7th Voyage of Sinbad to Clash of the Titans, I saw them all - good and bad. Seeing Universal's remake of its 1932 horror classic The Mummy reminded me of all of them. It's an adventure movie, but with romance, comedy and some horror thrown in for good measure. This is a summer movie!

The story begins in ancient Egypt where Imhotep, High Priest of Osiris (played by Arnold Vosloo, from the second and third installments of the Darkman series), is doing something he shouldn't with the Pharaoh's mistress. As a punishment, he will be buried alive, cursed to remain undead for all eternity. The curse will also grant him great power if he is ever released from his tomb. Of course, who would ever do such a stupid thing? (Yeah, I wonder...)

Fast forward a few thousand years to Egypt in 1923. There we meet a garrison of French Foreign Legionnaires fighting the locals for what appears to be some ancient ruins. But these aren't just any ancient ruins. It is Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead. The Legionnaires are routed, but Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) manages to escape into the desert.

Soon O'Connell meets up with a librarian, Evelyn (Rachel Weisz), and her treasure-hunting brother, Jonathan (John Hannah). Together, they embark on an adventure to rediscover Hamunaptra and the lost treasure of Seti II. Along the way, the discover that they are racing against a group of Americans, led by O'Connell's old Legionnaire buddy, a thief named Beni (Kevin J. O'Conner). Little does anyone realize the ancient evil they are about to unleash.

In addition to a good adventure story, The Mummy also has a good bit of humor, but it is never campy. The humor never becomes the center of attention, nor does it turn into slapstick. Likewise, the horror is never over-the-top. There are some scenes that will make you squirm, and some shocks that had the audience gasping in surprise, but at its heart, this is an adventure movie.

To say that Industrial Lights and Magic did a great job with the special effects is an understatement. Everything, from the title character to the moving sand, is a feast for the imagination. I do not know whether or not they were responsible for the set of ancient Egypt, but the towering structures and beautiful color seemed to capture the glory of the bygone civilization. The contrast between the living Egyptian city and the decayed ruins was striking.

Evidently Universal Studios has learned a thing or two from Sony's Godzilla-sized mistake with last summer's hype. With the exception of one big Super Bowl commercial, The Mummy has been more or less kept under wraps (no pun intended). And yet, despite the quiet promotion, it opened to a full house. Movie studios take note! Hype can't help a bad movie, and good movies don't need it!

I'll probably get a lot of flack for giving the first movie of the summer season such a high rating. "You're not being objective," I hear you skeptics say. "It's the first big movie of the summer and you're overcome by the special effects." Trust me. The Mummy is a great summer movie!

MY RATING: 9 out of 10.

RATED: PG-13
RUN TIME: 124 min.