Verdict:
For those who haven’t seen the 1995 original, it is about a board game that opens a portal into an alternate world and forces you to play the game. In the new film, the board game has been updated to an old video game, but the video game is just a backdrop for the main focus of the film: the interaction among its four main characters. The creators don’t do that much with the game concept, perhaps to avoid alienating audiences unfamiliar with video games.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle has a strong middle part, where the good chemistry between the characters becomes most apparent. The gimmick is that the actors play against their type (except for Kevin Hart, who just plays Kevin Hart). Out of the four leads, it is Jack Black who completely steals the show, playing a superficial teenage girl trapped in a man’s body, which may be a little over the top for some but is undoubtedly effective. The film does have a villain, but he is mostly there for decoration.
The weaker parts of the film are its beginning and end, particularly the rushed introduction of the characters, with the director seemingly in a hurry to get to the fun part of the film as fast as possible. If you are watching the movie with other people, it may be easy to get distracted and talk during that beginning and thus miss the introduction entirely.
The action sequences and their physics do not make a whole lot of sense, but one thing this movie always has that other action movies do not is the excuse that the whole thing is a game and is therefore not supposed to make too much sense.
From a technical perspective, the cinematography is competent, but lacks depth, underutilizing the classic narrative elements, like suspense. The cast brings a lot of earnest energy and succeeds at finding the core of the characters they play, but that is not a massive challenge, as the characters they play are stereotypes. There is an attempt at giving the characters more depth, but it’s not pursued in a meaningful way. This is a movie for some light fun.
This movie is unlikely to occupy your mind long after you have seen it, but it remains an entertaining experience.