"The Mummy is a rousing, suspenseful and horrifying epic about an expedition of treasure-seeking explorers in the Sahara Desert in 1925. Stumbling upon an ancient tomb, the hunters unwittingly set loose a 3,000-year-old legacy of terror, which is embodied in the vengeful reincarnation of an Egyptian priest who had been sentenced to an eternity as one of the living dead."
This film was the first horror film that I was allowed to watch as a child. After a long time of begging to be allowed to stay up later, my parents partially relented and allowed me to stay up and watch The Mummy. Unfortunately, they sent me off to bed right after the villain is released and makes its first kill. I can honestly say that I got very little sleep that night, and had my duvet tucked right underneath me to protect me from the monsters.
This film went on to have two more sequels before being remade in a tragic attempt to create a cinematic universe. Unfortunately, in the remake they left out the best parts of what made The Mummy great, instead, making it a movie about Tom Cruise, not the titular character. Such a disservice to Brendan Fraser.
I say that because this was one of the roles that I really liked Brendan Fraser in (the other being that episode of Scrubs that he was in). Brendan Fraser has always been an over-excited personality and it always rubbed me the wrong way. While it was a style that worked well for family-friendly kids movies, there weren't too many other places where it fits that well. Where he truly excels, in my opinion, is more serious acting. He looks like an intrepid explorer/archaeologist type, while still managing to inject a lot of humour into the script, as well as providing a rather accurate depiction of how one would react when a mummy comes to life.
Arnold Vosloo, who plays the part of High Priest Imhotep is the highlight of this film. He embodies his character so well and leaves you in awe of the ancient civilizations of Egypt. There is an almost manic feeling that you get from his eyes, and it brings this anger and frustration to a much greater height as Fraser's character constantly becomes a thorn in his side. Rachel Weisz and Brendan Fraser make a great couple and complement each other well, Rachel adding a touch of femininity to the general bravado of the movie, while actually still having a reasonable role that involves more than just looking pretty (a reasonably uncommon thing around that time for Hollywood films).
Considering the times, the CGI is actually really well done too. There are some pieces that do look quite dated, but the creativity of the visual displays works really well for many scenes. With a very 'brown' environment, the scenes are broken up with darkness, and scenes from the modern world, and stops you from feeling overwhelmed by monotony of deserts and sand.
The Mummy brings back that sense of adventure and wonder to the field of archaeology that the Indiana Jones franchise used to do. Bringing the myths to life, and making mummies more modern threat for the movie world that hadn't really cared for them much since the 1940's. Brendan Fraser provides the charisma, John Hannah inserts his own fish-out-of-water comedy into the set, and Arnold Vosloo is an enigmatic threat that manages to enrapture audiences regardless. This beats the 2017 version hands down.