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Reiko LJ (126 KP) rated Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) in Movies

Jul 23, 2018 (Updated Jul 23, 2018)

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

2017 | Action, Adventure, Comedy

8.0

(305 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Great cast and chemistry (1 more)

A genuine message at the end of it all

Don't judge a game by its box

Contains spoilers, click to show

I can hold my hands up and genuinely say I was wrong about this film and all my pre-judgements of it.
When the initial trailers dropped I was appalled - not only had they besmirched the good Jumanji name with a cheap remake but it had tropes ahoy and fanservice nonsense with Karen Gillan running round in a skimpy outftit. Also the Jack Black playing a female character just felt like a dodgy observation on a man being funny pretending to speak like a woman.

Well. I was totally wrong.
It sold itself as good fun and it delivered with some actual depth bringing up the rear.
The tropes I was worried about were flipped on their head. The geeky guy didn't chase the popular girl and get her in the end - he always liked the geeky girl. The game gave them a platform to express their mutual feelings to each other and to gain confidence in general.
The jock learned about strengths outside of his physicality. The popular girl learned about being selfless and seeing the world outside of her phone.
The video game format was a great way to bring the film to the modern age and had some really smart nods to aspects within them.

Definitely not what I expected, pleasantly surprised. Hell, the ending even brought a tear to my eye! 100% glad I gave it a shot