Jungle Cruise (2021)

Jungle Cruise (2021)

 

5/10

Starring

Dwayne Johnson

Emily Blunt

Édgar Ramírez

Jack Whitehall

 

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra

 

Well, Walt Disney made the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise based on a theme park ride, which earned them hundreds of millions, so why not try with another ride: Jungle Cruise?

The movie takes all the necessary steps to follow everything you’ve seen in jungle adventure movies—there are no surprises in this flick. As a whole, it’s watchable, but there’s no need to jump over any tables to see it. Compared to any other good movie, it falls short.

The setup seems borrowed from The Mummy (the one with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz). In this movie, we have a brother-and-sister duo, Lily (Emily Blunt) and MacGregor (Jack Whitehall), going out on an adventure with a guide named Frank (Dwayne Johnson), who seems to know the terrain like the back of his hand.

Lily is the strong, adventurous type searching for the Tree of Life, which is believed to have healing powers. She’s a botany graduate determined to study the tree’s abilities. MacGregor, her brother, is also smart but not as strong-willed or passionate as Lily. Their search leads them to Frank, who drives a beat-up, barely-functioning steamboat and gives tours of the Amazon jungle. They hire Frank as their guide, while being chased by a German villain with seemingly unlimited resources. Lily had stolen an artifact from him, and he’s also after the Tree of Life.

The screenplay and story are soggy, and the editing isn’t Disney’s best. For instance, Blunt’s stunt double was easy to spot every single time—there was no effort to make the transitions seamless. And brace yourself for a CGI overload.

The movie includes boat stunts that feel like they were pulled straight out of the Fast & Furious franchise—if that franchise used boats instead of cars.

That said, the onscreen chemistry between Johnson and Blunt is undeniably sweet, even though the story and adventure itself are mediocre. But their love connection is miles behind that of The Mummy. Unlike The Mummy, where the romance developed naturally through shared challenges and the fear of death, Jungle Cruise takes a 15-minute detour just to have Lily and Frank bond. That stretch of screen time felt like a daft, drawn-out waste and only added to the boredom. It’s hard to suspend disbelief when you’ve seen this kind of romantic pairing done better so many times.

So, Jungle Cruise is available on Disney+, and I have a feeling Disney is hoping to turn this into a franchise like Pirates of the Caribbean.