THIS `MUMMY' IS SIMPLY TOO TIGHTLY WOUND.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

First, it's not scary. So, whatever else ``The Mummy'' strives so strenuously to be is pretty much beside the point.

The film is designed as a speed-demon desert adventure, an Indiana Jones romp without brakes (but numerous bad-joke speed bumps). The action, the special effects, the firepower, even the Mummy himself are so turbo-charged, they leave no space for mood or chill to set in.

Universal's original, 1932 ``Mummy'' had its creaky qualities, but it was so rich in shadowy atmosphere that it still stands as one of the creepiest black-and-white movies ever made. More than the other Universal horrors - ``Dracula,'' ``Frankenstein,'' ``The Wolf Man'' - that have suffered hyperactive remakes in recent years, ``The Mummy'' comes with the most delicious expectation of dread. Anyone who's seen Boris Karloff skulk about in those exquisitely rotting bandages knows what fear is all about.

The Mummy in this new incarnation does a lot more than skulk. He can turn into sand, into wind, call down the biblical curses of Exodus on Egypt and mentally command armies of fellow mummies and zombiefied humans. He comes in various stages of computer-generated decomposition, then, as his strength grows, evolves into the handsome and imposing form of South African actor Arnold Vosloo. He is, to sum up, Supermummy.

But, while he makes a formidable villain, he's not at all frightening.

Set in 1920s Egypt, the film stars Brendan Fraser as American soldier of fortune Rick O'Connell, Rachel Weisz as a klutzy English Egyptologist named Evelyn and John Hannah as her arch, wastrel brother Jonathan. For all the usual adventure movie reasons, they set out to plunder Hamunaptra, the ancient lost city of the dead.

Along with a rival group of American cowboys and their highly expendable Arab bearers, our heroes are busy plundering the place when the sarcophagus of high priest Imhotep is disturbed. Wrapped up alive more than 3,000 years ago for messing with the Pharoah's mistress, Imhotep still has, as O'Donnell indelicately but accurately puts it, a ``juicy'' skeleton. That's because, of course, there's some life left in the old boy - and ``juicy's'' about the only gag line in director Stephen Sommers' script that has any life as well.

The rest of the movie involves Imhotep stalking his disturbers to Cairo and back, fixated on Evelyn as the perfect vessel for bringing his long-dead lover back to life. Lots of guns are fired ineffectually at the creature, but since the only things that really threaten the Mummy are cats (that's right, pussycats), this all plays like a particularly gratuitous volley of bullets substituted for brains.

Even more gratuitous, though, is the mostly out-of-register cast members' attempts to play against all of this violent monstrousness like they were in a Hope-Crosby movie or something (``The Road to Luxor''?). Director Sommers comes from a background of Disney kid movies (``Huck Finn,'' ``The Jungle Book''), and he encourages animated performances, to say the least.

Fraser, his ``George of the Jungle'' background coming in handy, fares best, locating a workable balance between unruffled heroism and smirky burlesque. But Hannah, who was low-key cuddly in ``Sliding Doors'' last year, brings nothing but bad timing to his twit's antics here. Weisz's wide-eyed, wider-mouthed approach makes you wish some embalmer would come along and wrap her head in linen. And Kevin J. O'Connor simply has too much screen time as Imhotep's weaselly henchman.

Sets and special effects are big and often beautiful. An opening pan across a CG Thebes, circa 1719 B.C., is jaw-dropping (later, digitized Cairo cityscapes just look cheesy). There's an impressive pitched battle with Foreign Legion troops, lots of scarabs and other icky bugs, vast buried chambers with alarming moving parts and just about everything else you'd expect to see Harrison Ford play with.

But very little of it belongs in a horror movie. ``The Mummy'' may be about a war between monsters and heroes, but it's really a movie at war with itself, generic action-comedy vs. classic horror.

Neither one comes out alive.

The facts

The film: ``The Mummy'' (PG-13; violence, gore, language).

The stars: Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Kevin J. O'Connor.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Stephen Sommers. Written by Sommers, Lloyd Fonvielle and Kevin Jarre. Produced by James Jacks and Sean Daniel. Released by Universal Pictures.

Running time: Two hours, four minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two stars

CAPTION(S):

photo

PHOTOHaving stolen the black book of death, Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) returns to the camp fire and begins to read aloud to American soldier of fortune Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) in ``The Mummy.''