The Mummy Review: 4 Ups & 7 Downs

6. It's Surprisingly Boring

Probably the biggest surprise is that this film is stunningly boring for the most part. Aside from an occasionally nifty action beat or surprising plot development, the core of the movie is a sleep-inducingly generic blockbuster flick that's best reserved for a sleepy Sunday afternoon viewing when you've got nothing better to do.

Almost everything here is pure tentpole formula that's been carefully preened by an army of writers and studio execs to cut the most broadly appealing trailer, but without anything approaching actual creativity or ingenuity.

It doesn't help that the film is surprisingly talky at times and fatally weighed down by overt exposition, when a movie of this type crucially needs to show rather than tell for the most part.