Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

I saw the original Jumanji in its entirety only about 2 years ago. It was enjoyable but I didn't love it so I didn't care much for Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. But then I read good things about and decided to give it a try. And you know what, it wasn't half bad.

About 20 years after the first film, four different teenagers, a geek (Alex Wolff), a sports jock (Ser'Darius Blain), a popular girl (Madison Iseman) and a shy girl (Morgan Turner), are sent to detention where they discover an old video game console and decide to play with it. When they plug the system in they are sucked into the world of Jumanji, where they become the avatars they chose and must work together to complete the game and escape from it.

It doesn't start in the best of the ways, it's kinda cheesy and nothing we haven't seen before, therefore the simple plot is rather predictable and yet it's never boring and it makes for a pretty exciting adventure that will most likely keep you on the edge of your seat from most of its running time.

The main reason this new Jumanji worked for me is the characters. Although they are the typical and most stereotyped high school characters that couldn't be more different from one another and as predictable as it can be they must team up to survive, once they get into the game they switch bodies, becoming the avatar they picked, and that's what makes the film so much fun.

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Because of that, Dwayne Johnson ends up being a geek who is scared of basically everything. He is still the big tough guy everyone knows, but he does a good job and his smouldering look makes for a good laugh. Kevin Hart is a sports-jock. He's funny and he's got the most interesting character. Jack Black is a self-obsessed teenage girl and kills it! He easily is the most hilarious of the bunch. At last, Karen Gillian plays the shy, awkward girl pretty well, especially when she tries the flirting tips Black taught her.

The comedy isn't the only thing that works (better than it did in the original) in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The action is pretty solid too. Most of the sequences are energetic and gripping. The special effects, although they aren't the greatest and there's way too much of them, are fine - and definitely an improvement on its predecessor's.