161.
Jumanji: Welcome to the jungle
8.5/10
A revisit to a childhood classic and I have all fingers, toes, legs, arms and anything else crossed, in the effort that this doesn't ruin the original for me. From the trailer, it looks like people, along with the audience, are sucked into the game, rather than the game escaping into the real world. The cast seems a great ensemble, with Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black teaming up to win the game. 22 years on from the original, special effects and cinematography has come on leaps and bounds so the chances with this film are endless. Is this movie going to be the King of the Jungle, or just another mosquito to be swatted away?
The film begins on a beach in 1996, where the board game has finally washed up onto a beach. Alex Vreeke receives the board game from his brother who finds it, but isn't too interested in it with the emergence of video games. Overnight, somehow, the game transforms into a video game cartridge and when Alex plays it, he is transported with a bright, green light, into the game. I have no idea how it transformed but let's give it the benefit of the doubt. Another 20 years later and we are introduced to 4 characters. A nerdy guy, struggling to find time with his homework and playing computer games, called Spencer, Anthony 'Fridge' Johnson, who is a college footballer, has been having Spencer do his homework for him. The next would be Bethany Walker, who is the popular girl, who loves to take selfies and be on Instagram, even using her mobile during class and finally we have Martha, who is a bit of an outcast, who disrespects her gym teacher when she doesn't want to take part. For all these reasons, they are sent to detention together, to pull staples from magazines. Fridge finds a computer with the game Jumanji, still inside and they finally all agree to play it, before one by one, being sucked into the game with a fit of screams. They each fall from the sky and have changed into their avatars, which they had selected. Spencer is no a muscular, fearless explorer in the shape of Dr. Smolder Bravestone, who is played by Dwayne Johnson. Fridge has become a zoologist, named Franklin 'Mouse' Finbar, who he selected after he read it wrongly, thinking it was Moose. He is tiny and has a massive back pack constantly strapped to him. Martha, the awkward girl, has turned into a smoking hottie, who is a martial arts expert and named Ruby Roundhouse. Finally, we have Bethany, who has turned into Shelly, which was short of Sheldon, a professor, who not only is male, but overweight too. They have pretty much all turned into the opposite of what they were outside of the game. Bethany is instantly eaten by a hippo and dies, re-emerging from the sky and has lost a life, which the three lives are shown with a tattoo on their forearms. They soon realise that losing these three lives, could mean death in the game and no return home. They even discover what their strengths and weaknesses are in gameplay.
Once running through the jungle, a jeep pulls up, being driven by Nigel, an NPC, who sends them on their main quest. We, are the group of four, are sent into a flash back to build up the storyline on what has happened so far, within the jungle. Van Pelt has stolen a jewel, which has driven a curse across Jumanji. With this jewel, Van Pelt can control all animals in the jungle and the players must return the jewel to the top of the Jaguar statue and call out 'Jumanji'. Along the way, they begin to lose lives through different missions and make their way to a market place, where they must work together in order to obtain a clue from inside a snake's basket. The snake escapes and heads straight for Martha, whose weakness is venom, but it caught around the neck by Spencer, and defanged by Fridge, with nearly everyone working together. This also gives Martha a bit of a shine towards Spencer. They are soon set upon by Van Pelt's men and are cornered, to which Spencer takes action and pretty much takes out an army with hand combat, until Van Pelt turns up and the gang are saved by a fifth player, under the avatar, Jefferson 'Seaplane' McDonough. He is played by Nick Jonas and we takes them to a tree house for safety. Bethany instantly falls for him but this is funnier because she still hasn't gotten to grips with being a male. He explains that the house has been built by an Alan Parrish, which is another nod to the original. He tells them that he cannot get through the next part and only has one life left. He has been trying for months to get through and complete the game. The clue from earlier, was that the gang would find their missing piece in the marketplace and it looks like they have. They need this fifth member in order to complete the team. They head to the vehicle depot and Martha needs to take action to distract the guards, so that they others can sneak past and cut through the fence and get in. Bethany teaches her how to flirt and be a girl in certain aspects but seeing Jack Black do this, simply adds to the humour. During this time, the boys have a chat and Alex may think that he has only been in the game for a couple of months but it has actually been 22 years. Martha ends up still acting awkward and instead, uses he dance fighting to defeat the guards, all to the tune of Peter Frampton's Baby I love your way. They get into a helicopter and head over a canyon, but not without some trouble as the aircraft fails to rise properly and a rhino stampede chase them down. Spencer, finally reattaches the blades to the throttle and they rise out of the canyon but Fridge drops the jewel, only to be sacrificed to get it back. They end up completing the level, but Alex gets bitten by a mosquito, his one weakness and starts to lose his last life. That's before Bethany gives him CPR, transferring one of her lives to Alex. Once that is done, the team head to the statue and onto the final level.
They find themselves at the long walk to the statue, which is guards by jaguars and other enemies, all controlled by Van Pelt. Using their teamwork and resources, they distract all that they can, whilst Spencer tries to get to the statue. but at the base, Van Pelt has Bethany at gun point, demanding that Spencer hands over the jewel, only for him to reveal that he actually doesn't have it. In storms Fridge, on the back of an elephant, claiming how much he loves zoology, waving the jewel aloft. Van Pelt shoots and the elephant bolts, throwing Fridge one way and the jewel the other. It lands in a pit of snakes, where Martha decides to enter to retrieve it. She tells Spencer to get to the top of the statue and she will get the jewel to him. Van Pelt stands all of the snakes up, ready to attack and kill Martha with their venom. Instead, she takes the next step, literally, as she stands on one, to kill herself. Resetting from the sky and flying downwards, as Spencer heads upwards, they meet at the head of the Jaguar, he gets the jewel and they all call out the name. This kills Van Pelt and clearly ends the curse, as a wave of colour covers the jungle. They each return home, one by one, better for their experience. They realise that Alex did not return with them and they head to his old house, only to find it looks better than ever before. His father is a grumpy old man and instead, the whole family are getting ready for Xmas. Alex got reset to his own time and is now older, married and has children, one named Bethany, after the girl who saved his life. The gang have all now become close friends and Martha and Spencer even start dating. As they stand outside the school, they once again hear those drums. They end up destroying the game in a back ally, to prevent anybody playing it again.
If I was to discuss the character and their development, I'm not too sure that I would anything bad to mention. Each character changed into the complete opposite avatar once they entered the game and this added a lot to the humour. They didn't know how to react and there was a lot of coming to terms with what their abilities where. By the end, they had all gained a new form of confidence to return to. Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart's onscreen 'bromance' is always a plus for a movie. I enjoyed Central Intelligence for the exact same reason and this one was no different. The banter between the two and ability to play different kinds of roles, such a Johnson playing a geeky, fearful kid, was very impressive. The other delight for this, would be, Jack Black playing a spoilt, attention seeking girl, who cannot live without her phone and this role seemed to come naturally for him.
This movie, thankfully, came nowhere near spoiling the original for me and if anything, brought back the memories. It was a clever idea to send the players into the game instead, although the change from a board game to a game cartridge was a little weird, without any proper explanation. It was good to see a group, which was made up of four completely different styles of characters, which gave the opportunity for any the audience to relate with at least one of them. It was interesting to see that they changed Van Pelt from the first, in which he was a hunter, to someone who was linked to the main character and portrayed as the villain in this picture. With the humour, storyline and casting, everything fell together really well, even with nothing but stereotypes. This has the potential to carry on being a laugh out loud, family comedy, that doesn't need you to have seen the original to be able to appreciate it.
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