Death of a Universe

Well, it comes as no huge surprise that Universal's DARK UNIVERSE is, as of this writing, looking very much more dead than alive. Whether it is brought back to life through Dr. Frankenstein's Tesla coils, or by a fine drink of hemoglobin, still remains to be seen.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, ''Writer-producers Alex Kurtzman and Chris Morgan, who were hired as the monster universe architects, have departed the franchise, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter. Kurtzman, whose deal with Universal lapsed in September, is focusing on television (he's an executive producer on CBS All Access' Star Trek: Discovery, and his overall deal with CBS involves more than a half-dozen shows), while Morgan has returned to the Fast and Furious franchise and is writing a spinoff for Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham.''

While I was somewhat curious to see the talented Bill Condon return to his GODS AND MONSTERS territory with a retelling of THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, or Johnny Depp opting for extremely minimalist makeup to play the INVISIBLE MAN, I can't say that I am saddened by the news. 

The Marvel franchise and its connected cinematic Universe may seem like a shiny new idea, but it's absolutely not the case. After dabbling in horror in the 20s, Universal Pictures tackled classic horror characters like DRACULA , FRANKENSTEIN, the MUMMY, The INVISIBLE MAN, and the WOLFMAN between 1931 and 1941, multiplying their appearances in a wildly popular series of films. But in 1943, something rather unique would occur. By this point, the series popularity was waning, and needed a boost. Writer Curt Siodmak liked to relate an anecdote regarding the genesis of this idea: 

“I was sitting down at the Universal commissary having lunch with producer George Waggner and I said, ‘George, why don’t we make a picture Frankenstein Wolfs the Meat Man – er, Meets the Wolf Man?’”

George didn't laugh at the dubious wordplay, and instead commissioned the script right away.  From that point on, the Universal Monsters would team-up in other fright fests and even comedies.

The idea of teaming up popular characters wasn't new. Donald Duck already shared the screen with Mickey Mouse in his second appearance in ORPHAN'S BENEFIT in 1934, and the Sub Mariner clashed with The Human Torch for the first time in 1940. So Universal was just trying out a proven formula and applying it to movies.

Flash forward to present day, when Universal decided it was time to partake in the connected cinematic universe game, they felt they had a natural on their hands just itching to compete with Marvel and DC.

While I cannot fault such flawless logic, it seems like manufacturing such a franchise is a delicate matter. Marvel had the presence of mind to take it slowly, dipping their toes in the water and offering small hints in post credits scenes for further adventures, that didn't affect the flow of the early films' story-lines, Universal was going all out, with a fancy logo, brand new building, and much ballyhooed line-up of future flicks teased with this appetizing photo.

An intriguing cast to be sure. But there is an expression that states that one shouldn't sell the bear's skin before having killed it. And THE MUMMY didn't ''kill it''. At all.

The Tom Cruise vehicle under performed to such a point that it made all those plans seem ridiculous in hindsight. On paper, the idea seemed great: Cruise is still a proven seller with action adventure franchises (well...the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE franchise at the very least), and to add his DNA to the popular Brendan Fraser reboots from almost 20 years ago seemed like brilliant casting. But the film ended up being lumbering, crushing under its own action set pieces and the smothering mythology it was trying to establish. Character development, which is primordial in setting up a potential franchise, not only took a back seat to all the unnecessary details pertaining to Russell Crowe's Nick Fu...er...Dr. Jekyll and his shadowy organization, but literally jumped out of the car altogether. The resulting film screamed at the audience, begging it to stay interested in the sound and fury, but to no avail. It was like watching Ed Harris try to bring back Elizabeth Mastrantonio to life in the ABYSS.

Except in this case, Bud didn't manage to bring Lindsey back.

The worst thing is that THE MUMMY was Universal's second attempt at starting the franchise, but they should have taken the hint from 2014 DRACULA UNTOLD's poor performance with both critics and the box office.

In the end, I feel the public can resent a studio for trying too hard to sell them a ''product''. We all know that every film we see is such a product, that needs to make back its investment tenfold, but we have to be coddled into thinking that such mercantile aspirations are not too obvious. Marvel managed this by taking it a step at a time, and creating excitement with small teases. Would they have been as successful if they introduced right away the whole super powered menagerie in IRON MAN? I'm not certain.

Marvel performed the dance of the Seven Veils to tease its audience, while Universal just dropped its pants. It felt more like an aggression than titillation.

It's too bad, because the idea of a Monster Mash can still be an appealing idea. 1987's MONSTER SQUAD was a loving tribute to the Universal Monsters team-up, and proved it was possible to bring those guys back together, even if the tone was more GOONIES than DRACULA.

But then again, we still feel the pain from 2004's horribly misguided VAN HELSING. So maybe, just maybe, we should just get our Universal Monsters Blu Ray box set and revel in much simpler times.

To paraphrase Dr. Pretorius: ''To an OLD world of gods and monsters!''