Disney has had somewhat a success with taking certain attractions from their parks and adapting it into a movie. They’ve had huge financial success and somewhat mediocre success from the critics with the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise (particularly with the films that followed Curse of the Black Pearl). But the rest never got the wider attention that they should have received, whether it’s Tommorwland, Dinosaur or especially the colossal misfire that was The Haunted Mansion. It’s really a struggle on creating a story that’s based on a ride or an attraction simply because some really have a story that’s really presents itself in a strong way. Granted, it would never qualify as an original movie for the reason that is based on pre-existing material, or in this case, a movie that’s based on a ride with the same name. However, the story surrounding these movies are wildly original with fresh new characters and more expansion than what the ride or attraction has to offer. After the success of Curse of Black Pearl in 2003, they put a bunch of the characters from that movie onto the ride because of how popular and culturally resonating they became with audiences.So in a way they are original movies, when you strip away the notion of them being based on a park ride. It could almost be in the same discussion why video game movies haven’t landed the way maybe other bigger franchise movies have had. There’s probably been more video game movies than movies based on park rides, nevertheless, it already becomes and issue when your adapting something that doesn’t necessarily need a film adaptation because video games, by their nature, are experiantial with the gamer. For rides at parks, you really don’t have much to adapt other than a few Easter eggs to the ride.
Disney has now adapted one of their popular attractions from their parks with Jungle Cruise into a feature length motion picture and the movie is a huge win from all accounts. Serving as a spectacular homage to films like Pirates of the Caribbean, The Mummy and partially Indiana Jones, Jungle Cruise is a delightful and confident tale that knocks on all the fun puns that come within the ride itself, but taking a more fantasmic direction with its lore. The selling point of this movie, aside from the smooth visuals, amusing action and James Newton Howard’s solid score, is the chemistry between Emily Blunt and The Rock. They both own this movie in their own unique way and it keeps the movie afloat.
Based on Disney’s ride in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Jungle Cruise takes us back to year 1916 somewhere in South America where a women by the name of Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) who enlists the assistance of steamboat captain, Frank “Skipper” Wolff (Dwayne Johnson), to take a boat down the Amazon river to search for a specific tree that has the power to heal. A long their journey, they run into a bit of trouble, whether it’s the jungle itself or German soldiers, and it’s up to the two of them to get to this tree that has ability to change the future of medicine.
The best and more exciting aspect that this movie offers is the chemistry between Emily Blunt and The Rock. We had a feeling that they would knock it out of the park, based on the marketing and the promotion they were doing for it, but the final product is even better than anyone predicted. Both actors already have a strong dose of charisma and likability, and combining the personalities of the two make this movie more enjoyable and more dashing. Their performances both share as one great performance, which is a performance that has heart, thrills and dedication to the comedy and the action. The rest of the movie do their roles adequately. Jack Whitehall basically plays the standard comic relief maybe a bit too standardly, to which maybe mainstream audiences will eat up his comedy or be annoyed by it. Jess Plemons, who might be one of the best actors working today, wasn’t given enough to shine with to the point where almost felt like a weaker MCU villain. He’s funny and he’s solid when he’s on screen, but he was almost sidelined in this adventure. Paul Giamatti and Édgar Ramírez are almost nonexistent in thus 2 hour movie. These are both solid performers with impressive work under their belts, but they don’t have as much screen time in this movie so when they do pop up on screen it doesn’t really leave you with much to digest.
The movie, however, does have a polished and very jungle like look to it. The visual effects captures the temperature, the calmness and the cruel nature that lurks with in the jungle. With Jaume Collet-Serra as the director, who’s not known for light hearted and family adventures, he skillfully brought something new to the table for the sake of his filmmaking style with a new taste and sensibility. He’s great on the handing of the action and the massive set pieces, but he subtly channels in some more “horror” like vibes with some of the visuals.
The movie does have some pacing problems, particularly towards the middle chunk of the movie, but its main issue as a movie was that is started to loose its main focus and tones maybe towards the finale of the movie. It’s almost as if the first two acts felt more in sync with each other, aside from the expansion of the jungle and what not, but the last act almost felt like a whole new movie. Even with the interesting levels of fantasy and the imaginative take on the mythos of this world, the movie kind of goes a little all over the place, not too much where it checks you out, but kind of leaves you with a bit of puzzled reaction.
At the end of the day, Jungle Cruise is the perfect fun summer movie that every family can rush out to see. It’s not too adult for the older audiences nor does it cater to young children. It works for all ages and it wonderfully balances a way to find entertainment for everyone. Seeing this at home with the Disney+ Premier Access is fun, but the visuals and everything else in this movie is meant for the big screen enjoyment.
My grade for Jungle Cruise: B+
Zane's take at the Cinema's 