Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle-Review

When I first heard about a new Jumanji movie starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, I was skeptical. Then I heard that Kevin Hart and Jack Black were going to be apart of the cast and I was less skeptical and a lot more curious. The story of a jungle board game that brings the action to real life was another aspect of the original movie that I was curious would translate to today’s overly digital society. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle handled that too! The board game “realizes” it’s obsolete and transforms itself into a video game cartridge for some sort of hybrid CalicoVision/Atari 2600 Alex Vrekke (Nick Jonas) happened to have in 1996. Even being a magical video game for a one off game system, Jumanji still had some bugs.

Jumanji:Welcome to the Jungle is about 4 high school teens: Spencer, Fridge, Bethany, and Martha, who are condemned to detention for various forms of tom foolery from having a FaceTime conversation in the middle of class, talking back to a teacher, and plagiarism. You know, typical high school stuff. While in the school’s basement, because all modern schools have detention in basements, the kids happen upon an that same unknown game system with the Jumanji game still in it. To pass the time the Jumanji breakfast club decides to do a little gaming and instead get sucked into Jumanji itself. It’s not just a state of mind but an actual place.

The four teens are transformed into the game personas they had picked in the real world. Spencer is a tough adventurer with no weaknesses, Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Johnson), Fridge is a short backpack wearing weapon valet who’s allergic to cake named Franklin “Mouse” Finbar (Hart). Martha is the sexy martial arts expert named Ruby Roundhouse, (Karen Gillan), and Bethany is an overweight, male Professor Sheldon “Shelly” Oberon(Black). The players all have three lives that they must use wisely if they are to return a jewel to a jaguar statue in-order to restore balance to Jumanji, freeing themselves from the game.

The visual effects in Jumanji were on par with “as good as you can get” in a modern effects movie. The great thing is that is didn’t feel overused. There was a lot of physical action and stunts in the film. Kevin Hart and Jack Black provided some hilarious moments of comedy. Jack Black did a particularly fine job in emulating a self absorbed female teenager. I did find it a little awkward with his characters obsession with his penis. It was funny but at the same time I had the thought that this is an underage girl looking and playing with a grown mans penis. No offense to Jack Black but that’s not right. Nick Jonas plays Alex Vrekke and wasn’t terrible in the role. Not that good, but not terrible, The Rock was a better actor. Dwayne Johnson did a good job in playing a typical video game hero with no weaknesses, a real stretch. The only female character in the group of heroes felt stereotypical but that is what’s to be expected from a video game character whose special skill is listed as: dance fighting. Karen Gillan was a strange choice for a character who was described as sexy. No offense to Gillan, she’s way hotter in this then in her role in GoTG as Nebula. But still just very cute and beyond adorable, but no Lara Croft.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a lot of fun if you go into the movie with no expectations. In my opinion, it was a lot more entertaining then the first Jumanji. I enjoyed the comic banter between Black and Hart. Dwayne Johnson did a good job and Karen Gillan was very enjoyable on screen.