Mummies – Film Review

Three mummies leave their underground secret city in ancient Egypt and end up in present-day London to search for a ring that was stolen by a greedy archaeologist. However, their mission might prove to be a little difficult.

Of course, we know that movies about mummies can be a whole ton of fun (i.e. Stephen Sommers‘ The Mummy), so why in the world is Juan Jesús García Galocha‘s Mummies so incredibly bad? This is an animated comedy that could’ve been something truly memorable and entertaining for all ages, but instead, what we got is a hugely bland, unfunny, poorly animated mess that I won’t be remembering longer than a day.

The script here is the biggest of the film’s issues. Written by Javier López Barreira and Jordi Gasull, the duo never really manage to find a reason for the viewer to care about anything that’s going on in the story. It all just feels like one long series of events that transpire around a bunch of characters.

We are never really given a reason to care about our protagonists and we are never really given a reason to care about anything in the story. Even the villain here feels so unbelievably cliché and annoying. Joe Thomas does a solid job voicing the protagonist, Thut, but his character was terribly weak.

Eleanor Tomlinson also did a truly wonderful job voicing Nefer – who also happens to have some genuinely fun songs throughout the film – but her character doesn’t get a whole lot to do, unfortunately. This entire film just feels like a gigantic compilation of slapstick comedy with no real substance involved.

And why in the world does this film look as painfully bad as it does? This is a 2023 film but it honestly looks like something you’d see from decades ago. Animation is better than this. We’re getting a ton of movies coming out these days that have animation styles akin to that of the gorgeous Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and at the same time we’re getting films like Mummies that look lazy.

To be honest, almost everything about Mummies feels lazy. There are a handful of scenes sprinkled throughout that are mildly entertaining, but this is mostly a gigantic misfire that I’m convinced not even young children will enjoy too much. If you’re on a quest to show your child a fun and truly memorable animated film, show them something like Coraline, not this.

A jarring pace, poor script, disappointingly weak animation, and a lack of character depth hold back Mummies from being something truly memorable.