Jumanji, starring Robin Williams and releasing way back when is considered, by many, to be one of there favorite 90's flicks and one of their favorite Robin Williams films and rightly so, it was such a fun and exciting family romp. Fast forward 20 or so years and we have a follow up to the film that pretty much everyone thought wasn't needed.
Early impressions from the trailers and poster had outraged fans. There seemed to be a huge tonal shift and the board game was now a video game. As time went on and the movie neared its release, we felt an ease in the air. The trailers were funny, the setting started to make more sense and the movie seemed to be leaving the classic Jumanji of our childhoods alone. Now that Jumanji-Welcome to the Jungle is here, what did we think of it?
Welcome to the Jungle follows four teens who see themselves landed in detention. There they discover a video game called Jumanji and after plugging it in and choosing their characters they are sucked into the game world. From here the fresh young cast is swapped out for some of Hollywood's most bankable stars including Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan who star as the game avatars within the Jumanji game world.
Each act is neatly broken up into a level from the video game they are now apart of allowing each act to ramp up nicely to a big and bombastic conclusion before neatly rolling into the next part of the film. The action is big and explosion heavy but broken up nicely with some hilarious and laugh out loud hijinks. This is first and foremost a comedy, which comes as little surprise when you take into account who is cast in he film. The comedy sticks for the most part though some jokes do become a tad recycled by act 3.
The teens within these avatars grow a plenty as the film never forgets it is also a coming of age story beneath its comedy and action heavy skin. The stories of each teen are modern and relatable and how the plot interweaves the avatars physical character traits and their special abilities into a mechanism for the teens to grow as people is quite well handled.
At the end of the day Jumanji-Welcome to the Jungle doesn't tarnish the original at all, instead forging its own unique path and creating a family adventure film that modern youngsters may come to love and cherish the way we older folk o the original.
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