Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Review

PG13: Adventure Action, Suggestive Content, and Some Language

Columbia Pictures

1 Hr and 59 Minutes

Dir: Jake Kasdan | Writers:  Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Jake Kasdan, Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannavale

INTRO: Is this what you’re resulting yourself to Sony? Are you guys just going to try to reboot all of your most popular and successful films in your catalog from the late 20th century? We had "Ghostbusters" last year (mediocre). Then we had "Flatliners" this past September (which I heard was God awful). And now we have a Jumanji reboot because why not? You can’t pull the wool over my eyes Sony. We know you’re just doing these reboots to make money. The original Jumanji wasn’t that much of a good movie so you don’t have much riding on this but WAAAAAAIT this movie is pretty good.

In a brand new Jumanji adventure, four high school kids discover an old video game console and are drawn into the game's jungle setting, literally becoming the adult avatars they chose. What they discover is that you don't just play Jumanji - you must survive it. To beat the game and return to the real world, they'll have to go on the most dangerous adventure of their lives, discover what Alan Parrish left 20 years ago, and change the way they think about themselves - or they'll be stuck in the game forever, to be played by others without break.

THE GOOD

LET’S JUST ADMIT IT

Because of “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” being a sequel (yup this movie is every way a sequel for it starts right after the first flick left off), people are going to walk into this with a certain bias due to two things: nostalgia and Robin Williams. I hate to break it to you this way but the 1995 “Jumanji” wasn’t a good movie, and this is coming from someone who watched both films within the same day.

What "Jumanji" heavily lacked was a consistent tone. The original film was about this boy named Alex Parrish who got trapped in a board game for 26 years, and since nobody couldn't find him, the entire town went to shit because of it. So when Parrish (Williams) is awakened by two kids when they stumble upon the game, the story just becomes a depressing tale of a kid trapped in a man’s body while having to finish this silly board game where everything comes to life and it chaos ensues. It was tonally confused with what it wanted to be. On the one hand, it wanted to be this grim story of a kid in a man’s body (similar to “Big”) who has to adapt to being an adult and trying to uncover the mysteries of his past. On the other hand, it wanted to be this adventure of having to finish this board game where everything comes to life before terribly computer-generated animals destroy their town. Seriously even by 1995 standards, the CG for that film was god awful. Aliens came out in 1986, and that had better visuals than the 1995 film. "Jumanji" wasn’t made on the cheap but yet it looked so cheap. It was not a good movie.

Now since I got that out of the way, I have to admit something that might as well offend you. Don’t burn me to a stake when I say that this is one of those rare sequels that is FAR MUCH BETTER THAN ITS PREDECESSOR! “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” is a sequel that realizes all of its shortcomings of the original and decides to roll the dice with a story that thankfully doesn’t take itself too seriously for a single minute.

It follows a simple formula similar to “The Breakfast Club” where we follow four high school students who are flawed characters stuck in detention but instead of talking about their feelings, they stumble upon a Jumanji console.  How did the board game turn into a console game? Well, one the smartest things about this sequel is that we learn the board game has the power of transforming itself into other forms you're able to play.  The game is like an evil spirit that always finds a way of coming back in forms you never think it’ll take. Screw the Ouija board; the Jumanji board is something to stay clear from. Where the first film attempted to give a kid his wake up call through this game but had a poor execution of doing it, this manages to provide us with four separate characters that all get thoroughly developed. The journey to all of their self-discovery is through this game that teaches these kids a lesson and helps them become better people.

WOW SONY YOU ACTUALLY GAVE A SHIT

Unlike other Sony reboots/sequels that has come out of recent years (Ghostbusters primarily) “Jumanji” actually has a script that was thoroughly planned out and a lot of effort was put into. There are four credited screenwriters but you can tell each of them tried to be delicate with the screenplay as much as possible because they didn’t want another “Pixels” on their hands.

There are so many elements that makes this movie work even as a standalone adventure. The majority of the movie sets place in the video game of Jumanji, and the film takes advantage of the video game concept with the humor. It has serval meta-moments where it satirically pokes fun at video game tropes such as AI’s repeating the same words or how cutscenes are used as expositions.

Besides the humor being the staple of the story, the fun of the adventure lies in the production where we are taken to the open world of Jumanji. As far as author Chris Van Allsburg film adaptations go, it plays similarly to “Zathura: A Space Adventure” where this board game about space literally took our central characters to space, so the audience got to explore space itself. “Jumanji” just had jungle animals come out of the game. Here we are taken to an actual jungle to play this game, and it has a lot of inspirations with its setting.

The world that is built here has a cross mix of Uncharted and Tomb Raider, but with the three lives system like an NES game cause nowadays there is no such thing as Game Overs in video games. Each different set piece in the movie is a different level where our leads have to work together to complete each challenge the game throws at them. It is a world that has a set of rules, and it abides by it all the way through.

Not only does it delivers a more developed story that expands the world of the game but it has a ton of callbacks to the first film that reminds you that they still love the predecessor. Whenever characters encounter Jumanji or after solving of the game’s puzzles bongo drums are played overhead.

YOU SEE A-LISTERS, BUT I SEE HIGH SCHOOLERS

The film has a bit of a slow start, but once these high school kids are in their A-list star avatar, the movie is a total blast from start to finish.  You have these characters in these bodies as these comedic actors, but you know what makes it enjoyable? They maintain their high school personalities. For example, Alex Wolff plays Spencer who is this neurotic nerd, but when he gets sucked into Jumanji along with the other group of misfits, his Dwayne Johnson avatar embodies all the same characteristics as Spencer. That is the film’s biggest strength. All of the comedic actors never lose sight of the characters they’re portraying for you see these kids stuck in these A-list avatar bodies. So when I look at Jack Black who plays the avatar of Bethany who is a blonde phone addict, all I see is the avatar of Bethany. 

For what its worth, this is an amazing ensemble who brilliantly play off each other regarding comedy. We’ve seen Dwayne Johnson as vulnerable characters before but we’ve never seen him shy, and timid and he’s amazing at portraying that even with his muscular stature. With every role he takes on, he keeps proving time and time again that he is a great comedic actor.

Kevin Hart is also fun to watch especially since he’s playing the short angry black guy who isn’t doing the entire screaming thing. This is Kevin Hart if he was a jock but don’t have the height to prove it. It is the second time Johnson and Hart have worked together in a film, and they are indeed becoming the dynamic duo. In “Central Intelligence” Johnson was the socially awkward wild card while Hart was the straight man. Here Johnson is playing a neurotic and Hart is playing the aggressive guy, and they still work great together. At this point, I’m as convinced that you can give them any personality and they can deliver it while maintaining fantastic chemistry.

Then you have Karen Gillian who finally gets to show off her comedic chops on the big screen. When she plays as Nebula in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” you never get to see her crack a joke nor much of a smile because her character isn’t like that at all. But if you look at Gillian’s work, you see that this woman has a knack for comedy, and she does it amazingly here. Its funny cause she doesn’t seem so far off from her human counterpart, but when she has her moments to shine, she never fails. 

But if I’m going, to be honest, my favorite has to be Jack Black as Bethany. Recently Black has been in very open roles that transformed him in a manner of range, and this is one of those. Because he has to embody the mannerisms of a teenage girl from the walk, the speech, and the pitched voice and he does it so goddamn well. Black captures being a teenage girl so well that there are some points I mistake him for Nathan Lane. I am not kidding Black gives a performance that Nathan Lane would’ve played if only he would have subtly. You can see that a role like this was sort of a challenge for Black, but he executes it so flawlessly that every minute he’s onscreen, he managed to get a huge belly laugh out of me.

THE BAD

BOBBY CANNAVILLAIN

As much as fun the movie is, the only downside is Bobby Cannavale as this generic villain in the video game. He’s introduced as a cutscene, but as the film goes on, he isn't much as a signifying threat by any means. It is the intention because he is a video game villain with no character, but honestly, he doesn’t do much besides telepathically control animals to do his bidding. It’s confusing because the movie at first satirically pokes fun at the cutscene expositing his character, but yet we would often cut to Cannavale on our team’s trail. At least in the first film, the guy who was hunting Parish was silly and having fun, but Cannavale is taking this way too seriously for something that only has a comedic tone.

DON’T BE A DUMB PARENT

You know how “Jumanji” was a family film? Well, this isn’t. “Welcome to the Jungle” is for an entirely different demographic. This is a teen comedy that features coarse language and doesn’t aim for subtle innuendos. There’s a lot of crude humor including dick jokes, but it's a PG13 film, so you know what you’re walking into. So don’t be that dumbass parent bringing their eight-year-old kid into Jumanji then having to explain to him/her what a boner means. Take them to see “Ferdinand” or “Coco” because this is not a kiddie flick.

LAST STATEMENT

 “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” is an unexpected Christmas miracle of a sequel that marginally improves on its predecessor failed to do by featuring with a hilarious ensemble cast, a stable and consistent comedic tone, and most of all an entertainingly fun time for all (except kids). 

Rating: 3.5/5 | 75%

Super Scene: Ruby and Smolder share a moment.