Dark Universe

Critics were split on whether The Mummy was the worst film of Tom Cruise’s career. According to Rotten Tomatoes, it’s one of the two worst reviewed Cruise films, with a pitiful 16 percent approval rating. The only previous Cruise effort with a crappier RT score is Cocktail, which has a lowly 5 percent (although it’s worth noting Rotten Tomatoes did not exist when that film was released, and its sampling of reviews that are available online in 2017 may not be complete or entirely accurate representation of all the reviews it got in 1988.)

Have you ever seen those movie ads on TV filled with gushing quotes from critics and thought to yourself, “I saw that movie; it was terrible. Where did they find these positive reviews?” If you have, you’re not alone — and you’re going to love ScreenCrush’s series, Critics Are Raving!, which balances the cinematic scales with trailers full of slightly more accurate (and slightly more negative) lines from reviews. Real critics. Real quotes. Really bad movies. That’s what’s Critics Are Raving! is all about.

As the guy behind An American Werewolf in London, one of the most widely adored monster movies in the genre’s gloriously ignoble history, people care what John Landis has to say about the state of the American studio creature feature. The current talking point du jour is Universal’s connected franchise of Dark Universe monster movies, a planned network of seven interlocking films featuring their most famed ghouls. This past weekend, their flagship entry The Mummy gave a mixed performance at the box office, mustering up a paltry $32 million domestically, but giving star Tom Cruise his biggest global opening of all time. It’s an embarrassment at home but a smash abroad, and Landis has some thoughts on the matter.

Tom Cruise is an analog man in a digital world. A master showman, he seems to understand better than almost all of his peers that no amount of computer-generated imagery can replace the simple thrill an audience gets seeing a real person do something incredible. For over 100 years, this has been one of the fundamental appeals of cinema: Watching an actor perform an impossible (and sometimes stupidly dangerous) physical act. There is no length Cruise won’t go to for our entertainment. Even when his movies are bad, Cruise still gives 110 percent, still provides at least a few mind-boggling stunts to enjoy.

Here’s how bubble economics works: when a specific commodity appears to be growing in value, investors funnel more money into it and that artificially inflates the value even further, which cycles back and attracts even more investor money. Eventually, however, the chickens must come home to roost and the actual value of that commodity must be recognized. If the return-on-investment potential fails to live up to the hype created around it, then a lot of people stand to lose a lot of money very quickly. Remember Kazaa, from way back when it looked like it was literally impossible to lose money by investing in online companies? Me neither!

Bram Stoker is famous as the creator of Dracula in his 1897 novel. But did you know that Stoker also wrote a novel that became the basis for a movie about the Mummy? It’s true; Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars, became the basis for the 1971 Hammer horror movie Blood From the Mummy’s Tomb. That’s just one of the spookily scarifying facts featured in the latest episode of You Think You Know Movies!

Universal was initially taking more of a “wait and see” approach to their burgeoning monster movie franchise, but that changed last week when the studio formally announced plans to kick things into high gear. The newly-dubbed and somewhat ambitious “Dark Universe” (not to be confused with Warner Bros.’ long-developing DC film) will feature long-rumored reboots like Bride of Frankenstein and The Wolfman, and rumor has it Universal is eyeing another one of their franchise super-stars to take the lead in the latter.

Universal is going dark.

With the recent creative changes behind the scenes of The Batman, Ben Affleck’s solo film probably won’t begin filming until 2018, which leaves a bit of a gap in Warner Bros.’ superhero schedule. Earlier this week, the studio pushed Aquaman back two months, pitting it against Sony’s animated Spider-Man movie in December 2018 — and with nothing else on the docket for the rest of the year, that leaves a sizable gap on the DC schedule.

After Guillermo del Toro’s exit from the Dark Universe movie, fans despaired that Warner Bros. would never find another director as cool and weird as he would be. But in stepped Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, who seems to be all set to make this Justice League Dark adaptation as weird as he possibly can.