Review – Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

I’ll admit I get a bit annoyed with Hollywood’s obsession with remakes and reboots and reimaginings. Does nobody have any original ideas any more? Well…if you believe the experts there’s a maximum of seven stories and everything else is just a derivative of those so, if that’s the case, then no…there’s nothing new possible.

There have, of course, been plenty of new films out this year. We’ve also had a few of what I like to call the ‘Decades Later Pseudo-Sequel’. I put Trainspotting T2, Blade Runner 2049 and Flatliners into this category. They’re not direct sequels in that they don’t follow on from the events of the first film and they’re not exactly reimaginings or reboots because they refer to the original films in some way. They stand on their own feet as a film, but you can get more from them if you’ve seen the original. One more film we can add to this list is Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

If you haven’t seen Jumanji then firstly, what have you been doing with your life all these years? It’s on telly at least a couple of times a year and it stars Robin Williams – a sadly-missed actor who played ‘childlike wonder in adulthood’ better than anyone else. The basic premise is that there’s an old jungle board game called Jumanji that, when played, can suck players right into it or spit out dubious animatronic creatures according to a ruleset that goes out of its way to be ambiguous.

Fast-forward 22 years and the world of games is a very different place. Instead of turn-by-turn board games we have multiplayer videogames, one of which, Jumanji, our four teenagers discover when they find themselves together in detention. They turn it on, because an old console must surely be better than removing staples from a pile of magazines, right? So they choose characters and then get sucked into the game to find themselves in an actual jungle in the bodies of Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart and Karen Gillan. They quickly discover that they have limited lives and will have to work as a team to get out of there and back to the real world. Here’s the trailer.

Hijinks ensue, as you no doubt expect. Ferocious animals, different character strengths and weaknesses, and a fearsome enemy all combine with the fact that they still have the personalities of the teenagers that are playing the game to create an at-times hilarious film. A lot of the humour does come from the adult actors having the personality of their teenager players – so The Rock is a nerdy wimp and Jack Black is a phone-obsessed teenage girl. You might think this would get old quickly but it’s done well and so the laughs keep coming. I laughed out loud several times – more than enough to warrant it being called a comedy.

It also nods back to the original at a few points in a way that’s subtle enough that people who know Jumanji will understand but people who don’t won’t miss anything. All in all I thought Jumanji was a great, enjoyable film and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to anyone. It won’t be troubling the Oscars but with strong performances from all of the main cast – even Nick Jonas – and a plot that makes as much sense as it can, what we end up with is an enjoyable way to kill a couple of hours being entertained. Kids, especially, will love it!

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is in UK cinemas from December 20th.