Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a surprisingly great film. For people who grew up with the original Jumanji film starring Robin Williams, it would be really hard to top that. It was a heartfelt family movie. So this movie doesn't try.
Instead they went with the comedy angle, and primarily mixing awkward teenager tropes with videogame tropes, lampshading all of them extremely well. This is the movie that Pixels tried to be but failed horribly at. You can tell the writers grew up with video games and knew how to poke fun at their own hobby, and you can also tell the actors had a lot of fun playing characters they don't normally play.
Especially because everyone's in the "wrong" body. Dwayne Johnson is a nerdy scaredy-cat. Jack Black is an Instagramming girl. It's hilarious.
Behind the jokes and silliness, however, there is still a solid coming-of-age story about four teenagers learning to grow up. That's what surprised me. The characters all start off immature in varying ways, and they do progressively become better people as they go through the game.
Film Lampshade: The Movie of the Video Game of the Board Game
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a surprisingly great film. For people who grew up with the original Jumanji film starring Robin Williams, it would be really hard to top that. It was a heartfelt family movie. So this movie doesn't try.
Instead they went with the comedy angle, and primarily mixing awkward teenager tropes with videogame tropes, lampshading all of them extremely well. This is the movie that Pixels tried to be but failed horribly at. You can tell the writers grew up with video games and knew how to poke fun at their own hobby, and you can also tell the actors had a lot of fun playing characters they don't normally play.
Especially because everyone's in the "wrong" body. Dwayne Johnson is a nerdy scaredy-cat. Jack Black is an Instagramming girl. It's hilarious.
Behind the jokes and silliness, however, there is still a solid coming-of-age story about four teenagers learning to grow up. That's what surprised me. The characters all start off immature in varying ways, and they do progressively become better people as they go through the game.