Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

Rating: 4.25/5

One of the more entertaining comedies to come out in recent history, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is the definition of a good time.

Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff) is a self proclaimed high-school nerd who spends his time away from school endlessly logging in hours on his favorite video games. School football star Fridge (Ser'Darius Blain) is in danger of being kicked off the team for his grades, and has propositioned Spencer to write a paper for him. Both get caught and find themselves in detention alongside shy and studious Martha (Morgan Turner) and popular mean girl Bethany (Madison Iseman). Their detention task is to help clean out a spare room of the school, but they get distracted when Spencer and Fridge find an old gaming console. When they start to play the game called "Jumanji" that's loaded inside, the four teenagers are terrified to discover they are being sucked into the game.

Now inside the fantasy game world, Spencer (Dwayne Johnson) discovers that all four of them have taken on the appearances and skills of the avatars they chose to play as, making him Dr. Bravestone, the strong, handsome and intelligent hero of Jumanji. Fridge (Kevin Hart) is now the short statured Mouse Finbar the zoologist, Martha (Karen Gillan) is a tall and confident man killer named Ruby Roundhouse, and much to her horror, Bethany (Jack Black) is the middle aged, slightly overweight male cartographer named Dr. Shelley Oberon. Thanks to Spencer's knowledge of video games, he informs the rest that they must follow the rules and timeline of the story. The only way to escape is to save Jumanji and call out its' name.

Jumanji:Welcome to the Jungle is a film that genuinely surprised me when I first watched it, and in the best way possible. It is so rare nowadays to have a comedy that isn't filled to the brim with either gross out or overly sexual slapstick humor in order to get a cheap laugh. This movie is proof that a film doesn't have to be overly stupid in order to be funny. It does have its' fair share of simplistic humor, but they are few and far between. What fills the majority of the story is surprisingly good writing and well placed comedic timing by its' cast.

Performance wise, there isn't a weak link in the bunch. At first, you might think Nick Jonas, who plays the avatar chosen by Alex Vreeke (a boy who was trapped in the game in the 90s), wouldn't be able to shine through the star studded cast, but he is unexpectedly just as great as the rest of his costars. My personal favorite would most likely be Jack Black, partially because I almost always get a kick out of his roles, but also because I feel that casting him as a sixteen year girl trapped in the body of a middle aged man was quite a stroke of genius. Jack Black makes the character exactly as silly and naive as it needs to be, creating some of the funniest sequences in the film.

It is very rare for a sequel of any kind, especially one that is connected to a beloved film from the past, to succeed, however Jumanji:Welcome to the Jungle is unusual in that it not only succeeded, but was able to create its' own content without just rehashing the same material of its' predecessor. Turning the board game into a video game was a clever plot tactic, and it aided the film in having some great comedic moments for those who play such games and are able to recognize the references. It's easily a big part to the charm of the movie, along with the use of telling a grand adventure that pulls the audience into the story which almost guarantees it to be a triumph.

I would count Jumanji:Welcome to the Jungle as one of my better in theater viewing experiences, just because I was so caught off guard with how much I enjoyed it. It's not a perfect film by any means, but a definite improvement on this day and age's definition on what makes a movie a good comedy.