Spoilers after first post.
Went with my 12 and 15 year old kids, who had the book & know the original film well. Much better than we expected… and for most films we really just expect to be sorta entertained not to actively enjoy the whole thing. It was good enough that my daughter turned to me halfway through the film and said “this is so much better than I thought it would be!”
Also, The Rock is the unsung comedic genius of our time.
I was going to start this thread today; I went and saw it last night with the family and didn’t see an extant thread about the movie when I came home and fired up the Dope. So, thanks for getting one off the ground.
We saw it in a very crowded theater. We tried to arrive early but there were long lines nonetheless and we had to sit in the very front row, which I despise. A couple of giggly teenage girls sitting next to me didn’t help matters. Despite these limitations I quite enjoyed it. We watched the first one a few months ago in preparation for going to see this one. I always thought the special effects in the original were pretty crappy (even for 1995), so simply seeing better effects in the new one was an improvement.
Both Jack Black and Wayne Johnson are pretty one-dimensional actors, but I think they fit these roles pretty well—both my wife and I were trying not to bust a gut watching Jack Black’s performance. I have a serious teenage crush on Karen Gillan so pretty much loved every scene she was in. I actually thought she did a pretty good job of channeling her inner teenager. Kevin Hart’s character was the only one who didn’t seem to have the same personality as his teenage self.
I spent the whole movie assuming that the principal of the high school and the demonically possessed villain in Jumanji were played by the same actor, similar to how the father and the great white hunter were played by the same actor in the original. When I got home and was reading through the cast list did I see that wasn’t the case. I blame my shitty view of the screen.
Part of what made the original such a treat was the fact that the game brought all the jungle characters to life in the player’s reality rather than transporting them into the game. The premise of the second one doesn’t work as well. I can’t really put my finger on it, but the whole “living inside a video game” concept, conquering levels, and having a set number of lives just seems weird and somehow didn’t quite work for me. Still, it had pretty scenery, a few laughs (especially from Jack Black), and Karen Gillan in a tank top and mid-calf boots. Not a horrible way to kill a couple hours.
My kids, 10 and 12, enjoyed it and one went into it thinking he’d hate it.
Also, I had to explain afterward who Cindy Crawford was.
I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected to (and I expected to like it). My favorite part was Jack Black playing the self-obsessed diva girl. I was really glad if they did a gender-bender, they did a girl in a guy’s body, rather than vice-versa. I was cracking up at her reactions to having male anatomy (“It’s got a handle!”) but I don’t think I would have enjoyed a teenage boy obsessing over his new boobs nearly as much.
Fun movie all around. This might be nerd sacrilege, but I think I enjoyed it more than Star Wars.
Just saw it tonight and we all loved it. My youngest is 13, she’s never seen the original so there was no expectation beyond the trailer. My 28 year old was a little put off by the “not like the old one at all” vibe but I thought it was great. I would say it was more fun than funny. I have not one complaint about it.
Just got back, we both enjoyed it. A fun and silly movie. Plenty of humor and jokes.
The Rock & Kevin Hart do play off each other really well. Jack Black provided additional plucky comic relief and Karen Gillan showed off comic chops.
We saw it and overall loved it. I did like the flip into the video game and the strengths and weaknesses were funny as hell (My weakness is CAKE?!).
My only teeny-tiny gripe was some of the CGI at the end. No one else in the family either noticed it, or if they did notice, they didn’t mind it.
Saw it the other night finally* because the weather in Florida sucks right now.
I enjoyed it a lot. For a movie that’s basically The Rock, Kevin Hart and Jack Black playing themselves for 90 minutes, it all worked for me. Jack Black is phenomenal in this movie. He really did a great job of playing a teenage girl and while he was playing his crazy character, he still let the comedy come organically.
My unintentional favorite part was at the very end when Rocky put the gem in the stone formation and nothing happened, you could hear the audience all collectively whisper to the person next to them “oooo he didn’t say the name of the game!” “he has to say Jumanji!” and comments like that
My biggest gripes had to do with the movie being a video game. They did perfectly fine showing NPCs and dialogue trees and stuff like that, but there were two things in the “game” that just aren’t things in video games:
The first is the “give one of your lives to another player”. I’ve played plenty of co-op video games in my life and I’ve NEVER seen this once. I’ve seen shared lives and individual ones, but I’ve never seen someone just be able to take a life and give it to someone else.
The second is when The Rock says something to the effect of “The game wants me to go this way, so it’s a trap”. Yeah that’s not how games work. There may be other areas to explore outside of the linear plot of the game, but I’ve never played a game where the direction the game leads you to is deliberately wrong. And if one exists, I highly doubt they do it without any kind of puzzle or hint it might be so.
Oh wait, another nitpick. When they meet the older Jonas Brother he says about his daughter “We named her after the girl who saved my life.” Well, if this is anything like the last movie’s ending, no one but you knows what happened. So WE didn’t decide anything, YOU decided to name her that. Good luck convincing your wife that you spent 20 years in a video game to magically come back without anyone remembering a thing.
The things I thought were coolest about his performance was that, even with the comedy component, he still treated the character with respect (jokes, but not the usual misogynistic jokes you might have gotten if the movie was made 10 years ago) and he actually made her sympathetic. I hated her at the beginning of the film (as we were probably supposed to) but by the end she was one of my favorite characters (both as Black and as herself).
I’m coming to the conclusion that Jack Black is one of those actors I shouldn’t like based on my usual preferences, but I do in spite of myself.
Yup, that happened at our showing too!
That would actually be a neat thing for somebody to add to a new co-op game. It would make for interesting dynamics.
That didn’t bother me in this movie, but reminded me of another story where it did bother me–Harry Potter. So Harry and Ginny get married, and their three kids are named “Albus Severus,” “Lily Luna,” and “James Sirius.” ALL names of people important to Harry. No Weasley-based names at all. So Ginny just rolls over and lets Harry name all the kids? I don’t think so.
At least some of the more recent Super Smash Bros. games will let you swipe a life from a teammate if they have one to spare.
Ruby Roundhouse’s manipulation of the lives mechanic seemed like something I wouldn’t expect a game to let you do.
I enjoyed it regardless, though my biggest exposure to Bobby Cannavale is as Vince from Will and Grace so I had a hard time taking him seriously as the villain.
That’s a very good assessment of the character and one I’m going to use going forward explaining why he was so good.
I mean, she WAS there for a lot of that stuff, so she at least witnessed it all. Plus I never really thought the HP universe (and the Weasley’s especially) were that particularly up on women’s independence, so she probably just figured it’s what the man wants anyway and rolled with it