Unfortunately, big producers forget that nothing can beat a good story and even special effects can't make up for a bad story - Michael Bay I'm looking at you - But a lot was hung on this movie and I'm disappointed that they forgot one of the fundamentals: a good story. The romance in this story goes - meet girl, they have history, he disrespects her and her career, he saves her life, instantly they are in love and everything else is forgiven - at least on his side, she follows around after him like a puppy, she risks her career to try save him - even though he didn't need saving, again she follows him like a puppy, she dies, he becomes a monster to resurrect her and it finishes with him wandering the planet.

 

Okay they do the heroes journey perfectly fine but they forgot how to write a romance. That is one of the reasons why I think you can't rely just on the mono myth theory to write your stories. Because this isn't a heroes journey this actually a romance story.

 

They should have started with their relationship. Show us some of their history. The voice over and the telling us the history at the start isn't actually important. It is if you are writing the heroes journey but if you twist it and have it as a romance the mummy is actually the catalyst and not the focus. After that you go through the steps of a romance. In denial - hey I don't like you because all I want is money and greed so I'm going to steal this map and leave you lying alone in our bed. Resistance - I'll work with you but that is only because I've been ordered to. Exploration - I respect you because you know your stuff about crazy mummy people (great place to tell us about the mummy instead of a voice over, avoid voice overs like the plague in movies) Acceptance - I've saved your life but we are so different we can't be together because I'm still a complete jerk who only cares about money. Manifestation - I'll give up my life because I love you but knowing it will be impossible for us to be together but she is like who cares, I'll be waiting for you when you figure out how to break the curse.

 

A subtle change but important. What you can do now is take one of your favourite action movies that has a love interest and see if you can make it into a romance instead and see if it changes how the story would be told. Or take a movie that didn't work like Suicide Squad and turn that into a romance.