Making Its Intentions Clear

The new Mummy trailer has a few new scenes but it is largely peddling the same wares we have been expecting for months now. It has the interesting concept of Cruise's character bonded with the evil mummy lady overwhelmed by big special effects action sequences. Though it does look like Cruise is doing some stunt work and some of the action here looks to have real choreography and geography. I did smirk in the scene when the female lead told tough-looking Cruise to kick ass but then he was thrown across the woods, so maybe it isn't taking itself as seriously as I feared.

But there is one thing that really stood out to me in this trailer and it was the blatant mention that this movie is all about launching a Universal Monsters Universe. Has any movie in the promotional campaign ever straight out declared that "yes, this movie is all about launching a big franchise"? This doesn't mean that this movie won't be good (though I have my concerns), but it does make you a little nervous that the bigger focus is setting the table for all the other monster movies as they build to their Avengers. Considering all the would-be franchise launcher flops lately, it would be better to just focus on making a thrilling movie and then figure out where to go after you have a hooked audience.

Who is recurring character here? The evil female mummy or super powered Cruise? I sort of get the sense that Cruise has so many projects and movies on the go that he really doesn't have the time to be committing to something as ambitious as this. Though if this flops in a few weeks, all this universe building was frivolous anyway.