This is where Night at the Museum and The Mummy start to differ. Night at the Museum never touches Egyptian soil, but The Mummy (at least the first two) stays firmly planted there at least 90-95% of the time. However close or far the characters in each franchise may be to the place itself, Egypt is still a clear and obvious presence in both of them.
I discuss in Night #77 that Night at the Museum plays off of Egypt's prominent association with magic and mysticism, still prevalent in popular consciousness, and The Mummy is no different. However, the Mummy movies also play heavily on the idea of the Mummy's Curse, a notion that the ancient Egyptians, on top of booby traps, protected their dead with magical means, as well. The notion is for the most part false and largely unfounded (there are few examples of the Mummy's Curse phenomenon in real life, and the most famous example, that of the mummy of King Tut, wasn't even cursed), but it still remains popular, or at least popular enough to make movies out of here and there, whenever somebody needs a project.
Nothing is Egyptian by coincidence, though how the theme of magic and mystery is dealt with depends with the franchise. For the Mummy movies, it's a big effing deal. That thing you magically brought to life? Yeah, it could probably cause Armageddon. For Night at the Museum, not quite so much. That thing you magically brought to life? Yeah, it might cause Armageddon, but it also might try to play fetch with you, want to mind its own business, mistake you for a miniature but still want to mind its own business, meddle in your love life, tie you to tiny railroad tracks, or whatever else. Museum exhibits have a wide range of reactions they might take, creating vast opportunity for a night guard (or anyone else) to run into problems. The reanimated mummy, not so much. He wants his organs back and he wants his princess. And he'll cause the Ten Plagues and whatever other sorts of madness he possibly can, but that's played more as a side-effect of his resurrection than something he's actively doing, except for breathing out flies in the direction of the protagonists. Magic and mystery in the Museum movies may cause problems or it may not, but is generally neutral. Magic and mystery in the Mummy movies is usually equated with danger: read from the Book of the Dead, accidentally unleash Hell. Open magic chest which has been buried for centuries, get a bracelet stuck on your son's wrist, accidentally unleash Hell. The problems are generally corrected by a blend of magical and mundane means: for the first case, take out the priest's immortality, then stab with sword; for the second, stab unimportant bad guy with freaky destiny spear thing while important bad guy gets karmic retribution.
The themes are played differently for different purposes: the one helps create comedy and the other action and suspense, but they are the same themes. Egypt is a land of magic, and sometimes playing with magic is a very, very dangerous thing indeed. After all, there's a reason we never found out what would've happened if Cecil won.
Next on "For the Love of Night at the Museum": Chia characters! ...I hope. Taking a look at character development from movies of two distinct genres which nonetheless deal with the same concepts.
Countdown: 284 Days to NATM 3
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