The Mummy: 10 Monster Films It Must Improve Upon

Purporting to be a modern version of Universal’s famous franchise, The Mummy is really Raiders Of The Lost Ark for video game enthusiasts, with enough noise and explosions to ensure that its target demographic remains engaged throughout. The mummy becomes a special effect who can raise armies of dead soldiers and summon up a sandstorm, which together with his comic relief henchman has the unfortunate side effect of turning him into a Scooby Doo villain.

The director is Stephen Sommers, a graduate of the Michael Bay school of bombastic filmmaking, who thinks you can never have too much of…well, everything. The movie emboldened him to make The Mummy Returns, Van Helsing and GI Joe: The Rise Of Cobra where he continued to ignore the old adage that less is more.

A box office smash, The Mummy made $413 million worldwide, making it the sixth highest grossing film of 1999. It also opened the door for two sequels as well as Van Helsing, The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Dracula Untold.

Audiences were appreciative, I’m sure.