Jumanji :
return to the jungle (2017)
Rating : 2.5/5
Cast :
Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillen
Directed by Jake Kasdan
Review by
Zulfiqar
Watching the latest reincarnation of
the 1995 classic children’s fantasy movie, Jumanji, I couldn’t help but marvel
at the brevity of the earlier version by 16 minutes and how it had in such a
limited duration crammed not only a great deal of story and action but also a
lovable atmosphere, which differentiates it from other children’s stories.
Despite being quarter an hour long,
Jumanji : return to the jungle fails in terms of convincing the audience, novelty
of its plot and a special aura of its own. The movie’s saving grace is its cast
and their quirky humor timing convincingly tries to overcome its shortcomings.
But it is hard for a movie critic, albeit an amateur, to just overlook the
flaws, which jar the cinema going experience.
The plot is thinner and more precise
in this version, in which four students under detention stumble upon the board game,
which here transforms its format according to the player’s interest. In the
town where this kids go to school, they know about the freak house, an old ruin
of a house, from which a kid, Alex, disappeared 20 years ago. Shortly after
their entry into the game, they notice that their characters in the game, into
which they have transformed, are different from their original selves. Spencer,
a scrawny nerd, is a 6’ 5” macho explorer (Dwayne Johnson). The football
brickhouse, Fridge, is a sidekick and weapons-valet to the explorer. Lithe teen
beauty sensation of the school, Bethany, is a middle aged, off-shaped
cartographer. And a dour and socially inept Martha, becomes a red-haired,
athletic, kickass-ing commando. They later run into Alex, who is a pilot and a
great margarita mixer.
There is an engaging narration when
Spencer points out non-player characters, who just exist to provide the
knowledge about the game rather than getting involved. There are such analogies
to the modern versions of the video-games, which drives the main point of achieving
the target of restoring the jeweled eye of a jaguar ruin to its original space
for the game to end and to get the players back to their lives.
Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack
Black and Karen Gillan do the realization part of their characters so well.
Kevin Hart’s sarcastic quips on his own miniaturized version are loaded and
they cause many a tickle. Jack Black’s humorous realization is in the wondering
of his male version of the body and his character’s thoughts on a life spent
without instagramming the daily life. There is a great episode of Karen
Gillen’s version of female seduction techniques, which strictly adhere to
Bethany’s tutored doctrines but misfire in every format from the ignorant
commando. Dwayne Johnson gives humor in being immune and innocent of his
strengths, while cutely becoming the center of laughs directed on him.
But the main problem with the movie
is no novel plot. The story moves from point A to point B and then to point C.
The downside is that the audience are already waiting at the next point,
clearly deciphering the way the story is taking. The initial story of the kids
is so shallow that it becomes hard for the audience to invest in the characters
emotionally in contrary to what happened in the Robin Williams’ version. The
movie’s only new element is transferring the venue of the game to Jumanji
itself while earlier, the plot moved to the city where the kids lived.
As for VFX, the movie meets all the
quintessential criteria of making it a CGI loaded action film, but there aren’t
any new earth-shattering developments in the way we visualize the movie. There
is a stampede of rhinos in the middle and hippos popping at the start. An
elephant makes its appearance at the end and the growls of jaguars shatter the
silver screen with their rumble. But you don’t have that awe-defining moment
anywhere in the proceedings. The 3D cinematic experience as with many new
movies for me just notches down the feel rather than help it. These movies
definitely would look better on 2D with large screens, but then we are living
in the age, which is 3D savvy not knowing or just preferring not knowing the
demerits of this useless technology. Only the makers know it, but then the
extra charge for the glasses is their advantage, while the viewers have
nothing.
The movie’s commercial elements are
catered to more than its creative aspect. Or either the movie might have been
made in a hurry, because it never touches the intrigue of its predecessor,
which is really a shame. Though it may make you sit for its allotted 2 hours
with occasional giggles, it doesn’t last in your mind, once you start taking
your car out of the cinema’s parking lot.
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