Jumanji comes back to the big screen after a 22 year hiatus.
Thanks to Amazon Prime, we had the chance for an early screening of Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle and are ready to share our thoughts on it.
We had tepid reservations about the movie for several reasons. It has been some time since we saw the game unfold and capture our attention.
There was also the discussion of how and why the switch was made to a video game from the board game.
We were not sure it would even be comparable to other movies from 2017 like Despicable Me 3.
Without further waiting, on to our review of Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle.
The first thing we have to say is we loved the actors they brought in to play the game avatars. Each one of them gave their own energy to their characters. If we had to choose, it would be the Rock and Jack Black who did solid jobs.
The shift into a video game was explained, sort of, at the started of the movie. Sure it was not earth shattering but the change did make it interesting in the movie. Between some of the NPC interactions to the cut scenes, we like how they handled the new setting.
The last thing we enjoyed was the tone of the movie. There was a good deal of growth in most of the characters during the movie as a result of their actions or inaction. It made the movie more about them than the game.
Despite these positives things, there were a few negatives with the film.
The first one was the bad guy. You would think since it was a video game setting, the baddie would be flushed out more. Alas he seemed more like a cool prop than anything. In terms of villains, he is just above Steppenwolf this year.
The CGI seemed okay most of the time in the movie, except there was one with Ruby Bloodstone where it looked as fake as it could be when she vaulted up a mountainside.
We were also annoyed that it felt like Fridge was the only one who didn’t grow by the end of the movie. It seemed like the entire event was wasted on him.
Lastly, while they hit a homerun with the main actors, they could have gone with some more acting direction with the younger talent. Thankfully they are not in the majority of the movie.
This movie is a toss up. There are enough decent parts here to make it worth seeing but you will not miss much if you never see it.
You can catch it in theaters during the day or just wait until it comes out on DVD.
