Today’s holidays: Feast Day of St. Isaac Asimov (Church of the SubGenius), Feast of Giordano Bruno the Martyr (Thelema), Quirinalia (Celtic Neopaganism).
It has been pointed out to me that I often give negative reviews. This being Divine Misconceptions, the blog in which I look at religious fallacies and misinformation, that is to be expected regularly. However, the other day a friend of mine lent me a disk-on-key which had The Mummy Trilogy on it (among other things), and I watched The Mummy this morning, at it is of such quality that I must apologize to the reader (but not the people who made it) for the tone of what I am about to write.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD.
To put it bluntly, The Mummy is a stupid movie. Now, there is material which, despite being stupid in some aspect, nevertheless is very enjoyable. For example, Gilligan’s Island is considered a stupid show, but the humor holds up well enough that it is still enjoyable, especially when humorous. Or consider Galaxy Quest, which has obvious holes in the plausibility large enough to fly a starship through, but nevertheless is a hilarious parody of Star Trek and related material.
Unlike such material, The Mummy is stupid to the core, starting with the basic premise. Yes, it is conceivable that the high priest of Egypt Imhotep might have an affair with the mistress of the Pharaoh Seti I, Anck-su-Namun, but that is dangerously stupid, especially since they do not have the sense to carry on their meetings somewhere no one would see them together. And it would stupid of them to murder Seti I when he confronts them; that is asking for retribution. And it would be stupid for Anck-su-Namun to commit suicide, expecting Imhotep to resurrect her, as he might fail. And it would be stupid for Seti’s guards, once they catch Imhotep and stop him from resurrecting Anck-su-Namun, to put a horrible curse on him which there is even the slightest possibility that he might escape and cause the end of the World as we know it. And even more stupid, the guards did not even have the sense to destroy the book that could be used to free Imhotep, the key to open the book, and the map to find him. And because of all this stupidity, Imhotep gets accidentally freed, people get mutilated and killed, and there is the very real threat of disaster. This is made even worse by the characters sometime in the 1920s, seeking Imhotep’s treasure, also acting stupidly. Such a huge mass of stupidity, untempered by anything which could mitigate it (such as making it a parody of monster-of-the-week films or imbuing it with dead-on psychological fidelity), utterly wrecks suspension of disbelief and wrecks the entire film.
This weapons-of-mass-destruction-grade stupidity is clearly reflected in The Mummy’s approach to religion: complete incompetence. There is no attempt whatsoever at theology or plausible depiction of religion. Despite Imhotep being a high priest of the ancient Egyptian religion, one would never know it from his speech and behavior. He does not speak in religious terms, nor does he perform any religious practices; the nearest he comes is to try to resurrect Anck-su-Namun magically. His priests, who were mummified alive for no apparent reason, act no more religiously; they are just so many extras to be controlled by other mortals. To be sure, God and Allah are mentioned by other characters, but only in minor prayers wishing others success. The most religious action in the movie is when Imhotep rises, a total idiot starts praying to the gods of a number of religions (and Buddha, who is not properly a god), hoping that at least one will answer him. The freeing of Imhotep also unleashes the Ten Plagues; this is a bizarre misreading of Exodus, where they are a punishment on the Egyptians (including their priests) from YHWH, not something unleashed by an Egyptian priest. The writers are also unaware that the magi are the priests of Zoroastrianism, not a secret society meant to keep Imhotep from being freed.
Your humble blogger would also like to note that whoever wrote this film has no idea what a mummy is. Real mummies (at least in Egypt) were meant to let the dead have an afterlife. The internal organs of bodies were removed, and the bodies carefully preserved so that they would not decay. The souls of the dead could then dwell within their bodies indefinitely. The dead were thus provided with all the necessities of life (or afterlife), including food. The Mummy, on the other hand, inverts the original intent and treats mummification as torture. Hence Imhotep’s priests are mummified (incorrectly) alive and Imhotep is sealed away to be tortured by beetles forever. If Seti’s guards really wanted to do something horrible to him, they should have killed him and destroyed his body so his soul would have nowhere to go.
Overall classification: Stupid horror film with weak attempts at humor.
Theological rating: F (like the rest of the film, stupid).
Loving the review and so many details.
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