Would a Mummy Movie Featuring Tom Cruise Be a Success?

More than likely if only for this…

Cruise does not usually get involved in bad or weak productions. He has enough clout to insure the production team is top-notch. Sure audiences might not come out in droves for him like they did before. Edge of Tomorrow did less than half the box office of War of the Worlds, but what a ride! Cruise has proven he can deliver IF you can stand to look at him #xF60F;

Action Films with Tom Cruise: A Solid Investment

Action films with Tom Cruise work because he is by and large relentlessly inoffensive in seeming cocksure, but ultimately embodying the can-do, risk-taking, and specialist know-how required to carry the plot. He is confident on screen, close to the point of arrogance, but vulnerable in beats and knows where to draw the line, even when playing antagonists like Vincent in Collateral. His roles often have curious, difficult pasts they’ve overcome in part but are yet to conquer. Any truly conceited Cruise personalities, like Frank Mackey in Magnolia or Les Grossman in Tropic Thunder, have short screen time. Or the Cruise alter-ego starts out too cocky but learns to temper pride with humility and empathy over the course of the movie, as in Top Gun or Rain Man, or The Color of Money or Edge of Tomorrow.

Exhibit A: Tom Cruise hotshot before a fall.

The Ideal Mummy Movie

In a Mummy movie, as a might-be conceited archaeologist or ex-army officer with a tragic or over-confident past who screws up and feels a need to atone for past mistakes by accepting new duties while learning to care more closely for those around him—and saving the world—Why not! Make for a sweet film overall. Not sure.

The Critic’s Concerns: Supercalifragilistic Exploits

From super-powered thrillers to spy sagas, blockbusters often have many moving parts and can collapse emotionally under their weight, losing the why and how of actors' actions in grand gestures and vaguely explained coincidence. Explaining 'why' the evil celestial doohickey is threatening the world can become a problem the plot tries to resolve but can't; instead, showing 'bad mystical stuff' happening in capital cities while characters don’t know how to feel or have time to react. The upcoming Mummy reboot—from as much as I’ve seen of the trailers—seems to make very grand gestures—apocalypse in London, death and rebirth, leaping from location to location to location. The danger is that it happens in an affective monotone, striking a half-cocky, half-fervent note that isn't scared, astonished, or physically traumatized enough to reflect how a human would react to the shit-storm of onscreen strangeness.

The film doesn't even need to be blatantly supernatural for that to happen. Here’s Cruise as Jack Reacher, a sorta-spy with near-magical capacity of being in the right place and maintaining his cool without the keen motivation of a Bourne or even a Bond. Fun to watch in parts because of Cruise's half-cocky pep and go 'Yup.' Make much emotional sense? Maybe not.

Exhibit B: Tom Cruise half/earnest half/cocky emotional arc unclear.

The Importance of Emotion in Modern Blockbusters

The beats of emotion that give away a character's complexity and humanity in just the right places—Brendan Fraser’s startled face in the first two Mummy films, a sweat-drenched Harrison Ford's look of disbelief on seeing the swordsman in Raiders of the Lost Ark before pulling out a gun—become more important the more complicated a film's set pieces. They are the meat of the story on the way to finding the ark, saving the world from super-villains, or proving that grit can beat overwhelming odds. Not even Tom Cruise can sell a film without them, and a film can entomb the possibility for emotional honesty under its own apparatus.

Exhibit C: Harrison Ford and the triumph of exasperation

As we reflect on Tom Cruise’s performance and the pivotal role of emotion in his films, we recognize the importance of subtlety and emotional depth. Each moment of vulnerability or triumph must be genuine to resonate with the audience. Without these elements, even the most action-packed and visually impressive films can fall flat.

In conclusion, a Mummy movie with Tom Cruise can be a promising venture if the film manages to balance the grand gestures with relatable human emotions. It’s a challenge, but one that, if executed well, could make for a thrilling and emotionally satisfying experience.