By Jacob Mello
Big meets The Breakfast Club meets an awesome ass movie about getting out of the jungle with newly found powers alive!
I don’t know who screwed up and accidently made this movie extremely watchable, but someone dropped the ball big time. It’s a sequel/reboot of a Robin Williams board game movie, starring The Rock, Jack Black and Kevin Hart. We all knew the score. So, I ask you – which: only got the job because their dad is a producer; over achieving; still believes in the magic of cinema, bastard!, didn’t get the memo that this was a simple cash grab, and decided to lay it on the line and make something worth seeing instead?!
This movie wasn’t revolutionary. It didn’t change the course of cinema or alter my perspective on reality. Instead it did the one thing I hope for every time I sit down for a movie in this genre – It entertained. For the two hours I sat looking at the screen, it didn’t matter who the president was or wasn’t. it didn’t matter what pronoun you should refer to me as. It didn’t matter how much my allergies were acting up, or how big of a douche my boss is. For two hours on a Thursday, thanks to this movie, I was just simply enjoying the ride.
Look I’m not claiming this was highbrow shit. A football stud named Fridge morphed into Kevin Hart. A shallow Instagram selfie obsessed blonde transformed into Jack Black… I get it. I’d probably fire the guy who pitched me that. But they make it work. The casting was surprisingly perfect. Black fell off my radar about a decade ago and Hart hasn’t made a good film in his career, so that teamed with the fact that The Rock will sign on to do anything didn’t have me coming in expecting much, but they all delivered career affirming performances and reminded me why I fell in love with the movies to begin with.
There were some bum notes. The four high schoolers were a little stereotypical and not well rounded, and the videogame girl was dressed like a videogame girl. But honestly, I had precisely zero problem with any of that. It was funny and silly and one of the first films in a long time that I can dub “fun for the whole family” without secretly meaning ‘if you’re not a kid or a grandparent, bring a flask.’ Plus, the lack of character depth made it all the more powerful when it took them becoming archetypical videogame characters to truly figure out who they were as people and what they were individually about.
They knew exactly what they had with this set up. By putting the characters in a videogame, they were able to forego a lot of the story structure red tape that tends to bog down movies like this. Clunky exposition scenes became fun, and to the point. Because each character had attributes that were clearly stated from the beginning, the world and rules were set from the get go and we just got to enjoy how they used the bag of tools to get from A to B. And since each team member was a piece of the puzzle, we didn’t have to worry about that obligatory sequence that makes its way into every similar film where the characters have a big falling out and go their separate ways for 15 minutes to pout in a puddle somewhere. Instead, they just kept the train moving and never looked back.
This movie could have been made without any ties to the Jumanji world and not many would have been the wiser, and because of that, new audiences, ignorant of the original, can watch this and feel as though they’ve missed nothing. At the same time, they tied in some fun nods to the 1995 film that made fan boys like me feel like we got just a little more bang for our buck. I would have felt a lot less bad for Alan Parrish all those years ago about the dice never coming up 5 or 8 if I knew being stuck in the jungle was this much fun!
PRESCRIPTION:
Jumanji double feature.
Rating: 5/5
BEST QUOTES
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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (released 26th of December 2017) is a remake of the original movie Jumanji that was released back in 1995. Even though I haven’t watched the 1995 version I wouldn’t watch it and prefer the newer version better.
Although 2017 Jumanji (Welcome to the Jungle) is PG it is still a great and engaging movie for people around my age. The comedic moments are hilarious and abrupt plus a captivating plot truly adds up to a brilliant movie. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle follows four main characters (Spencer, Fridge, Martha and Bethany) who end up in detention together. While being punished by removing staples from a bunch of old magazines, one of them finds a game console. They also stumble across the game Jumanji. Not long after they have selected their characters they are absorbed by the console in a dust-like form, only to become the characters they chose.
Bethany sure picked the short end of the straw and ended up with a male character by accident (because it was one of the only few left). She becomes a significant character for comedic relief throughout the rest of the movie. I must mention how the director used the method show not tell as a way for the audience to find out more about the game the characters entered. A good example is when Bethany gets swallowed by a human-eating hippo. The hopes of the characters along with the audience drop with horror and shock, only to sigh with relief when she comes back tumbling down from the sky. This is when Spencer (who is now Dr Bravestone) realises that the three stripes tattooed on their arms represent the number of lives they have. Spencer’s theory is confirmed when Bethany looks down and sees that she only has two stripes on her arm now. Another good example is when Bethany does CPR on Alan (a boy who entered the game in 1996 and has been stuck in the game for 20 years) and one of her lives fade away as Alan’s last one started to fade back.
Another part of the movie I really love is the use of technology and common associations to video games. For instance, at least three NPCs are in the game. Spencer explains this when they are in a jeep after an NPC saves them from the hippo that ate Bethany before. Another time was when the NPC was recounting the backstory of the game. As a cut scene begins to play, Spencer says it must be the backstory the NPC is talking about and that all games have them. The NPCs also repeat what they say over and over again just like they would in the games we play now. I find that really cool. Also, each character has their own weaknesses and strengths which come in use or as a disadvantage as the movie progresses. There was this time when Fridge ate a cake and exploded because that was his weakness. He probably should have been more careful instead of trusting Bethany when she said it was just bread.
Each character contributes their own bits of humour that make the movie so much funnier and enjoyable. Fridge’s reactions to everything, especially his now extent knowledge on animals (because his strength or skill is zoology). I would say his punchline is “and how did I know (all) that?”. One of Spencer’s skills is smouldering intensity or something, where he has this serious look on his face or tone to his voice. How his “friends” or companions react to that is just as amusing. Of course, there’s Bethany’s gender swap and how she copes with being a man now. There’s also Martha’s new confidence in herself and badass fighting skills. After all, her strengths are dance fighting, karate, tai chi and aikido.
I give this movie an 8 out of 10. The movie could do with some more complexity and the characters struggling a bit more. I’m not sure why but I feel like their journey to return a jewel to a Jaguar statue was too easy. However, I am happy with everything I just mentioned up above and that how the director arranged for everyone to complete the game with just one life. That signifies the fact that it was a long, perilous road to success. The movie could do with a few more scenes at the end showing the audience how the experiences from the game impacted their future choices and actions. The scenes that were there aren’t enough. On the other hand the characters, plot and graphics are fantastic. The acting is real and the effects help achieve that. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who’s looking for one to watch, and I hope you will enjoy it just as much as I did.
Rating: 4/5
The movie is fun and unpretentious. The cast is great, it’s fast-paced and has some cool connections with the 1st one. I really don’t get all the bashing.