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Here’s is a lesson to learn when you’re making a cinematic universe: don’t tell anyone that you are making a cinematic universe. You can’t grow a garden if you don’t know how to plant your first flower.

i really hate how studios just like give up on ideas if it fails. instead of learning lessons and improving on the next entry they just throw it out.

Cause unlike MCU or even the OG Monster Universe they didn't try to simply set up each Monster on their own, but spent more than half of the Mummy dropping hints to stuff that wasn't even written yet.

What ruined the Dark Universe was a tale as old as time: Greed and Ego. The suits were pitched the idea of a shared universe, saw what Marvel earned after building their universe over multiple films and said "YES! Print me a billion dollars now!!!" But we need to build up to that "NOW!!!!". Then they brought in TC, how is an excellent actor IMO, who's ego lead him to believe since he was in a bunch of amazing movies that he could do it all. The sad part is that the mistakes are obvious yet the industry can't be honest with themselves. They could try again and just not repeat the same mistakes but instead decide people just don't want those kind of films. It's unthinkable to them that they are the problem.

Simple marking logic: you can’t put the cart before the horse when crafting a shared universe. That’s why the MCU, Arrowverse and Conjuring franchises took their time building everything up first.

Since some of the monsters come from classic literature, I would love to see a cinematic universe where they would build up to a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen reboot!

I get so hyped when I think about the Dark Universe the idea just sounds dope, but they really dropped the ball by giving Cruise that much control which ended up with the movie being less about the monster.

I must be the only person on the planet that enjoyed Dracula Untold 😂 his powers were just so sick!!!

The saddest thing about this is the idea is at the very least interesting and had some amazing casting, the creative side was pretty good but the business side (including starting with the mummy) ruined it

Kurtzman is very successfully running Star Trek... into the ground.

honestly the worst thing to come out of this is that Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein was cancelled because it wouldn't have fit in a cinematic universe that never ended up happening Update: Holy shit netflix is reviving it we fucking won

I really liked Dracula Untold :( Luke Evans is such a cool actor and Charles Dance is always awesome too

There is one name that ALWAYS comes up with every single Hollywood failure - Alex Kurtzman. What will it take to get this man out of there?

The Dark Universe should’ve been more like Penny Dreadful instead of The Avengers

The Invisible Man remake was surprisingly good. Universal should go the Marvel Phase 1 route - separate stand-alone films for each monster, then bring them all together for one big movie once all the backstory has been dealt with. 😁

Everyone wants their own MCU but no one wants to put in the work.

I grew up on Monster Squad and hey it's a part of my nostalgic childhood.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was also something this Dark Universe is trying to get to but can't meet.

The really sad thing, they could've dropped half the coin they spent on this film making something with a much smaller scale and a tight script and made bank. Start small, dream big.

It is to bad b/c it did seem like a cool idea, but The Mummy with Tom Cruise really really stunk.

I think it's wise to make stories that stand on their own first and then connect them later

It’s funny how most movie studios never thought about making a shared universe of movies and only started thinking about it when the MCU took off. Unfortunately like most other companies, they only thought about getting their instant gratification which ultimately hurt them in the long run

The funny thing is that I would have bought in if no big-name actors were used. There are only a couple actors that I follow and would go see despite the movie ratings. For others, big name actors usually means to me that the actor was chosen before casting and that the script is secondary.

Your ending comment 'come back from the dead' is the most underrated closing analysis line ever written sir! Hats off to ya

"Alex Kurtzman went on and is very successfully running Paramount's entire Star Trek organization" I had to chuckle at that. Everything that man touches, turns to shit.

The invisible man movie was incredible. I’d also love to see a wolf man movie with Gosling. The key if Universal wants to set up a “Dark Universe” is by not. Just make good individual, different movies with each character. Then start plotting for a reason to pull some of them together into a crossover.

9:27 Kurtzman is running Paramount's entire Star Trek organization straight into the ground!

I loved Dracula Untold. The power he had was just awesome

Always thought how cool it would have been see Dracula Untold and I Frankenstein to crossover when I saw both films, even if there’s no connection between the two

I had no idea about this! I thought the Mummy was just an unnecessary reboot of the Brandon Frasier movie so I didn't want to see it. Now I wish the Dark Universe had succeeded so we could enjoy some cool monster movies!

Monsters do come back from the dead pretty well. They’re like the Fantastic Four. Or there three tonally different and unrelated Punisher movies that happened before someone accidentally made a wonderful TV series about the character.

Man this would've been such an awesome universe. I'm not a fan of monster flicks, but the visual style and the concept had so much potential here.

The mummy with Tom Cruise wasn't that bad and if they had kept that dark serious tone would have been successful and oversaturation of mcu humor didn't help em on the slightest since mcu fans are just different breed man. But as the concept felt like they condensed 3 older mummy movies in one & this was like the mummy cartoon where Alex was kinda chosen one and had a magic bracelet.

Between Lugosi's Dracula, Karloff's Frankenstein, and Cheney's Wolf Man; I would argue Wolf Man is the best of the films. Unlike the other two, it wasn't an adaptation of a classic novel, but an original screenplay written for film. As such, I felt it held up better since so much of the other two stories was cut or distorted in the process of making them into films.

9:30 "Very successfully running Paramount's entire Star Trek organization" 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣.

The Mummy is my favorite classic monster, and seeing it reduced to Tom Cruise flexing his ego genuinely made me sad. Now The Mummy is considered a joke.

I was actually really excited about these movies. Ever since the League of Extraordinary Gentleman, I've been waiting for something like this.

It sounds like Universal was trying to start with The Avengers instead of starting with Iron Man. I remember watching this movie and it felt like you described. A bit boring. The Tom Cruise twist at the end was a proper twist but I remember feeling unsettled with it. It logically worked but the emotions didn't land right. I don't think it was foreshadowed properly. At any rate, Universal should probably try again but they should try with individual movies first which seems to be where they are currently at.

Did we forget about "The Wolfman" with Benicio Del Toro? That would have been a killer addition and should have been the start of the Dark Universe. It was a great adaptation!

Universal executives during creation of dark universe : Tom cruise, Russell Crowe, Johny depp, Javier Bardem - what a stellar cast, what could possibly go wrong ?

The thumbnail on this video sums up the answer to the question "Why did The Dark Universe fail?" Because Tom Cruise wanted to become 'mummy-man' at the end of the movie.

It's funny that they're the Universal Monsters. One, because they belong to Universal, but also because they are universally recognised and classically known, even across cultures

You forgot about an earlier attempt to setup a "Dark Universe"- 2004's 'Van Helsing', starring Hugh Jackman.

They tried so hard and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was right there to be a blueprint.

I loved dracula untold . Forever disappointed we didn't see more.

One thing about the Mummy reboot is that Russel Crowe's acting was fantastic in it. No idea how he was nominated for a Razzie...

Fascinating video. Keep up the good work.

the problem with this, like the problem with most films released nowadays, is the near-total takeover of the film industry by monstrously large corporations. they're obsessed with bringing in a listers, merchandising, leasing rights to theme parks, etc. all told, they're making films prioritizing profits first and entertainment second. so every scene, every frame you lay eyes on, is not the work of a passionate director bringing life to a story that a writer poured their heart and soul into; it's the result of executives finding the most profitable way to acquire someone's attention for two hours. and don't get me wrong, corporations and film have always coexisted. but nowhere near the extent they do today. from licensing appearances, product placements, merchandising, etc., the sheer scale of the profit pulled out of these titles has truly taken on a life of its own. a life that only seeks to grow itself larger and larger, by using the formula that brought about its existence in the first place: prioritize profits - everything else is just window dressing.

The problem with The Dark Universe was that Universal was trying to turn these classic monster's into superhero's. It was an attempt become the answer to Marvel's and Disney's success with their shared cinematic universe of heroes where they forgot what made these monster's such classics for many decades. A reboot of the Universal Monster's wasn't a bad idea but nobody wanted to see them become something they were not and the audience certainly saw their desperate attempt to play cath up with Marvel/Disney. Not once did they think about telling a great story with great characters but rather what shared cinematic universe they could come up with. Rule of thumb: NEVER PUT YOUR UNIVERSE BEFORE YOUR CHARACTERS.

Because they changed everything and tom cruise wanted to be only about him he said he wanted all the screen time.

Keep it up on your work and this video and channel

I never heard of this dark universe until it was axed, I always thought this was just a not so great reboot of the Brendan Fraser movies.

Basically, Universal took the bullet that the MCU dodged, and that bullet was Tom Cruise. Look back at any interview he had concerning the MCU. He was originally supposed to play Tony Stark, which (if it happened) would've spelt the end for the MCU before it could've truly began. Tom Cruise explained why he decided not to play Tony Stark and much of it boiled down to him wanting control over the movie to make it 'special' (Sound familiar?). Heck, Tom Cruise had this one idea for the Iron Man movie where the mask would be transparent. Why? Well, he didn't want his face to be hidden by a metal mask. And now The Mummy is just a real life tale to Kevin Fiege and others about what would've happened if they did things according to Tom Cruise. Tom Cruise is not compatible with any established franchise that doesn't/shouldn't surround him. Universal made other big mistakes in the Dark Universe. But the one which killed it right away was Tom Cruise.

I was really hoping this universe thing happened. dracula untold is pretty good imo.

Question: Why do they keep Cruise if he consistently costs the studios so much money? I mean, how many billions could this have been worth, if Cruise hadn't come in and bleeped it all up?

Could have been a successful series if it had started with Dracula Untold. There are plenty of people who liked that movie and it was a good starting point for a wider universe.

Sure..I'll tell you step one of where they went wrong. Instead of telling a spooky Mummy story, focused on the Mummy.. They maid "Mission Impossible: Mummystyle"...

Love that you answer the question with the thumbnail

Always fun to watch 2 minutes and thirty seconds of your newest video!

Thanks you for your video and channel

At this point it's becoming so common that I doubt people are even surprised when they hear that a Star's ego behind the camera ruined a potentially hit movie.

Tom cruise. The destroyer of universes.

Nice Monster Squad clips. Great movie.

Man, Van Helsing with Hugh Jackmon was a hell of a film.

If anyone's interested in a real "dark universe"series then I highly recommend the series Penny Dreadful. A great gothic series with unique and close to faithfull adaptations of most of the classic Universal monsters. Also I'm referring to the original series with Eva Green as the main character not the "city of angels" reebot; just stay away from that one.

Dracula Untold was fantastic, I would have definitely watched more.

Why you didn't mentioned the Hugh Jackman movie? Van Helsing I think is from Universal and also attempted something similar

This shared universe is the one i wanted as much as if only slightly less than marvel/dc. I was a fan of those original classics and SO wanted a dark remaining. I also really liked the idea and acting of crowes jekyll hyde

Their best bet is to make stand alone movies and slowly weave them together instead of trying to make a huge universe right out of the box… drop small hints that they are connected then make an avengers type movie where hero’s/ monsters from different movies team up

I was genuinely disappointed the Dark Universe didn't happen. I loved Dracula Untold and Tom Cruise's The Mummy.

With the release of "Werewolf by Night", the MCU is starting to venture into their supernatural side, which has it's own versions of Universal Monsters characters.

Ever since I was a kid, my favorite film has been the Van Helsing with Hugh Jackman. Everything about that film is absolutly perfect. I remember my Dad would take me to our local video rental shop every weekend, and I rented Van Helsing so many times the owner of the shop just eneded up giving me the DVD for free haha. He could see how much I loved it. The Mummy with Brendan Fraiser is a close second favorite. They don't need remade in my opinion, they're perfect as they they are.

Most of these movies I loved and I would like to see more of them, personally.

Laughs in Monsterverse Love that Godzilla is alive and well with Legendary and Toho

I remember this. This why I don’t get my hopes up for everything because things change or cancel over time. People want to hope for everything every 5 years but not what’s going on now

You take that back Tom Cruise is hilarious did you not see him dancing at the end of Tropic thunder?

Two videos released together? We're spoilt!

Although I'm not going to lie to you I would have liked to seen that Dr Jekyll Mr Hyde and Tom Cruise going out for a night on the town.

I never knew about the Dark Universe thing until now... When it was released I thought The Mummy WAS a reboot or something. I still haven't seen it, though eventually I will. But everything y'all were talking about is kinda sad, really. A shared Monster Universe would be amazing if done right! I'd definitely be down for that 😀 I hope it hasn't completely gone the way of the Dodo... maybe they can get it right next time. Just keep Cruise off the steering wheel. He's an amazing actor and an accomplished director in SOME AREAS. Maybe this isn't one of them. 😳

It should’ve taken notes more from Legendary’s and Toho’s MonsterVerse

Marvel has there own monster superhero team coming 😂😂😂

I….. have never heard of this Tom Cruise Mummy movie in my life????? How on earth did this happen?

ONE of the prerequisites for building a cinematic universe is a plethora of IPs, which the monster movies do not have. That said, WB handled the godzilla kong verse rather well. And understanding the limited nature of the IP only let it run for a short time.

Thanks a lot, TOM!

I was surprised at how much I loved Invisible Man. They really need to make more films where they take the monsters, give them a modern day explanation/reason for existing, and actually bring in competent people to work on it rather than stars.

A slight correction...Kurtzman has successfully run the Star Trek franchise INTO THE GROUND.

Invisible Man was the last movie i saw in theaters before the pandemic hit. I was the only one in the theater so it made it extra creepy. Good stuff.

For the MCU it made sense that all these heroes, eventually, after having battled their individual foes had to band to together to take on the biggest threat ever. Why would anything like this have to happen with the movie monsters? Initially the MCU did so well, not because it was a multiverse bridging different franchises, they were compelling or entertaining films…that later came together etc. Look at the MCU now though. Having this huge crescendo with all their popular franchises, now they can’t get close to early era MCU and have no where to go other than continually branching the multiverse out into more multi layered planes of existence.

I actually liked Dracula Untold

Who would have thought comedic super hero movies weren't' the best base to revive a horror franchise? I've been thinking a lot about how this kind of a movie series could work and I've run into a problem. Bringing all the monsters together tends to drop the scare factor from them entirely. I've noticed that a lot of horror tends to become action or parody as it goes on and maybe that might be because the more we learn about them the less scary they become. Light shining a light on the movie prop. On top of that they aren't as much of a threat to each other as they are to random humans, especially if we know that the two fighting have to eventually learn to work together, so our POV characters aren't in as much danger as normal. I'd love to see it work out but I have no idea how to work around that issue.

I thought they were going to get Benicio back at one point Would like to see a follow up for Wolfman

Nice last line😄👍

I think The Bride of Frankenstein is actually considered to be the best of the original Universal monster movies by most

Dracula Untold was actually pretty good, but I didn't pay to see it in theaters and I think that's the real issue.

If they had strung together stand-alone movies very loosely with cameos and subtle hints of how they’re connected, we could have had a great thing going (just don’t cast The Rock as Wolfman, it doesn’t fit, honestly). Having Dr. Jekyll show up for so much of The Mummy and instantly giving away what your doing doesn’t work. I like how the end of Kong: Skull Island tried setting up theirs at the end a whole lot better, hinting at something more, but able to work on its own just in case the idea doesn’t take off. (Also, no mention of Victor Frankenstein?)

9:31 "successfully" lol

I actually enjoyed The Mummy. It wasn't as bad as many made it out to be, it seemed to be driven more about hating Cruise. As for the deal that you didn't mention that gave Cruise a lot of control. He really didn't get paid much for the role and modest royalties. A huge star for next to nothing and they have expertise (as you mentioned) should of been a win on paper.

I kinda wish the Dark Universe had succeeded

i would love some Arcane analysis vids from u!!!!