Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

6/10

Starring

Dwayne Johnson

Jack Black

Kevin Hart

Karen Gillan

Nick Jonas

Directed by Jake Kasdan

A much different take from the first movie, I can tell you that much. The actors here are all well-suited for the roles they played (not saying they performed better than the ones in the first movie), and their reactions and characterization will leave you anticipating when they’ll get the chance to show off such magnificent acting again. Combined with the script and production, I feel the movie is just a little above the bar of mediocrity for me.

We all remember the first Jumanji, released in 1995 and starring the late Robin Williams. This movie is a standalone sequel to that and pays tribute to Williams, as his character Alan Parrish’s home—where he was trapped in the game for twenty-six years—is shown, with his name engraved on it.

So, what is this movie all about?
This standalone sequel is also based on the children’s book Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg and is the third installment in the Jumanji franchise (the second being Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005), which is also based on an Allsburg children’s book but isn’t worth remembering or seeing).

The movie has some similarities to the first one. At the beginning, a young man picks up the game—this time, the board game has transformed itself into a cartridge so it can be played on a gaming console. The new user, named Alex Vreeke, slots the game into the console and gets sucked into it. Twenty years later, a group of high school kids in detention come across the game. They plug it in, select characters on the screen, and the moment the game starts, they’re sucked into it. Their high school bodies are transformed into the characters they selected.

Now, they’re in the game for real, with three lives each. They must overcome obstacles, find the treasure, defeat the game’s boss, and complete the main task to get back home.

The main challenge in this plot isn’t just the three lives each character has (which is fun to see how they lose them), but also the fact that their new bodies don’t match their real-life personas. This becomes a challenge as they have to adapt to these new characters, who possess the strengths needed to complete the game.

The movie isn’t bad to watch with kids, who will likely enjoy it more than adults. However, don’t expect much more than an above-average script with some good acting performances. A sequel, Jumanji: The Next Level, was released in 2019.