The film begins in Ancient Egypt during 1290 BC. The high priest, Imhotep, has an affair with Anck-su-namun, who is the mistress of Pharaoh Seti. The two then kill the Pharaoh.

But when the Pharaoh’s bodyguards come, Anck-su-namun takes her own life. Imhotep then escapes. At some point, he and his priests take Anck-su-namun’s body to be revived.

Unfortunately, they are unable to do so since the Pharaoh’s bodyguards find them. As punishment, the priests are mummified alive. Meanwhile, Imhotep’s penalty is more severe. He gets cursed and buried alive with flesh-eating scarabs.

The time then fast forwards to the year 1926 in Cairo. A woman named Evelyn is working in a library. However, she accidentally knocks all the bookshelves down while on a ladder. This angers her boss, Dr. Bey.

Later Evelyn meets up with her brother, Jonathan. The two meet a prisoner behind bars to ask him a question about something important. The guy answers. But shortly after, he is sent to be hanged. Evelyn convinces the executer to stop. Although he is resistant at first, he agrees and sets the inmate free from the rope.

Evelyn and Jonathan go on a boat with this man, Rick, for an expedition to find the golden Book of Amun-Ra. But a fight breaks out between a bunch of people with guns. This, sadly, leads to the boat catching fire. Everybody has to jump off and swim to the shore for safety.

The group eventually makes it to some ruins. Even though Evelyn is warned not to read from the Book of the Dead, she does it anyway. This resurrects Imhotep as a monstrous mummy, resistant to nearly all kinds of ways to die. He follows the group back to Cairo to unleash the biblical Plagues of Egypt. He also murders those who discovered the canopic jars.

At some point, Imhotep wants to revive Anck-su-namun. To do that, he decides to use Evelyn as a human sacrifice.

If that doesn’t get bad enough, Imhotep turns the locals into slaves that serve him. There is only one way to kill him. That is to read from the golden Book of Amun-Ra.

Will anyone be able to read from it and save Cairo?

I am going to admit that the first several minutes were anything but exciting. I understand that the setup was needed. But the way they did it did not work out for me.

The characters were also not too memorable. They were well-developed, though, especially Evelyn. She was smart and determined.

Rick also stood out to me. He and Evelyn eventually fell in love, even though he was sometimes overprotective. For instance, he locked Evelyn in a bedroom and told others not to let her out. I thought to myself, What if she has to use the bathroom?

Another memorable moment that was actually kind of amusing was when this guy with Evelyn, Rick, and Jonathan, possibly named Beni, lost his glasses while trying to escape from Imhotep. It reminded me of Velma from the Scooby Doo franchise.

Once the action started, mostly after Imhotep was brought back to life, the film became more engaging. The pacing also sped up a bit, especially for a movie that’s around 2 hours long.

One aspect that you might not know was that this film was based on a true story, which is why it takes place in the 1920s. Of course, most of it was fictionalized, particularly the revival of Imhotep.

As a PG-13 movie, The Mummy has a good number of intense scenes. It does not have a lot of swearing, however. Nor does it have intimacy scenes, nudity, or drug use.

So, even though this film isn’t suitable for younger kids, it should be fine for ages 11 and up—as long as they are mature and can sit through a 2-hour movie.

Overall, though, I thought The Mummy was just okay. But if you’re into adventure films that focus on history, action, or foreign settings, this movie may be worth watching.

I give it 3 out of 5 stars.