Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle - Lighthearted, Unexpected Fun!

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle is a welcome and surprising update over the original film. The original, starring Robin Williams, based its entire plot around the thought of nostalgia. Here, director Jake Kasdan takes off from that simple but intriguing premise and weaves a winner. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle is a pleasant surprise, in a year that has only been filled with slogs that promised so much more (a good example is leading man, Dwayne Johnson’s other film of the year, Baywatch). Jumanji stars Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan as lead characters, who are the avatars they choose in the game.

Now, it’s all fun and games to see Johnson take a few welcome jabs at himself. He comically makes fun of his ‘Smoldering Intensity’ and even throws in a few jokes about his enormous pecs. But, alas, a film that should’ve been Johnson’s game is overshadowed by its fantastic cast. Not to say that it’s a bad thing, but clearly while Johnson tries to be the hero with certain dialogues, it is Jack Black as Sheldon Osbourne (actually a high school diva), Kevin Hart as Mouse and Karen Gillan as Ruby Roundhouse that mine the most laughter from these situations. The story is simple. Four teens while cleaning out a high school garage as part of detention, find a game called Jumanji, loaded into one of those old gaming consoles. Each of them, bored out of their skull, choose a character to play with. They are sucked into the game, with the physique (a very funny attribute to the story) of the characters they have picked, with the personalities that they have in the real world.

Aided by gorgeous graphics and VFX (no kidding, other than laughing till my insides hurt, I was also keenly observing the jungle that Kasdan and his team have made. The film has been designed to wow you with its stunning visuals and it doesn’t disappoint one bit. Another thing that the writers take full advantage of is the game setting in which the film is in. There are Non-Player Characters who can only repeat certain things when spoken to, which mines a good amount of laughter. Rhys Darby as Nigel is a fine actor who is used for his fine presentation skills.

In the reboot, Bobby Cannavale plays the villain, who has stolen the Jewel of the Jaguar, an action which has led all of Jumanji to wither and wilt. Darby’s Nigel steals the Jaguar from the villain and hands it to our four protagonists. There’s a very funny scene in which the backstory shows Cannavale saying, “Kill anyone who tries to get in your way to the Jewel.” and Nigel simultaneously hands them the aforementioned jewel. Now, at times, Dwayne Johnson’s character, Dr. Bravestone, know-it-all attitude does get irritating and the childlike nerd who Johnson is supposed to play is a half-baked character. Still, I can’t complain, because what Johnson has been given, he delivers well (with a few hitches in the middle).

However, leave it to the comedic prowess of Jack Black and Kevin Hart and a surprisingly funny scene with Karen Gillan where she attempts to flirt with some soldiers. Black’s pitch perfect as a high school girl who only picked the character of this fat paleontologist as she thought that his name on screen, “Shelly” Osbourne belonged to a ‘curvy’ paleontologist. It’s very funny and the writers along with Black, mine the appropriate amount of boob and penis jokes. Kevin Hart is given a very annoying character. His real world Fridge is an unreasonable person but in the game, Mouse is funny, earnest and really a treat to watch, considering what an annoying character he’s been given to work with. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle is a funny, feel good film that we all needed in a year like this. I really enjoyed it. A few bumps never hurt anybody, I’m going with 3.5 stars out of 5. Jumanji is a special kind of funny.