In a sentenceJack Black takes being a teenage girl seriously enough to make the jungle seem like a secondary inconvenience
A jungle video game puts four teenagers into adult bodies. Spencer (Dwayne Johnson), Fridge (Kevin Hart) and Martha (Karen Gillan) must learn how to deal with one another while inhabiting people who look nothing like them. Bethany (Jack Black), a teenager preoccupied with herself, has the additional adjustment of becoming a man. Their new bodies come with different abilities and limitations, and their old teenage concerns have not disappeared with the change of appearance. To make progress through the jungle, they need to work as a group while learning what their unfamiliar avatars can and cannot do.
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Jake Kasdan’s jungle adventure is worth an evening for its cast, especially Jack Black. The action is routine and the body-swap jokes repeat, but the performers give familiar material warmth and good comic timing.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a good-natured comedy with a rather ordinary adventure attached. Jake Kasdan gets the important decision right: the interest lies in teenagers trying to function inside unfamiliar adult bodies, so he gives the performers room to be ridiculous. The jungle provides enough movement to keep the film going, though little reason to worry. We would choose it for the company, with modest expectations of the action.
Dwayne Johnson, as Spencer, is especially useful to a joke about the gap between a person’s appearance and their confidence. His physical assurance makes the teenager underneath funnier; he allows uncertainty to disturb a body that seems designed to remove it. Kevin Hart’s Fridge supplies a more impatient comic rhythm, and the exchanges benefit from their different tempos. Neither needs to interrupt the adventure for a separate comedy routine, although the film sometimes asks them to repeat a point they have already made.
Jack Black’s Bethany is the strongest reason to watch. We laughed at how completely her self-absorption survives the move into an adult man’s body: she still expects everyone else to take her concerns seriously. The performance gives that vanity enough conviction to make it recognisable, rather than merely noisy. Karen Gillan’s Martha is a useful partner, with physical comedy that makes the mismatch between player and avatar easy to follow. Their rapport gives the central joke room to develop.
Gyula Pados’s cinematography keeps the jungle action readable, but the game world looks disappointingly ordinary for a place free from the rules of nature. The scenery soon becomes interchangeable. Editors Steve Edwards and Mark Helfrich are better served by the cast’s quick exchanges than by chases which too often feel like time spent between jokes. Henry Jackman’s score does the energetic work expected of adventure music; it adds momentum without making those passages feel especially dangerous.
The screenplay, credited to Scott Rosenberg, Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers and Jeff Pinkner, has less patience with character once the central reversals have been established. Jokes about a player’s defining trait begin to recur, and the route through the adventure becomes easy to anticipate. Bobby Cannavale’s Van Pelt is too thinly written to give the cast much to play against. A thin villain need not ruin a comedy, but the lack of a persuasive threat leaves the action dependent on excitement it does not reliably produce.
As a body-swap comedy, it belongs to the reassuring end of a genre that could make changing bodies far more unsettling. The teenagers’ shortcomings make it easy to guess the lessons in store, and the script seldom complicates those expectations. Still, the cast show affection for these foolish young people. Even Bethany’s vanity feels like something a person might grow out of, and the performance makes that prospect worth caring about.
At 119 minutes, it gives that single premise more time than it needs, and a shorter version might have kept the joke fresher. The pleasure of these actors enjoying their unlikely assignments is enough to carry us through the less engaging stretches. Choose it for an evening when everyone wants something cheerful and nobody is going to audit the plot.
The reviews lean towards qualified enjoyment, with the cast supplying the strongest point of agreement. Critics repeatedly credit the ensemble’s chemistry and body-swap performances with making a familiar adventure entertaining. Jack Black attracts particular praise for playing a self-absorbed teenage girl, while Dwayne Johnson’s comic timing and Karen Gillan’s physical comedy also earn approval. Even several less enthusiastic reviews find the performers likeable and the comedy intermittently effective.
The spread is wide, however, and the chief disagreement is over how much those performances can carry. Admirers find a funny, good-natured family adventure; detractors find repetitive jokes, predictable character arcs and action without tension. Several reviews also miss the original’s emotional depth or stranger qualities. Variety is especially dismissive, finding little excitement or comedy in a generic adventure. The Ringer’s objection centres on the sequel’s tenuous connection to the original and its reliance on nostalgia.
Jones regards the adventure as a high-spirited, successful follow-up to the original. He praises its rip-roaring action and contemporary twists while noting that it downplays the jungle animal perils.
Read the full review →Hewitt finds the sequel a charming, consistently inventive reinvention, though its plot becomes predictable. He singles out the lead quartet’s chemistry and playful performances as the source of its constant chuckles.
Read the full review →Newman presents the film as an enjoyable, entertaining adventure sequel. He singles out the excellent cast as a major strength.
Read the full review →Walsh finds the film’s familiar, one-joke premise entertaining thanks to its cast and performances. She especially praises Jack Black’s comic portrayal of a self-obsessed teen and the cast’s ability to make the character dynamics work.
Read the full review →Rife finds the sequel inane but harmless, fast-paced, frequently funny, and consistently entertaining. She praises the cast’s comedic charisma, especially Dwayne Johnson’s playful performance, while faulting the try-hard dialogue and lack of the original’s surrealist flair.
Read the full review →The critic finds the adventure an enjoyable modernization that is funny enough for adults as well as young audiences. They single out the cast’s comic performances, especially Jack Black’s portrayal of a teenage girl in an adult man’s body.
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BigAnother adult body conceals a child, with more room for tenderness.
Freaky Friday · not reviewed yetBody-swapping makes familiar family arguments funny, with sharper attention to character.
Time BanditsA stranger, darker adventure for anyone who prefers their fantasy badly behaved.
Kung Fu Hustle · not reviewed yetCartoon combat and comic performers make an outlandish world worth spending time in.
A Town Called Panic · not reviewed yetSmall figures cause enormous trouble in a fantasy that refuses to behave.
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