The Mummy (2017)
Directed by Alex Kurtzman
No · Ultra Based
How we score movies →Consciousness Markers
Ahmanet is a powerful female character with agency and backstory as a wronged queen, but she is positioned as the villain. The female lead, Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis), functions primarily as a supporting character to Tom Cruise's hero.
Sofia Boutella, an Algerian-French actress, leads as the antagonist Ahmanet. The cast includes Courtney B. Vance and Marwan Kenzari, providing some ethnic diversity, though the hero remains white and male.
The film reimagines Egyptian mythology and history through a supernatural lens, but this is fantasy worldbuilding rather than revisionist history with social consciousness.
The film engages with Egyptian mythology and desert settings but treats these as backdrop and spectacle rather than with cultural consciousness. Racial dynamics are not meaningfully explored.
The film is primarily an action spectacle with minimal expository dialogue about social themes, though there are occasional references to Ahmanet's victimization.
No LGBTQ+ themes, characters, or representation present in the film.
No climate-related themes or environmental crusade present in this supernatural action film.
The film contains no anti-capitalist messaging or critique of wealth and economic systems.
No body positivity themes present. The film features conventionally attractive actors in typical action film roles.
No neurodivergent characters or representation present in the film.
Synopsis
Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen whose destiny was unjustly taken from her is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia, and terrors that defy human comprehension.
Why it received this score
The Mummy arrives as a straightforward action vehicle constructed with the efficiency of a studio machine operating at full capacity. Tom Cruise plays Nick Morton, a soldier of fortune who awakens an ancient curse in the form of Sofia Boutella's Ahmanet, a wronged Egyptian queen whose dynasty was stolen from her. The film positions this scenario as the launching pad for a broader universe of monster properties, a strategy that would prove to be Universal's most optimistic miscalculation in recent memory.
From the perspective of contemporary cultural markers, the film presents a curious case of surface-level diversity without accompanying consciousness. Boutella, an Algerian-French actress, anchors the narrative as a powerful antagonist with genuine grievance, yet the structure demands that this grievance remain secondary to Tom Cruise's hero narrative and his romance with Jenny Halsey, played by Annabelle Wallis in a role that amounts to capable support. The cast includes Courtney B. Vance and Marwan Kenzari, providing ethnic texture to the ensemble, but these choices register as casting pragmatism rather than deliberate representation. Egyptian mythology and desert spectacle serve as exotic backdrop, not as subjects of meaningful cultural engagement.
The film's fundamental orientation remains apolitical in the most literal sense. It contains no environmental messaging, no economic critique, no meditation on identity, and certainly no LGBTQ+ representation. Even its female-led antagonist, potentially a vehicle for feminist reimagining, exists primarily to be defeated by the male protagonist. What emerges is a 2017 blockbuster that happened to include diverse casting and a powerful female villain, accomplishments that register as modest by contemporary standards and insufficient to generate meaningful progressive cultural resonance. The film is, in essence, a well-funded spectacle that forgets to believe in anything at all.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Critic Reviews
“Digs up both laughs and chills from timeworn material.”
“Cheerful, slightly cheesy entertainment that uses the latest special-effects techniques to breathe life into a venerable film tradition.”
“Even if The Mummy is imitation Spielberg, it offers more bang for the buck than we're used to getting.”