Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle benefits from its star-studded cast of comedic talent, and even delivers some moments that'll make you forget that Jack Black is not really a teenage girl.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is not a remake of the 1995 Jumanji with Robin Williams. Instead, it's a sequel of sorts, and while the overall premise is essentially the same as the original, the 2017 version gets updated into the form of a video game that traps four Breakfast Club-esque teenagers. Once inside the game, the teens find themselves in the bodies of the avatars they chose, but in order to get back home, they must first beat the game. Dwayne Johnson and Jack Black play against their types, and the results are hilarious. Jack Black acting as a teenage girl trapped in his body was not something I'd expected to see on the big screen, well, ever. Yet somehow he manages to pull it off in a subtle way, delivering more than a few laughs throughout the movie. Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan all did a great job, too, but Jack Black stole the show. [caption id="attachment_30193" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Courtesy of GIPHY[/caption]
As far as where the game's storyline is concerned, it's your standard video game plot -- a villain has captured a rare artifact and it's up to the heroes to stop him before it's too late. It's very predictable, so as an audience member I was not overly concerned about the major characters' well-being. There was not a single ounce of doubt that the characters wouldn't be able to make it back home by the end of the movie.
That's not to say that the action scenes were any less exciting or intense. In fact, the action in the movie was very well done, with Dwayne Johnson doing what he does best and kicking ninja-motorcyclists' butts. The CGI animals could've been better and were a tad distracting (but immensely better than the Porgs from The Last Jedi, that's for sure).
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Courtesy of IMDb[/caption]
As a whole, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a great escape from the real world for a few hours. While it is not going to win any awards, it's a simply a fun action-adventure movie that'll keep audiences entertained.
Have you seen the new Jumanji movie? How does it compare to the original? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.
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