Tag: Egypt

The Mummy in 2017 – A Detailed Analysis and Thoughts

Yes, I’m excited for this new take of The Mummy. It’s definitely a story with potential leanings to ancient astronaut conspiracies and pacts with alien gods.

The Mummy (2017) Movie PosterPlaying in theatres June 9, 2017

Yes, I’m suitably excited for this new take of The Mummy. It’s definitely a story with potential leanings to ancient astronaut conspiracies and pacts with alien gods. When the military is involved, even a shade of the original movie Stargate can not go unnoticed when it comes to unearthing corpses that should be best left buried.

Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) is the tactical leader of an operation which unearthed an Egyptian sarcophagus from deep within the Earth (always not a good sign). It’s been airlifted by a helicopter and later put on a transport plane. This American team is taking it home, perhaps to a nearby base. The details of the cavern and coffin are very alien-like. The headdress looks fin-like, and perhaps this look is why part of the film takes to the sea to find the coffins of the followers of this cult.

The Mummy (2017) Terror Underneath
All screen captures are copyright to Universal Pictures.

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Where’s the Mythology Behind Gods of Egypt?

The movie ultimately felt like a surreal ancient astronaut idea gone wrong. I liked the design of the Solar Barque that Ra lived on, but just where Gods of Egypt sits is with clichéd ideas than to follow the Book of the Dead.

Gods of Egypt Movie PosterI can’t believe the level of hate by movie-goers and critics have for Gods of Egypt is still growing. Not since Fantastic Four has there been such a vile response to a product. The Last Airbender was panned way before it even started pre production. Myself, I have to thank producer Michael Bay for decimating my childhood memories of Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; the bulk of merchandise I see now are based on his work instead of being generation one. With this movie set in an Egyptian-type world, can the director, Alex Proyas, destroy all that I love and admire about Ancient Egypt? I grew up enamoured by the mystique this world represented, especially with its art and myths.

Technically, this film’s plot is a loose interpretation of the story, The Contendings of Horus and Seth. Instead of having a contest of champions, where these deities are tested to see who will be the next King of Egypt, Osiris (Bryan Brown) and Isis (Rachael Blake) are ready to crown Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). However, the always jealous Seth (Gerard Butler) arrives to put a stop to it and kill all the gods. He leads an army who look more like the Persian Immortals from 300 and perhaps that’s the joke everyone is missing. This film is meant to poke fun at mythology instead of being inspired by it. When looking at the mistakes, the film is very silly and mind-numbing, but when looking at the nods to the lore of yore, the connections made will only be familiar to people who knows them.

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The Gods of Egypt Go to War, A Trailer Analysis

We tear apart the movie trailer for the upcoming Lionsgate release, Gods of Egypt.

imagesLionsate Entertainment unveiled a trailer for the upcoming movie, Gods of Egypt, and purists of what this pantheon represents will be upset. They can go on an uproar Feb 26, 2016.

Until then and based on the images shown, this movie is nothing more than a mash-up of the movie Stargate (which has better armour designs) and the video game God of War (perhaps with a bit of Tomb Raider mixed in). There are bits of mythology tossed into the narrative — the plot revolves around the ongoing feud between Horus (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and Seth (Gerard Butler). The trailer shows Horus losing his eye and Bek a thief (Brenton Thwaites) goes to retrieve it. As for how much more the movie’s plot remains faithful to that legend, when Horus regains his eye and presents it to his father, Osiris, to symbolize the sacrifice he did to regaining power, that remains to be seen.

Nearly every deity — Hathor, Thoth and Ra — are revealed this film. The only exceptions are Osiris and Isis. Egyptologists versed in the Osiris Myth will wonder just how much of that tale will make up the basis of this movie.

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Tut: Little Accuracy but Plenty of Fantasy. A Review

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By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Spike TV’s Tut is a hefty melodrama that puts Cleopatra (1963) to shame. When the last of the pharaohs was simply trying to preserve a world that would later be unseated by the Romans, so too did the young boy king try to restore order prior to the rule of his father, Akhenaten. To change from a polytheistic society to monotheism was not welcomed by everyone. The worship of the Aten was deemed too radical. Tutankhamun sought to restore an old world order so that many Egyptians living outside of Thebes would welcome him. But his rule was a short-lived one. He had an inner circle of people conspiring to unseat him for their own sordid reasons. Not all of them were concerned about their country’s spiritual identity and that’s the basis of this three-part mini-series. Their motivations lay nowhere near what historians have ruled through meticulous study of the mummy and stories told on this king’s tomb walls.

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What’s Next for Night at the Museum?

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

Night_at_the_Museum_poster

The Night at the Museum is an enjoyable family fun comedy that is getting a third film due to arrive in theatres December 19. Ben Stiller, Ricky Gervais and Robin Williams will be returning to play their respective roles as Larry, Doctor McPhee and President Theordore Roosevelt. Owen Wilson and Steve Coogan also return to reprise their hilarious straight-man funny-man routine as Jedediah Smith and Octavius and there will be a newcomer waiting in the wings. Comedienne Rebel Wilson will also play a security guard who works at the British Museum.

This little casting note suggests more hijinks will take place at the largest establishment to house Egyptian artifacts outside of Cairo, and if this film marks the end of a series, then it may go with a bang. In the first film, the Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Akhmenrah is the MacGuffin that drove that film to its happy end, and in the second film, it’s stolen by Dexter. This monkey never did get punished for the chaos that erupted when the gang clashed with another Egyptian exhibit at the Smithsonian.

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