‘Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle’ Trailer: It’s Not All Fun And Games
By Jacob Hall/June 29, 2017 5:32 am EST
So let’s get the scrutinizing started.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle expands on that basic premise in a fairly clever fashion: four teenagers discover an old video game, make the mistake of playing it, and find themselves sucked into a hostile jungle environment and inhabiting avatar bodies based on characters in the game. Naturally, these avatars are played by Johnson, Hart, Black, and Gillan. Since I like all four of these actors to varying degrees, I’m curious to see how they carry this movie…and how they’ll play teenagers playing adults.
Chris Van Allsburg’s original children’s book was really just a clever excuse to show off his evocative and lovely illustrations and the original film did a decent job of expanding that simple premise into an actual movie. I’m not as in love with it as some children of the ’90s are, but it’s a spirited family adventure with teeth that are just sharp enough to lend some real edge and danger to the proceedings. I’m curious to see how Jake Kasdan, a director best known for his comedies (Walk Hard, Bad Teacher, and Sex Tape) approaches this material…and if he’ll provide some actual stakes alongside the gags and CGI animals.
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is set to to open on December 20, 2017, so expect this to be one of the top picks for your literal or hypothetical children this holiday season.
