The Mummy

Posted on June 24, 2026 by Dr. Tennyson

Vampire Owl: We already know a good number of mummies.

Vampire Bat: They are not talking about Mr. Frankenstein’s friend here.

Vampire Owl: Dr. Frankenstein’s friends are legends are we have always known.

Vampire Bat: You are still calling that Frank a doctor, when he has never been one.

Vampire Owl: You are still doubting the scientist’s greatness in an inferior world.

Vampire Bat: He is the scientist who invents things which were already invented.

Vampire Owl: His variations are very significant in vampire progress.

Vampire Bat: Well, whatever he does, he would never be a vampire.

Vampire Owl: He is still a leading candidate on the list.

Vampire Bat: The best he can become is a mummy or a demon.

[Gets a uzhunna vada and three cups of Vagamon tea].

What is the movie about? :: Charlie Cannon (Jack Reynor), an investigative television reporter and his wife a pregnant nurse Larissa Cannon (Laia Costa) are living in Aswan in Egypt for about a year before planning to go back to the United States. Katie Cannon (Natalie Grace/Emily Mitchell) and Sebastián Cannon (Shylo Molina/Dean Allen Williams) are their two children with whom they make a happy family with the children all ready to go back to their grandmother settled in New Mexico Carmen Santiago (Verónica Falcón). But one day, Katie who is playing outside finds a woman (Hayat Kamille) identifying herself as the mother of the girl whom she used to meet and play with, Layla Khalil (May Elghety/Aisha Laouini). She uses candy to lure Katie away from the premises before kidnapping her. Charlie tries to chase her, but loses them in an unexpected sandstorm. He and Larissa report the kidnapping to the police, and are assigned an English-speaking junior detective, Dalia Zaki (May Calamawy). She tries to help them, but her seniors feel that it is some family matter and they are responsible for the child going missing.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: In the cellar, the woman has a black pyramid with a black basalt sarcophagus containing mummified human remains. There is no clue about these people for the police, and the couple are forced to leave for the United States and live with Carmen. Years later, they go through a peaceful time with their son and the third child Maud Cannon (Billie Roy) as well as Carmen. Back in Aswan, a cargo plane carrying the same sarcophagus crashes, and inside the police find Katie wrapped in parchment inscribed with an unknown ancient language. Katie, who is in a catatonic state and inflicts self-harms, is taken to a hospital and her parents are informed about the situation. Dalia feels that this is one of the cases related to human trafficking, as many people were taken in and out of Egypt in pyramid pieces ancient coffins due to a history which goes a long way back. But as the girl goes back home, she no longer remains anywhere close to her past or even as a child. Now, the question remains about what has happened to her and what secret she brings.

The defence of Lee Cronin’s The Mummy :: Unlike that series of movies which we have known for some time, this is a darker and more intense horror style related to a mummy, and is not your regular dead wrapped in bandages coming alive. There is no chance for a sword fight here, and the focus here as left a long way from action, focusing completely on horror, and even with another movie titled The Mummy which came separately, the same was not really achieved. But this one becomes a worthy one with that name, and it often makes us feel an Evil Dead model, but with a Sinister model ancient fear ready to be unleashed, making this journey divergent and yet in a model which one would anticipate a horror movie with evil rising out of nowhere to do well. The fans of supernatural horror will not stop appreciating the film’s frightening moments and suspenseful sequences that raise its level. Along with the horror, there are emotions, and in front of the invincible, there is helplessness, and then there is that finish which would bring the whole thing to an end, as this world of fear gets the journey with the final moments that it deserved. We are once again reminded of the evil from the children with inherent evil.

The claws of flaw :: If one would keep looking for some big-time grand action with people fighting the mummies of Egypt with the usual weapons or fists are going to be disappointed, as this one never gets to be that kind of a movie. The movie is also not that quick to get to the interesting part, and we also feel that the narrative style could have been better, and some of the characters might have been better if they were more sensible within a world of horror. The supporting characters could have managed better attention, and the darkness could have been used better in the movie. The Pyramids should have also been given more focus here. The comparisons to other movies will also be there as we keep having the feeling that we have seen some of these before. The horror also gets repetitive and predictable at times, and we keep wondering how too much focus on the past could be avoided, and how the ancient could be mixed with the world shown in the movie. More of the film should have also been set in Egypt.

The performers of the soul :: Jack Reynor comes up with a compelling lead performance as he balances fear, vulnerability and determination as a father while facing supernatural terror. He keeps searching for the secret behind the incidents which led to the crisis that threatens his family and goes to any end to save his daughter. All the feelings are very well depicted around him. Laia Costa as the mother and wife makes the personal stakes feel much more, as she handles the emotional side really well. May Calamawy as the detective provide solid performances and at the same time, adds credibility to this world which is more about horror – for her character, it is her duty and the trust of others that matters, as he goes through a supernatural case and puts her life on the line. There are lots of moments that strike with her around, and along with her, another Egyptian actress who scores the best is May Elghety who blends in with that vulnerability and seemingly some regret from the character so well. Verónica Falcón does well and could have been given a bigger role and more to do against the evil force. The kids come up with some classic performances too.

How it finishes :: It can be said that the movie successfully reinvents the iconic monster for a horror-loving new generation by choosing a darker and more horror-driven approach above the earlier action-adventure model which had very less scope for fear generation. The focus on atmosphere, suspense and psychological terror successfully brings a chilling and unsettling cinematic experience which will inspire further movies with similar ideas focusing on mummies or something similar from even pre-historic ages. Still, we do feel that the movie could have had better pacing and more character development for lesser characters, along with something that transcends through to a newer age added. A deeper exploration of the film’s mythology and a more detailed examination of the ancient curse could have further enriched the story and made this one worth so many movies in a franchise which could even have a prequel – for now, this is all we know about the movie, and we still hope for a sequel. After all, horror is not limited to The Conjuring, The Curse of La Llorna, Annabelle, The Nun and team to score, and this one also brings some nostalgia from those old movies with same title.

Release date: 17th April 2026
Running time: 133 minutes
Directed by: Lee Cronin
Starring: Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace, Verónica Falcón, May Elghety, Shylo Molina, Hayat Kamille, Billie Roy, Lily Sullivan

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Transformers IV

Posted on June 28, 2014 by Dr. Tennyson

Vampire Owl :: Isn’t this the movie in which your Chevrolet Beat transforms?

Vampire Bat :: No, it doesn’t. The best it can do is to transform into a Titanic on on our roads on a monsoon season giving company to the other cars.

Vampire Owl :: Shouldn’t the movie at least feature you?

Vampire Bat :: Why me? When was the last time I transformed?

Vampire Owl :: It is named Age of Extinction. I think Vampire Bats are going extinct. Nobody really likes you. Even Poe prefers a raven at night.

Vampire Bat :: No, that is not true. There are people who like me, like Count Dracula, Batman, the cute zombie girl next door and twelve thousand two hundred and fifty three normal vampires. I might even have a candlelight dinner with Countess Dracula.

Vampire Owl :: I hope you take this lightly, but Countess Dracula is dead.

Vampire Bat :: What? When?

Vampire Owl :: I am not sure, but that should be about four hundred years ago or so?

Vampire Bat :: It is difficult being immortal; you have to watch good people suffering and bad people thriving.

[Enters the movie hall].

What is it about? :: Years have passed since the last battle between autobots and decepticons which left the city in ruins and so many people dead, making it difficult for the government to rebuild it again, and as a result, all the aliens were declared fugitives and there was not going to be any combined efforts between humans and the autobots anymore. Another transformer called Lockdown who belongs to neither of the two factions is shown to help the government in doing the same, with a promise of something in return for the capture of the autobot leader, Optimus Prime. Meanwhile, the human research on dead transformers is progressing, and there was the discovery of transformium, a metal which is unstable and can transform, creating more of such robots which can replace human soldiers in the case of a war. With the help of a captured Brains, they are slowly using this metal to build transformers which accept command from the humans, including Galvatron, Stinger and Junkheap. At the same time, Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg) and his friend Lucas Flannery (T. J. Miller) purchase an old truck in hope of helping Tessa Yeager (Nicola Peltz) in her studies with the money they can get from selling the parts. But that truck would be Optimus Prime in hiding and things will take a turn.

The defence of Transformers: Age of Extinction :: The movie has great battles, as robots collide and fight against each other in a war which lets sparks fly and makes things come towards you in 3D which is a nice visual extravaganza. The special effects nicely compliment the action sequences, and the chaotic world is nice to watch with transformations to come with the same. There are the nice cars to which the robots transform which look better than ever. The best scene is that which involves the huge spaceship which wanders in the sky, and also uses its powers with all the possible awesomeness as far as a movie like this is concerned. The destruction is also taken to another level. The transformations also take a twist, with dinobots having robots transforming into giant dinosaurs as well as the human constructed transformers having their own way of changing, all of them contributing in a different manner. The three machines which are better than the others are the Optimus Prime and Galvatron (Pacific Rim‘s Gypsy Danger’s evil twin) trucks along with the cars of Lockdown and Stinger. There is a lot for the Transformers fans to cheer about, as the awesome heroes once again go on their mission to save planet Earth with the support of a very few human allies. The human greed and the inherent evil are also nicely shown.

The claws of flaw :: The movie suffers from the usual problems with the plot which we can associate with all the Transformers movies which try to follow the path of the original with one villain at a time, Megatron, Fallen and Sentinel Prime who were in the previous movies make way for Lockdown, and Megatron is once again here being the secondary villain, just in another form. There is also the old truck Optimus Prime who refuses to stay in the grave and comes back from the dead as the metallic zombie which I have always hoped to have stayed dead or refusing to die at all. Bumblebee continues to be overrated and lives, while the kill off the last interesting robot from the first movie, Ratchet, something which they already did to Jazz and Ironhide. The robot design is also more complicated, but at the same time, horribly flawed, as we no longer see the usual robot faces, but creatures with face of Japanese Samurai and those with beard and smoking cigars, something which looks so dumb in the detail. The plot gets predictable by the second half, and the addition of dinobots is nice variety, but the way in which they are introduced is lame. The movie is also too long and has too many repetitive fights which often makes the viewers wonder if they had already seen all these. The characterization is another case for downfall.

Performances of the soul :: Mark Wahlberg is rock solid in this movie, and it is good to see him instead of the usual cast that we had, because he is always one of those nice action stars who are suitable to play this kind of role which involves being the hero and yet not being the strongest one around. Here he is, being the mechanic, father and action hero all at the same time, and makes it work even as his character is not without flaws. Nicola Peltz is more about being the beauty among the population which are mostly robots or action heroes, and being the one with teenage girl problems and having problems with her father. She looks great and proves that one thing. Sophia Myles and Li Bingbing also contributes to the overall beauty, having nothing too much with their characters. T. J. Miller provides some comic side which is there only for some time. Stanley Tucci’s partially villainous character also provides some comic relief during the intense action, but it only works partially – not something which the Transformers franchise haven’t tried before and often succeeded; other times proving the inherent dumbness. Jack Reynor has a nice presence, as what can be called the supporting actor, but as a need for our girlfriend to have a love interest. Kelsey Grammer is a nice villain, but not fully utilized and forced to come second. Titus Welliver also comes up with a strong performance.

Soul exploration :: The movie leaves with hope for a sequel, but the question remains if it has a soul to work on. It had the always-ready-to-die Optimus Prime with an ideal, but that is actually less worked on now. The autobot-decepticon enmity has also gone the wrong way. At the same time, the movie has given us an idea about how bad the effects of science and technology can be, and there are secrets that should be left alone, for there are other things that humanity should focus on, as they are that species which are infested by greed, hatred, lust and envy. The technology is rarely safe in the hands of man, as they are incapable of handling the same due to the presence of their inherent evil nature. When the movie goes on to be a massive success story at the box-office, the one thing we have to think about is how well it has portrayed humanity and the problems caused by its pride. Even a robot knows better than humans who are blessed with better teachers throughout the centuries, and even with all the knowledge that they have gathered, man fails to be good, and it is a case of shame. Then in finding the creators, they are indeed Prometheus infested.

How it finishes :: I had considered Transformers: Dark of the Moon as the worst Transformers movie of all time, and I will stick to the same, but I would still think that our movie here has got more problems in its story-line than the others, but it does make up with the better special effects and action sequences, plus Mark Wahlberg who looks very well suited for this kind of role. Still, except for the first Transformers movie which I have watched so many times already, I wouldn’t dare to watch another one of this franchise again. I would suggest you watch the robots of Pacific Rim rather than watch the aliens of this movie if given a choice. But there is no denying that this movie is pure entertainment, except for the fact that its lack of brain and the repetition, along with the terrible length makes the situation a bit intolerable to a few. Transformers fans should like this movie a lot, and the new additions can impress a number of viewers. This is one of those non-superhero Hollywood movies which are running houseful right from the day it was released, and one can be sure that this is not the end for this franchise, and this sequel is going to collect a lot of money.

Release date: 27th June 2014
Running time: 165 minutes
Directed by: Michael Bay
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz, Kelsey Grammer, Stanley Tucci, Jack Reynor, Sophia Myles, Li Bingbing, Titus Welliver, T. J. Miller, Melanie Specht, Victoria Summer