The Ruination of a Princess: 'The Mummy' (2017) Failure

So I've watched The Mummy (2017) twice, more disgruntled the second time than anything. It's bad. If you haven't seen it, be aware there are spoilers to the movie.

But one thing I loved about that movie? Princess Ahmanet, that powerhouse. Funnily enough, most of my complaints about that movie stem from Ahmanet, in a way. Not to say I thought she was a bad character; in fact, Ahmanet was the best character. Which is essentially a failure considering the movie wanted her to be a villain. I felt more sympathy for her than I did Nate or Jenny. So, I'm going to explain just how badly The Mummy failed Ahmanet and in how many ways.

So, she's supposed to be the villain.

I know they presented her origins as this princess who sought vengeance upon her father for having a son, and "betrayed" him but may I remind you all that he betrayed her first, if that's the angle we're taking here? Ahmanet was the daughter of Pharaoh Menehptre, and after her mother died in childbirth and with no certain prospect of male heirs, he promised Ahmanet the throne upon his death. Ahmanet was trained all her life for the role, becoming a princess worthy of the throne she aimed for with every breath she took.

Then comes the step-mother.

Menehptre marries another woman who gives him a son, and so the man happily shunts Ahmanet to the side to proclaim the newborn boy his heir. Historically, this is all accurate. Unfair, but accurate. No matter who is the first born, a male always gets the throne with only a few exceptions in history. Cleopatra, Hatshetsup, Mary of England. However, in history we can verify female rulers who had to work hard, be clever, to gain their thrones.

The first person to come to mind is Wu Zetian, who history alleges to have strangled her own baby daughter and framed the then Empress Wang. Who killed her first son, exiled the second, and used the youngest as a puppet ruler for a time as she rose to become China's first female empress, a position that filled the hearts of men with abhorrence and rage. Cleopatra, who fought against her brother (and husband) won by seducing Caesar, and killed her other siblings to assure her reign alongside her son Caesarion. Catherine the Great fostered many allies with her poise and zeal, allowing her to form an army great enough to help overrule her husband Peter III and allow her to rule Russia.

So then, why am I supposed to feel scorn or any sort of negative emotion for Ahmanet assassinating her father, step-mother, and step-brother? It's not a completely illogical to assume that her father would most likely have married her off to another royal family in an attempt to expand his power, as many royal families did to their daughters, or second sons: those children born after the first rightful heir that were called the "spares." Hell she's not the first woman or man to do so. The story of the world is full of those who use such ruthless methods to claim their destiny. So, yeah, she partook in some . . . alternative methods involving the God of Death to amass power to rule as she rightfully should. I think it's a damn shame those priests stopped her. And what's with the liquid mercury?

What I liked about this though, was her reaction when she was questioned by Nate, her "Chosen One" about her part in the death of the royal family.

"They were different times."

Hell yeah they were different times. Ancient Egypt was not a cakewalk, and especially not for a young girl learning the ins and outs of a royal court where you never knew where the vipers in human skin stood. With the arrival of her baby step-brother, she would probably have been married off to another royal court to secure alliances for the Pharaoh - and she was massively overqualified to be relegated to such a banal fate.

She was undervalued.

I didn't have a stopwatch while watching the second movie, an obvious oversight looking back, but I could swear to you that Ahmanet had less airtime than Imhotep did. Watching the 2017 Mummy, I felt cheated of getting to know Ahmanet more. The movie itself runs for one hour and fifty-one minutes, while the 1997 Mummy had two hours and five minutes. There's a lot you can do in sixty seconds, you know? Plank, run a play in a game, sing a song . . . and the extra fourteen minutes given to the 1997 version makes a difference. Though I can't say for sure, I think that extra time was given to us to learn more about Imhotep; his desires, his personality. I feel like I never really got to know much about Ahmanet. Or maybe I did learn all I needed to know, it was just the writers who failed to adequately tell her story.

You know what I got too much of? Tom Cruise and his dead friend. If I wanted creepy bros from beyond the grave, I'd re-watch American Werewolf in London. I definitely got too much of Tom Cruise's and Anabelle Wallis' complete lack of chemistry. They had about as much chemistry as sodium and hydroxide (HA!) and I honestly would have much preferred more screen time on Ahmanet, maybe watching her annihilate that team that captured her or something.

Instead, I got a way too long bar scene, a full-on fight with Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hide that did nothing for the story, and a lukewarm attempt at foreshadowing that didn't interest me. Time not well spent, that could have gone to my ghoulish princess to further expound on her character or her story, her damn goals!

In the end, she wasn't even given a cool death. And I mean relatively, her death was lamer than Imhotep's own demise. Imhotep got his immortality taken by the Egyptian gods, stabbed, then taken back to the Underworld by a pool of black life-sucking liquid that reverted him back to his mummified form. Ahmanet got the life sucked out of her. Ironic, and a good form of karma, but pretty lame. Balled up and returned to her dried mummy form, she was summarily ignored thereafter and left completely out the story to focus once more on, again, Tom Cruise.

They should have just made Tom Cruise the freaking mummy. I bet they probably would have shown him more respect.

To sum this all up, I expected so much more from the Mummified princess, and the movie set her up to be one of the most interesting villains of the year. Instead, she was damned to a fate as an idea not fully realized, something you look back on and regret about what could have been. Meanwhile, I just want to forget the zombie minions, Tom Cruise, the dead best friend, and . . . I just want to forget about this movie.

But my heartache for Princess Ahmanet will not allow that.

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