Review of Jumanjii: Welcome to the Jungle

Today I've seen Jumanjii: Welcome to the Jungle, and I enjoyed it.

I have heard of Jumanjii, but have only watched the original film with the fantastic Robin Williams just a couple of weeks ago, and I enjoyed that film and got to look forward to the sequel.

I think that modernising the Jumanjii board game into a video game was a good idea, for as a character asked, "Who plays game board anymore?".  I do, but games have "moved on" and people talk about the latest video games that are being released.

One piece of the original film they've kept was the beating drums.  In the first film, it's heard by kids near the board game, while the sequel it's heard when a level is about to start.  I liked the way the film referred to Alan Parrish (who was played by Adam Hann-Byrd as a kid and famously by Robin Williams as an adult in the previous film).

The development of the characters was very well done.  At the start Spencer and Anthony "Fridge" lose their friendship, while Bethany is somebody interested more in herself and gets in trouble for having her phone on in class and Martha is uninterested in PE class, and at the end of the film, the two boys reconcile, Bethany learns to look beyond herself thanks to Alex and Martha learns how to be more open about herself.

I liked the ending where the teenagers remember the original timeline and and meet Alex in the revised timeline where Bethany had an impact on Alex, similar to the previous film where Alan and Sarah remember the original timeline when they returned to starting point of the game, and meet Judy and Peter years later.  While Alan and Sarah tried to get rid of the game by throwing it into a river, the four teenagers smash the video game.

I liked the honour in the film, such as when Bethany in her male avatar Professor Oberon has to teach Martha in her avatar Ruby Roundhouse how to flirt to distract some guards in order to get into a shed with vehicles in.

Overall, I enjoyed the film and I hope to watch it again.

I hope that you will come, see and enjoy at Eden Court.