My Review of "Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle"

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle came out back in 2017. It's a guilty pleasure of mine to watch this movie. There's so much heart and joy that comes into this movie and I'll explain why.

This movie starts off with an introduction of the Jumanji game. It's found on the beach in the 90s by some kid but the kid never really plays it because videogames were the new fad. Mysteriously the boardgame then becomes a video game. A new way to suck kids into the game.

Fast forward to the future we get introduced to the new kids that are involved. We have our main character Spencer. He's a kid with no self confidence and is being led on by an old childhood friend that doesn't appreciate him.

That friend happens to be Fridge. I guess during high school he had a growth spurt and is now a massive football player. He uses Spencer in order to get his grades up so he can stay on the football team.

Then we have Bethany as a somewhat self absorbed teenage girl. She's kind of oblivious of anyone around her and seems like a sociopath.

Finally we have Martha. She's an awkward teen that cares about her grades and less about social interactions.

All four of them get into some trouble at school for a variety of reasons. As such, they're going to be placed into detention. While in detention the gang discover the old Jumanji video game. Bored at detention the group decide to try it out.

They are then transported into the world of Jumanji and placed into video game avatars. Each one of them have new characteristics based on the characters that they've chosen. A ton of the comedy comes in just the characters.

Bethany was a beautiful teenage girl and is now placed into a body of an overweight middle aged man. Fridge was a physical monster in real life and was placed as a diminutive sidekick character. Spencer had no confidence in himself and was placed as a muscle bound superhero character. Similar to Spencer, Martha is also placed as a badass superhero.

Each one of them have to learn to work together to beat the game so that they can come back home to their regular lives. As the movie progresses their challenges become more and more daunting.

I love the fact that they play on many of the videogame tropes and cliches out there. They're very aware of the commonalities of video games and used these quirks to speak to a new generation of understanding. In this respect it is very different from the original movie.

In some ways this movie reminds me of the Goonies as each of the characters have a certain youthful innocence to to them. Although each of the characters have meaning and represent a lesson.

Bethany's character represents team work as she was self absorbed in the beginning. Her character was very comedic however you can tell she was the glue that kept them all together.

Spencer represents leadership despite the fact he was a follower in real life. He's normally afraid of everything in the world as he has a massive amount of allergies. He's pretty much a loner that wants to have friends.

Martha is there to tell each of us to believe in ourselves and our own abilities. In the real world she doubted everything so she never really tried. She has defense mechanisms to avoid doing things. She doesn't know what she's capable of.

Fridge was basically the comedy relief but he also represented intelligence. His character in real life didn't bother with studies but when he was placed in Jumanji he is the weakest character. He and his backpack represent the tools that they need for the game.

Then there's also a lost character Alex who is a sort of damsel in distress character. The team is there to save him but he also represents courage because he's been stuck there for quite a long time due to the fact he might die.

Altogether we have a great family film. It's weird because I think the CGI in this movie was actually better than the sequel. I don't know how that happened but at times it's pretty impressive.

Overall, I had a pretty great time watching this. Again it's a guilty pleasure and very satisfying to watch. It gives you a lot of fun emotions as you're on a fantastic trip with this gang. I have to give this movie an 8 out of 10. I think I can say that I like this movie more than the sequel.