"I hate this game"
This is kinda awkward isn't it. When you anticipate failure, but got something different. Those trailers didn't do any justice for this.
'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' aims to entertain families and succeeds just on that. Was it great? NOPE. Was it terrible? Not really. I enjoyed the film is basically what am trying to say.
It's got flaws - The storytelling is really generic and you can pin point how scenes are gonna turn out. It never gets intense during the urgent moments. The villain is so forgettable that I can't even remember his name. Which is a shame because Bobby Cannavale is a great character actor and I've seen him do incredible stuff, however his talent is put to waste here.
Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart all had really great chemistry. The back and forward humor between them made for some enjoyable scenes. Some jokes are hit or miss for me, however, the jokes that miss are nothing embarrassing like some family films.
I liked how against the character tropes you would expect to see from these actors, a part from Kevin Hart and I will explain why after this. Dwayne plays a wimp. Gillian plays a socially awkward teen. Jack Black plays a 16 year old girl stuck in an overweight middle aged man's body. Makes it more funny and not too formula. Kevin Hart plays and acts like he dose in every other movie. You can see a character there, just not to it's full potential.
Jack Black steals the show, in my opinion.
Overall rating: If you want a simple pop flick with fun action and solid entertainment, then this ticks all the boxes. It is was it is. Self aware at best.
Sony's Wreck-It Ralph. That's not an over-praising of this movie. It's a lot like that movie both in style and story elements, as it pokes fun references to most habits of video games. Like Disney's Wreck-It Ralph, there's lots of great character arcs and sweet moments, genuinely funny scenes, a heartfelt conclusion, and supremely creative fast-paced action. A bit of the story could use work in the last two acts. Some of the epic-feel that the first act presented was a little lost among the humor and formulaic story beats the last two acts kept striving for. There's the awkward romantic sub-plot involving two pairs of the group, a dramatic reveal of one of the introduced characters, a little tangent where a shut-in character is taught to do something brave and out-going, and etc. In comparison to Disney's movie, there's a lot of pretty clever in-jokes about the nature of video games, such as quick-time events, cut-scenes, and NPC's only have a limited range of programmed responses in conversations. What I wish the movie did was go all DAE way, just go nuts with it's premise and tackle video games as a whole. Go insane. Imagine what this movie could've been like if it went into hacking and using physics cheating like the shit you'd see in Garry's Mod servers. Holy lord, I'd pay to see that. But, you know, they got to keep things simple for most audiences, and that's okay. What makes the movie work very well, is it's characters and their interactions with one another. What delighted me was I was able to forget I was watching The Rock and Kevin Hart be themselves. They managed to pull performances that fit right in with their corresponding written characters (The ones outside the video game world). They felt subdued enough that it didn't feel like I was just watching celebrities on-screen acting stupid. Sure, there's stupid and way over-exaggerated jokes, but it works, and it's part of the fun. The whole movie works to certain degrees and that's what surprises me. I expected to just walk out so uninspired and lost on many of what it attempts to do, but I found myself smiling and some-what giggling along with the rest of the crowd, who were howling with laughter.
This is what a blockbuster should be. I'm not saying remake all old properties, but if you must, do something different with it. Give it a reason to exist. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle overcomes all of it's obstacles, remaking an "unremakable" classic, being branded with infamous Sony pictures, and having just general low expectations among other movies released around the same time. It's not perfect, there's beats I had issues with and there was a lot more that could've been developed, but as is, this Jumanji sequel explodes and roars a breath of relieving fresh air and was a lot of fun, something I don't say about most blockbusters of today. I'm looking at you, every shit Marvel movie released this year. Surprising to find the director of this mostly did adult comedies before this.
Remaking a much-loved film is always going to be a risk and certainly when the news filtered through my reaction was luke-warm although to be fair with remakes it generally always is.
The trick to this enjoyable and funny remake was the casting, with ‘The Rock’ Karen Gillan, Jack Black and Kevin Hart doing the heavy lifting you are looking at a fairly stellar cast. On an off day they could all mess up the film but as it is the chemistry and fun is there to see and everyone seems to enjoy their job of being a video game avatar inhabited by a very different teenager. All good stuff.
The second improvement is updating the format so that Jumanji is one of those old cassette player video games. Just on the cusp of the video game explosion, there were some weird ones out there and Jumanji would fit perfectly into that niche.The teenagers that are sucked into the game are extremely cliched but the charm of the film and fun of the story just about keeps that under control and to be honest those clichés are needed for the fun ahead with the avatars. The get out of jail card that the makers have written themselves in a stroke of genius is that the Jumanji video game is a bonkers, no-sense, late eighties video game so what happens once our heroes are in the game follows that mantra perfectly. In fact man-eating hippos and dirt bike riding henchmen in the jungle actually is so loopy it makes perfect sense within the framework. Very clever.
The main actors seem to have fun playing their roles with Johnson admiring his own huge physique with amazement early in the story, Karen Gillian immediately questioning what she has to wear a crop-top and tiny shorts to fight baddies in the jungle and Kevin Hart lamenting his only role in the game as ‘carrier of equipment’ particularly as he is black in ‘real-life’ and the game, but the plaudits go to Jack Black who with some skill transfers the self-obsessed, social media junkie teenage girl into a form that is well…..Jack Black, as you can guess physically there is no similarity but he has got that down to a tea. As someone who likes the work of Ryhs Darby I was chuffed to see the Kiwi comedy actor turning up in a pivotal role.
Once the film dives into the world of the video game the story really takes off and laughs and sense of fun and dare I say it even peril are kept coming fast and furious (yes I did go there) and the only lagging and stumbling we get in this remake is when we are outside with the kids. This is never more true than at the ending of the story with too much be tied up a little too neatly, It was as if they lacked the confidence that remake was not quite good enough to get a sequel. Oh ye of little faith.
Overall the action, the acting and fun are high on the scale in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle but with all great films the cast seem to come together and connect all are on top of their game and everything slots into place.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle sounds like a remake that is not needed, it should work, but against all odds it is a fine fun film and very entertaining.
What more can you ask?
I honestly don't understand all the hype and high scores and positive reviews on this movie.
To start off, the 20yo "high school students" are nowhere near believable, but at the same time they're such stereotypes-on-legs that one feels the urge to just punch them in the face. Not only their personalities, but their every single interaction as well is so sterotypical and predictable that they're literally painful to watch.
Once they get into the game, it doesn't get any better. The fact that they're sucked into a game only serves to negate any and all sense of danger they may face during the "adventure": with three lives, you just know that whatever happens to them will have no consequence whatsoever - if anything, they manage to utilise "death" as a game mechanic to help them along the way; heck even their weaknesses become strengths, if not just butts of jokes. Their transformation only goes the most predictable way too: turning into their own "inverse" versions, with one or two character traits preserved to make everything else about them a joke. The world itself is poorly utilised as well: the source of the main dangers isn't nature but bandits on motorcycles, with some bad CGI animals only occasionally getting in their way. Even the story is non-existent, with a huge timeskip after a short intro, because gods forbid they actually continue where it was left off, or just bring it to present days right from the start.
The actors at least try to make an effort to do something with their characters, but quite frankly the ensemble of a muscle-brained G.I. Joe, a middle-aged unkempt Indiana Jones, a black valet, and Lara Croft has too little originality to it (ie. none) for those efforts to make much of a difference. Not to even mention the pilot, who couldn't be more generic if he was actually cut out of cardboard. But hey, at least Jack Black gets to play a teenage girl.
I'm not sure who felt that making this movie was needed. I'm not sure who thinks walking clichés and d××k jokes constitute a "fun family movie". Take away the title, and there is quite literally nothing to see here that stands out from any similar "lower tier" flick - none of which ever gets this ridiculously overrated.
What was really disappointing was that this didn't really follow in the footsteps of the original Jumanji movie. There was no need to title it "Jumanji," they just set me up for disappointment.
The original film had such a great format, they roll the dice and some new danger rolls in, and they have to survive whilst still trying to carry on with the game, adding new dangers every time they roll. It's what made Jumanji, Jumanji. The new film didn't follow that at all.
The characters were all sucked into this Jumanji video game with 3 lives, so there was no real danger. It's their in-game "avatar" that dies and immediately comes back, rather than any consequence, so the exciting danger that the first movie had wasn't there.
To add to that, the effects and scenarios that the characters are put in just aren't as good either. The first Jumanji had monsoons, swarms of dangerous animals, stampedes, all coming out of this board game into the real world. In the new film, the Jungle may as well not be there, the main threat is a gang of people on motor cycles. A few different poorly CGI'd animals make brief appearances.
It wasn't very funny either. The trailer probably shows you the funniest parts, and even that wasn't particularly funny. It wasn't an awful film, it just wasn't good.
Let's start by the obvious: comparing with the first one. The basic principle is kinda kept, people end up in the game in real life. It's a jungle full of dangerous creatures and they have to finish the game to get back. However this one is more of a kid movie than the first. A lot less on the adventure side, it's basically just a jungle themed comedy with some action scenes.
The scenario is really basic, the game part even more. There's no tension, they're never really in danger. They start with three lives and, obviously, finish with only one left each, but deaths are mostly jokes and happenng out of danger zones. Gillan's character takes a bullet once. That's the only real death. The other includes:
- the mandatory out of nowhere death to introduce the danger and life system (eaten by a hippo, quite cool, and brutal)
- being pushed by another player (out of a danger zone)
- 2 strategic death, using it as a game mechanism
- one is given
- being bitten by a mosquito (out of a danger zone)
- eating cake (out of a danger zone)
- being scared by a squirrel
No that many dangerous animals, the villains are just riding around and the lead villain is basically inexistent. The game levels only offer minimal challenge. So yeah, not nearly as thrilling as the first one on the adventure side.
But if you take it as a comedy, it's actually a pretty good one. The jokes and situations are really funny. The characters are quite good. And the actors even better. The fact that they all end up in game characters that are they total opposite gives them opportunities to play both their own cliche character and their opposite. And they do it quite well.
Bethany's character is a cliche pushed to the extreme which is already funny, and annoying, in real life, but when played by Jack Black, wow, that's hilarious. Superb performance.
The Rock being at the same time his usual badass and scared of squirrels is surprisingly good too. Just a standard nerd IRL, nothing special.
Martha has the best IRL character, her response to the gym teacher was brutal. And also the best in-game character. Flying kicks and dance fighting FTW. Karen Gillan is stunning.
Can't say that Hart gives much of a performance in comparison. He's playing the same comic relief token black character that
could have been imported from any other movie. Not even in sync with the IRL counterpart.
The pilot is bland. He looks interesting when introduced, knowing all the traps, appearing to have mastered life in the game, kinda like Robin Williams' character in the first one, but nothing comes out of it.
"I hate this game"
This is kinda awkward isn't it. When you anticipate failure, but got something different. Those trailers didn't do any justice for this.
'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' aims to entertain families and succeeds just on that. Was it great? NOPE. Was it terrible? Not really. I enjoyed the film is basically what am trying to say.
It's got flaws - The storytelling is really generic and you can pin point how scenes are gonna turn out. It never gets intense during the urgent moments. The villain is so forgettable that I can't even remember his name. Which is a shame because Bobby Cannavale is a great character actor and I've seen him do incredible stuff, however his talent is put to waste here.
Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black, and Kevin Hart all had really great chemistry. The back and forward humor between them made for some enjoyable scenes. Some jokes are hit or miss for me, however, the jokes that miss are nothing embarrassing like some family films.
I liked how against the character tropes you would expect to see from these actors, a part from Kevin Hart and I will explain why after this. Dwayne plays a wimp. Gillian plays a socially awkward teen. Jack Black plays a 16 year old girl stuck in an overweight middle aged man's body. Makes it more funny and not too formula. Kevin Hart plays and acts like he dose in every other movie. You can see a character there, just not to it's full potential.
Jack Black steals the show, in my opinion.
Overall rating: If you want a simple pop flick with fun action and solid entertainment, then this ticks all the boxes. It is was it is. Self aware at best.
Review by ALAMLEDPVIP 5BlockedParentSpoilers2023-01-13T21:32:55Z
The original Jumanji, released in 1995, is remembered fondly for its fun-filled adventure and a great performance by Robin Williams. However, upon closer examination, it is fair to say that Jumanji was not a particularly outstanding film. With the current trend of franchise reboots, Jumanji may seem like an unlikely choice for a comeback. But nostalgia can be a powerful force.
A prologue in 1996 sets the stage for the story, with young Alex Vreeke disappearing while attempting to play the game. Fast forward to the present day, and four high school students - Spencer, Fridge, Bethany, and Martha - find the new video game version of Jumanji in detention and decide to play it instead of cleaning the school basement. They are transported into the game and take on the avatars they chose, leading to a series of comedic body-swap scenarios. The group must complete the game and return the Jaguar's Eye jewel to its rightful place while also escaping the clutches of the villain Russel van Pelt.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle updates the franchise for the 21st century with a bigger, faster, and more action-packed story. The film cleverly replaces the outdated board game with an older-looking video game console and transports the characters into the virtual world instead of bringing the game to the real world as in the original. The constant stream of comedy and likable cast propels the otherwise thin story into a fun and entertaining adventure. The body-swap premise works well and is executed with humor and clever use of video game format. The cast all seem to be having a blast playing their roles, with standout performances from Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black. The pacing of the movie improves after the first 20 minutes, and the two-hour runtime never feels tedious as the group faces various obstacles and dangers in the jungle. The movie stands on its own feet and pays a nice tribute to the original film and Robin Williams' character, Alan Parrish.
El Jumanji original, lanzado en 1995, es recordado con cariño por su aventura llena de diversión y una gran actuación de Robin Williams. Sin embargo, tras un examen más detenido, es justo decir que Jumanji no fue una película particularmente destacada. Con la tendencia actual de reinicios de franquicias, Jumanji puede parecer una opción poco probable para un regreso. Pero la nostalgia puede ser una fuerza poderosa.
Un prólogo en 1996 prepara el escenario para la historia, con el joven Alex Vreeke desapareciendo mientras intentaba jugar el juego. Avance rápido hasta el día de hoy, y cuatro estudiantes de secundaria, Spencer, Fridge, Bethany y Martha, encuentran la nueva versión del videojuego de Jumanji en detención y deciden jugarlo en lugar de limpiar el sótano de la escuela. Son transportados al juego y asumen los avatares que eligieron, lo que lleva a una serie de escenarios cómicos de intercambio de cuerpos. El grupo debe completar el juego y devolver la joya del Ojo de Jaguar al lugar que le corresponde mientras escapan de las garras del villano Russel van Pelt.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle actualiza la franquicia para el siglo XXI con una historia más grande, más rápida y llena de acción. La película reemplaza hábilmente el juego de mesa obsoleto con una consola de videojuegos de aspecto antiguo y transporta a los personajes al mundo virtual en lugar de llevar el juego al mundo real como en el original. El flujo constante de comedia y el elenco simpático impulsan la historia, que de otro modo sería escasa, a una aventura divertida y entretenida. La premisa del intercambio de cuerpos funciona bien y se ejecuta con humor y un uso inteligente del formato de videojuego. Todo el elenco parece divertirse interpretando sus papeles, con actuaciones destacadas de Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan y Jack Black. El ritmo de la película mejora después de los primeros 20 minutos, y las dos horas de duración nunca resultan tediosas, ya que el grupo se enfrenta a varios obstáculos y peligros en la jungla. La película se sostiene por sí misma y rinde un agradable tributo a la película original y al personaje de Robin Williams, Alan Parrish.