The holiday season is a hub for movie releases. This year had many standouts. Of all the comedy movies released during this season, “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle,” is the real gem. I am not the biggest fan of action movies, but the amount of comic relief this movie delivers makes me forget about all of that.
“Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle” is a reboot to the 1995 film, “Jumanji.” Though the sequel will never live up to the original, it is an enticing way to draw this decade’s young adult audience into the Jumanji franchise. Even if you have not seen the original film from the 90s, all of the characters and plot events are brand new, so you would still be able to understand the new movie.
The film opens up in the year 1996 when a jogger mysteriously discovers the Jumanji board game, washed up on the beach. When his son, Alex Vreeke (Mason Guccione), refuses to play the game, it turns into a video game. When Alex starts to play, he vanishes into the game. The film then flashes forwards twenty years later to a typical day in the lives of four different teenagers. Each of them fits into a stereotypical label, nerdy Spencer (Alex Wolff), popular Bethany (Madison Iseman), athletic Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), and shy Martha (Morgan Turner).
When they all have to serve detention together, they find an old video game when cleaning out the basement—Jumanji—and get sucked into the game. They are each transformed into the video game avatars they chose, which are the complete opposite of their normal personalities. Different actors now portray the characters as avatars. Spencer is transformed into Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), a muscular archaeologist; Bethany transforms into Professor Shelly Oberon, an archaeologist and cryptologist (Jack Black); Fridge becomes the vertically challenged zoologist, Mouse Finbar (Kevin Hart); and Martha becomes the athletic martial artist, Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan).
Each character, like any other video game avatar, has special skills and weaknesses that they use to their advantage as they try to escape the game together. Along the way, they are rescued by another avatar, Seaplane McDonough (Nick Jonas), an enigmatic pilot and explorer. The other characters learn that Seaplane is the avatar of Alex Vreeke, who has now been trapped into the Jumanji video game for more than twenty years. When the characters realize their own survival depends on escaping the game, they become more determined than ever to overcome their differences and succeed.
The humor is the most extraordinary aspect of the movie. Each of actors portraying avatars execute their roles in ways that act like their teenage alter egos, while still using the skills and resources that are included with their avatars. Both Jack Black and Kevin Hart generate the largest laughs in the audience. Black’s portrayal of a teenage girl, from him whining about the loss of his phone to him teaching Martha how to flirt, serves as comic relief from the stress of the characters’ survival. Hart also steals the show, complaining about his height and strength and exploding when eating a piece of pound cake.
The cinematography in this film is phenomenal. Since all of the video game scenes were filmed in Hawaii, the landscape serves as an appropriate background for the movie. The special effects in the movie fit well with the video game theme. While the stunts and fight scenes can be intense, they are carried out well, but they are definitely not a serious feature of the movie.
This movie has so many different genres that can be applied to it that almost any type of movie fan can enjoy it, whether you like science fiction, action or romantic comedies. With this film being one of the most highly anticipated releases this past holiday season, if you are looking for some comic relief to add to your day this month, I highly recommend seeing “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle.”
