There is a moment in The Mummy, Alex Kurtzman’s fumbled attempt to breathe life into Universal’s “Dark Universe”, when it becomes abundantly clear the studio hasn’t really grasped the fundamentals of this whole “cinematic universe” thing. Russell Crowe has just been introduced as Dr Henry Jekyll, the Nick Fury-like head of monster-hunting agency Prodigium, Universal’s answer to Marvel’s SHIELD. We’ve already been tipped off that Jekyll has to regularly inject himself with a mysterious serum for unknown reasons, and at this point the movie is rumbling along rather well in a kitschy action-horror groove. Tom Cruise has slipped on the likeable on-screen persona he developed for Edge of Tomorrow – amusingly out of his depth and overawed by the frantic nuttiness of the events going on around him – and the gorgeously venomous Mummy (Sofia Boutella) has upped the ante by vampirically draining the life essence from various minions on a rampage across England in search of some Macguffins that will help restore her to her full powers.
So far, so not too bad. But then the film does something that the Marvel movies, which set the template for this whole shebang, never would have. The plummy-toned Jekyll messes up his injection and all of a sudden we’re confronted with the sight and sound of Crowe doing his best Ray-Winstone-on-steroids as the fiendish, green-tinged mockney demon Mr Hyde.
Leaving aside the questionable wisdom of making Jekyll/Hyde the central, connecting figure of this universe in the first place, did we really need to see him transform? In the Marvel movies, we didn’t meet Samuel L Jackson’s Fury until the end-credits scene of 2008 party-starter Iron Man. Those movies worked because the studio slowly built up a bigger picture of a world inhabited by superheroes, rather than throwing all its cards on the table in the first half-hour. Part of the fun was in seeing the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle gradually clicking into place. But Kurtzman and co have hired Crowe to play their main man, and just can’t resist showing him off – even though doing so ends up semi-sidelining Boutella’s ancient Egyptian horror in the movie that bears her name, and has no effect whatsoever on the events of the rest of the film.
The softly, softly approach to universe-building is not the only trick Universal seems to be missing. Apart from Jackson, the Marvel Cinematic Universe flourished largely by casting unlikely actors in the key roles. The Iron Man and Avengers movies helped transform the likes of Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson into star names, but neither would have been automatic first pick to lead a new franchise 10 years ago.
By contrast, the “Dark Universe” seems to be on a rabid mission to hire as many middle-aged Hollywood A-listers as possible, from Tom Cruise as soldier-of-fortune Nick Morton in The Mummy, to Crowe as Jekyll/Hyde and Johnny Depp as the upcoming Invisible Man. We’re expected to find out soon who is playing the Bride of Frankenstein in 2019’s Bill Condon-directed effort, with rumours swirling around Angelina Jolie.
Universal isn’t the only studio attempting to reap the benefits of a cinematic universe without bothering to put in the groundwork. Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (with Ben Affleck as the caped crusader) was supposed to put rocket fuel in the DC Extended Universe (DCEU)’s engine by setting the comics’ two biggest beasts in opposition. But audiences so far seem much more keen on Patty Jenkins’ Wonder Woman, an old-school superhero origins movie with the previously unknown Gal Gadot in the lead, and a film that would have made the perfect introduction to a slow-building shared universe. It remains to be seen whether the forthcoming Justice League can take advantage of this unexpected but completely welcome fillip for the DCEU – that Joss Whedon is involved is a positive sign.
The crucial difference between the clumsy approach taken by Warner Bros and Universal and the more carefully crafted Marvel model is that Marvel was always confident in its brand. In the case of the Dark Universe, no amount of star quality is going to help if audiences don’t connect to this brave new world of gods and monsters. These movies need to lure us into the cinema, gauzy-eyed and rapt with fascination to see these classic monster stories retold, which is tough when the first instalment looks like a common-or-garden Tom Cruise action fest – 21st-century fiftysomething beefcake edition.
Nor is there any real sense – yet – that Universal’s cavalcade of iconic freaks can ever really belong in the same series of interlinked movies. Goodness know how the studio plans to shoehorn The Mummy’s key players into The Bride of Frankenstein, let alone the upcoming Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame. Perhaps it will be Cruise and Crowe swinging from the belltower in the latter. We await to find out with, it must be said, entirely the wrong sort of creeping dread.
