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Inside ‘The Mummy’s’ Troubles: Tom Cruise Had Excessive Control

Personally, as soon as I saw they turned The Mummy into a serious action movie, I lost interest. If they wanted this to succeed, it needed to be horror (with some drama). Go back to its roots. Make us feel for the Mummy.
 

jett

D-Member
Cruise exerts this kind of control over pretty much every movie he has produced in the last ten years. This movie probably had bigger problems besides Tom Cruise.
 
This explains the scene where
he stabs himself for no apparent reason.

I can almost hear him saying, "Wouldn't it be better if instead of her doing it, I do it, heroically for some reason..."

You don't understand, he had noble intentions, sparked by something some woman he slept with, stole from, then insulted in their opening scene together, told him once.
 

B-Dubs

No Scrubs
Cruise exerts this kind of control over pretty much every movie he has produced in the last ten years. This movie probably had bigger problems besides Tom Cruise.

Pretty much. Direction in general had probably screwed this movie from the start.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
You don't understand, he had noble intentions, sparked by something some woman he slept with, stole from, then insulted in their opening scene together, told him once.

Well now he loves her with a passion that transcends mortality. Two hours of ditching her and leaving her to be attacked by zombies and mummies can do that to love.
 

Hex

Banned
The minute I found out he was involved my heart sunk for this very reason. Same when he was announced for doing the Del Toro Lovecraft feature
 
I'm not going to blame anyone other than Kurtzman for the failures of a Kurtzman directed movie.

Just to clarify... Kurtzman is terrible.
 

siddx

Magnificent Eager Mighty Brilliantly Erect Registereduser
I know gaf loves this dead eyed lunatic barely human cult member, so many of the responses in here don't surprise me. But I have no problem believing cruise took over and fucked everything up.
 
I know gaf loves this dead eyed lunatic barely human cult member, so many of the responses in here don't surprise me. But I have no problem believing cruise took over and fucked everything up.

A human actor wouldn't be as dedicated. That's why we need the Cruise Missile.

Vri3frI.jpg
 

DOWN

Banned
He's excessively controlling over the MI movies and they are more successful now than they've ever been
 

Not

Banned
So they thought Cruise would be this movie's savior and they sold the farm to get him

And he's the reason it tanked

CR-Home-II-Steam-Iron-Trio-10-15
 

Raptomex

Member
I know gaf loves this dead eyed lunatic barely human cult member, so many of the responses in here don't surprise me. But I have no problem believing cruise took over and fucked everything up.
Growing up, my dad always said his portrayal in Rain Man is not acting. That's just Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise. He was never a Cruise fan.

Now that I'm an adult and have seen more of his films... he's alright. I don't love or dislike the man. He's all kinds of fucked up with that Scientology nonsense though.
 

bionic77

Member
This is a disgusting smear campaign against the Cruise missile.

You better be Steven Fucking Spielberg if you are going to put out that criticism. The creators of the Mummy don't have that right. One good movie out of three before Cruise got involved shows that they did not know what they were doing.
 
Nothing about the movie really works so I think there's enough blame to spread around: Cruise, Kurtzman, the script, the studio. Everybody involved has a little bit of Mummy on their hands.
 

MMarston

Was getting caught part of your plan?
Yeah, that sounds exactly like something Cruise would do. The man has a good track rcord, but everyone makes bad films. Cruise is not immune to this.
And on the note of that quote, the man should really start embracing his age for his role selection at this point. He's definitely still a good looking man for his age, but he can only go so far to keep posing as a much younger one.
 

Monocle

Member
Really? If anything this movie seemed to suffer from too many cooks.

If Cruise really was instrumental to this movie's creative direction, it's almost impressive, the degree of blandness he achieved.
 
Slashfilm cast mentioned how much the movie kept trying to talk Cruise up. Like the part was written for someone in their late 20s or early 30s but we have 50 something year old Cruise trying to play a "young man". They made it a point that it would have been better if Cruise was the sidekick character and not Johnson.
 

Stinkles

Clothed, sober, cooperative
Although the movie was worthless trash that wasn't even internally consistent, it did make me realize that almost every Tom Cruise movie has a scene where he runs into an empty alleyway, puts his hands on his thighs as he catches his breath and exasperatedly turns at least once.
 
Variety has had it in for Cruise for years, so this narrative fits right into their wheelhouse.

Universal is to blame - they should never have given this project to Kurtzman. They needed a director with a strong vision, experience behind the camera and with dealing with a star of Cruise's caliber, and instead they picked a yes-man.
 

bastardly

Member
this is what happens when you try and force a fucking "cinematic universe" instead of earning it. i haven't seen the movie, and cruise probably is an over controlling prick, but this movies failing is far from his fault.
 

ezekial45

Banned
Slashfilm cast mentioned how much the movie kept trying to talk Cruise up. Like the part was written for someone in their late 20s or early 30s but we have 50 something year old Cruise trying to play a "young man". They made it a point that it would have been better if Cruise was the sidekick character and not Johnson.
Yeah, I felt like a Chris Pine type would have been a pick for the movie.
 

jonezer4

Member
he has a ton of control over the Mission Impossible movies and those are pretty good

This is exactly what I was thinking when I read this.

The problem is that someone greenlit the idea of trying to shoehorn an ancient (no pun intended) horror movie into an action flick in a time when we're all growing tired of misappropriated, perfunctory reboots.
 

Random Human

They were trying to grab your prize. They work for the mercenary. The masked man.
I get that people like Cruise, but come on, don't ignore the part where he brings in his own writers to cruise missile the movie.
 

gabbo

Member
I can believe that both Kurtzman and Cruise have a hand in it being a bad movie (and Universal fucking it up on their end too.

I agree when it was said earlier that this 'dark universe' should have tried to stay horror (like the 1930-40s films they're using as a jumping off point) and not tried to make them action adventure films. When it started looking a typical Tom Cruise Action vehicle, I lost complete interest. That is not a Mummy movie I want.
 

simtmb

Member
Awful movie, but it was absolutely hilarious, so I had a good time with it. Can't see it being only Tom's fault though.

Would of done far better as a tighter, more conservatively budgeted horror movie.
 

Valhelm

contribute something
Really surprised the Mummy was such a flop. Tom Cruise seems pretty bankable and the marketing was decent.

The concept was goofy, but is a sexy mummy lady less appealing than blue aliens?
 

WillyFive

Member
Really surprised the Mummy was such a flop. Tom Cruise seems pretty bankable and the marketing was decent.

The concept was goofy, but is a sexy mummy lady less appealing than blue aliens?

The Mummy is not a property that attracts audiences, especially if they have to choose it over watching any of the major releases happening each week during the Summer season (Guardians, Wonder Woman, Cars, Spider-Man, etc.).
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
....and he has duds, as well. Did you guys REALLY like Vanilla Sky? War of the Worlds? Knight & Day? Lion for Lambs? Hell, Mission Impossible 2?

Yes.
Yes.
Fuck no.
What?
Meh.
 
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