Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle Review

When it was announced a few years ago that plan were in the works for a remake of "Jumanji," I, along with much of the rest of the world, cried out in horror. The project became official shortly after the death of Robin Williams, which felt like an insult to his legacy. We don't need all these pointless remakes that are nothing but cash grabs and we certainly don't need touch anything Robin Williams has done. I rather comfortably included it on the "bad" portion of my yearly movie preview. Twice. Because this was initially supposed to come out last Christmas before being postponed to this Christmas. I was mildly intrigued by the casting choices of Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black, but this was from the director of "Bad Teacher" and "Sex Tape," so I wasn't convinced. But then the trailer dropped. I was stunned. It... actually looked like a good movie? I wasn't sure what to think because I wanted to continue my hate for this idea, but it actually looked like it could be mildly entertaining, so I became conflicted. Slowly my hatred went away as I decided to instead play the "wait and see" game. Now that the movie is officially here, I rather surprisingly announce that the rumors are true. This is a really fun movie. "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" could be the surprise of the year. 

In the process of coming to terms with the idea that this could be a good movie, I had to peel back in my mind what exactly it was that made the 1995 "Jumanji" movie so good that we all cried blasphemy when we heard it was being remade. Was it truly a masterpiece of a film? No, I don't think so. It's a movie about a board game that comes to life when you play it. You have to avoid all the obstacles that come at you from the game and successfully finish the game before it kills. And you have Robin Williams who got stuck in the board game as a child and gets brought back to the present day when the new kids find the game and start playing it again. It's a simple idea that's incredibly fun, probably a bit more dark than you remember, has just enough heart and has Robin Williams. It's the perfect recipe for a good, fun shot of nostalgic entertainment. With nostalgia probably being the key word there. "Jumanji" is a movie that most 90's kids really love, but critics at the time didn't feel the same way as the movie is actually rotten on Rotten Tomatoes with an even 50 percent score and an audience score of 62 percent that's not much better. So if these new filmmakers can manage to recapture the fun, nostalgic trip with this game, what's so bad about bringing it back?

I think we've rightfully conditioned ourselves that remakes and reboots are bad because for the most part they seem like unnecessary cash grabs. There's the idea that Hollywood is running out of ideas, so the only thing they can manage to come up with is bringing back all of the old properties when there's no problem with going back and watching the original version. In most instances that will provide audiences with a better movie watching experience rather than paying for the modern update that ends up not as good. But occasionally bringing an older property successfully expands the universe of that film, adding to it's lore and that's exactly what "Welcome to the Jungle" does. I think the biggest reason why this worked so well, despite everyone's negative expectations, is that this is NOT a remake. This is a sequel that is updated for modern audiences. They're not recasting Robin Williams. They're not rehashing the same idea. The idea here is that no one plays board games anymore -- which is not true, but beside the point -- so the Jumanji game, after being found in 1996 and thrown on a shelf, transforms itself into a retro video game console, successfully trapping a 90's kid in it, setting the stage for our modern kids to find it and play it.

Thus if there's a "replacement" for Robin Williams, his name is Nick Jonas. Because in this transformed Jumanji video game, if you start playing it, you get sucked into the game and become the avatar that you choose. So our kid from the 90's gets sucked into the game and becomes Nick Jonas, but to beat the game and go back to real life, you need all five avatars selected or it's going to be awfully difficult. Thus he gets stuck in the game for 20 years until four very different high school kids get sent to detention and find the Jumanji game down in the basement of their high school. We have the strong, athletic football jock; we have the attractive, ditsy teenage girl obsessed with her appearance, her boyfriend, her Instagram and her phone; we have the nerdy kid with no social skills doing homework for the football jock while playing his video games; and we have the closed-off girl who really only cares about her grades and getting into a fancy, prestigious university. The intro to their characters and how they all get thrown in detention is a bit clunky and glossed over. But as an audience all we care about is them getting sucked into the video game and luckily that's all the filmmakers really cared about, too. So we forgive the clunky intro because we get to Jumanji pretty quickly.

The best aspect of this are the character transformations. The nerdy kid becomes Dwayne Johnson. The football jock becomes Kevin Hart. Enough said with those two. The closed off girl becomes the hot, sexy, jungle girl in Karen Gillan and the ditsy teenage girl becomes an overweight, middle-aged man in Jack Black. It was a lot of fun seeing all of these actors play a teenage character that are the exact opposite of them and for the most part they all played it perfectly. Kevin Hart plays Kevin Hart in the movie. Granted, he's a great version of Kevin Hart that sides on the hilarious aspect of him rather than the annoying aspect, but he doesn't do a good job of pretending he's an athletic football jock. The other three are perfect, though. Dwayne Johnson has his typical charm, charisma and strength, but he has a lot of fun being a scrawny, nerdy kid in Dwayne Johnson's huge body. Karen Gillan plays an attractive girl who has no experience with being an attractive girl as she has limited social skills and has no idea how to flirt. And Jack Black. Holy freaking cow. He's the star of the show as he pulls off one of the best performances he's done in his career as he does a perfect job of playing an annoying teenage girl throughout the whole film and has so much fun doing it.

Together they have great chemistry as a cast. They play off each other perfectly and make this movie a lot of fun. And when Nick Jonas joins the group later, they pull off a great quintet as Nick Jonas shows some surprisingly good acting chops. When you hear he's in the movie, you might think he's there just as a pretty face for Jack Black's teenage character to fangirl over the whole movie. And while those scenes are hilarious, Nick Jonas pulls off a solid dramatic performance as someone who has been stuck in this game for 20 years and is nervous about dying in the game. Because, yeah, each character has three lives and if you lose those three lives, it's game over both in this virtual world and in the real world. That adds some stakes to this movie that adds just enough emotion for to make you care about these five. Just like the original "Jumanji" is more than just mindless fun, this sequel makes you care. Whatever shortcomings the movie may have in writing and direction are overcome by this cast who know exactly what movie they're in and just decide to have a whole ton of fun with it by making you laugh throughout while adding enough heart to make it a solid movie. Thus this becomes a fun holiday blockbuster for you to sit back, relax and enjoy.

The other excellent part of this movie is how well they do the video game stuff. In which case, this is also the aspect of the movie where the target audience is very specific because this feels like you're in a 90's video game. The actual console they're playing is a generic console, making it obvious that Sony didn't care enough to pay whatever royalties needed to have a Nintendo or a Sega console in the game, but that's exactly where we're going in this movie. Specifically this reminded the most of an N64 with games like "Ocarina of Time," "Mario 64" or "Donkey Kong 64." Adventure games where you wander around, have missions to accomplish, the characters you interact with in the game tell you a coded script and nothing else, and you have an overall goal that you need to complete in order to beat the game. Yes, there is a lot of generic humor that all audiences can laugh at, but I can see the older generation who grew up before the 90's or the younger generation who grew up after the 90's not completely understanding all the specific 90's video game humor that this movie gets so well. Combine that with the tone and feel of a nostalgic 90's movie in "Jumanji" and you have a perfect movie that 90's kids should love while other people might find decently entertaining.

As such, this is a mildly missed opportunity as this could've been a perfect family movie for young kids as well as adults. This trailer played in front of a lot of kids movies that I saw this year and it was the trailer that all the young reacted the best to, but this is not a movie that I would feel comfortable taking kids to. I feel like they decided to target this specifically at 90's kids who are now grown adults in their mid- to late-20's, thus they feel comfortable with throwing in a bit of adult humor that causes you to remember that this does come from the director of "Bad Teacher" and "Sex Tape." Normally I don't like this type of humor, but I'm not going to lie, I was rolling over laughing hysterically as certain gags they did. But I still wouldn't be comfortable subjecting young kids to those jokes. So this misses the opportunity of becoming a "Wreck-It Ralph" that is loaded with 80's/90's nostalgia and is appropriate for young kids. And it might not hit quite as well for people who grew up in the 80's or earlier and don't understand 90's nostalgia, but as a 90's kid myself, I really loved this movie and I would highly recommend all other 90's kids, especially those who liked 90's video games and the movie "Jumanji," to go see this movie. I'm awarding "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" an 8/10.