Title: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Release Date: December 20 2017
Genre: Action/Adventure & Comedy
Rating: PG-13
Director: Steve Beck
I saw this via Amazon as it has just recently been put on DVD/Blu-ray & Digital. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a sequel to the 1995 film Jumanji starring Robin Williams.
This film has a great cast to draw you in. I wanted to see it for Karen Gillan, who I know mostly from Doctor Who but who is also in the MCU as Gamora’s sister Nebula. Dwayne Johnson leads the cast that includes comedy headliners Jack Black and Kevin Hart. Nick Jonas makes an unexpected (for me anyway) appearance in the movie. Also making a brief appearance is Colin Hanks, the son of one of my favorite actors, Tom Hanks. He wasn’t in the film long enough to showcase if he has inherited the talent, but I’ve been seeing him on things a lot more, so it seems we will have the chance to see.
The two films are not very similar. There is a jungle theme to the game, but outside a reference to Alan Parrish (RObin William’s character in the 1995 film) and the outside of the game packaging, the stories seem completely different. In the sequel, the game has updated itself to be a video game to interact with 1996 Alex. Later in modern days (possibly 2016 or 2017), four students in detention end up sucked into the game like Alan had been, and later Alex.
I have to admit there was a part of this that started to sound like someone was making a mash-up of the Breakfast Club and Jumanji rather than a true sequel. Which I still had an impression of at the end of the story. It was funny, and the movie wasn’t as horrible as I thought it could have been during the trailers. I just feel like for a sequel it really has very little to do with its predecessor. There doesn’t seem to be enough connections. That being said, when I looked up the novel that the movie was based on there was mention of an animated TV show based on the same idea, and it seems to have some of the same concepts.
I also learned that the children’s book Jumanji had a sequel called Zathura, which was also made into a movie and I plan on watching it sometime this year.
My final grade for Jumanji 2 is a B-. I feel like it missed a few beats and should have had more continuity within the Jumanji universe.
Sokorra Lewis 