‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ Is So Much Better Than You’re Expecting

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What to Stream This Weekend

Movie: Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Director: Jake Kasdan
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Bobby Cannavale
Available on: Amazon Prime and iTunes

We live in a time of too many sequels. Too many reboots, too many remakes, too many movies where the pre-requisite is an intellectual property that people will recognize, even if it’s just a board game. I stand by all of these statements as good and true. On the other hand: oh my goodness is Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle a really fun way to spend a couple hours with a movie. It shouldn’t be! The original Jumanji was a manic Robin Williams vehicle, sure. (So many comedies from the ’90s were manic Robin Williams vehicles.) But it was also a sweet movie about siblings and childhood friends and the sacrifices we make because we love each other. Also David Alan Grier was terrorized by some rhinos. So the prospect of seeing an updated version where the kids get immediately traded in for literal action-star avatars like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson seemed cheap at best, perverse at worst.

But lo and behold, director Jake Kasdan and writers Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg, and Jeff Pinker (there are nine credited writers on this movie, though the other five wrote either the original film or the book) managed to update the Jumanji story without a) damaging the original film or characters, or b) dumbing things down into a typical action-movie blockbuster. Oh, it made a boatload of money, don’t get it twisted, but it did so as a refreshingly creative, funny, and kind-hearted film that will leave you walking away happy. Look, I was as shocked as you are.

The story begins with Spencer (Alex Wolff), an overly nervous high-schooler who’s good at video games and taking the popular jock’s (Ser’Darius Blain) exams for him, but not so much at making friends or talking to girls or gym class. This includes the popular girl, Bethany (Madison Iseman), who refuses to stop texting in class and the bookish Martha (Morgan Turner), another isolated outcast. In an overtly John Hughes-ian development, all four earn detention and have to clear out the school’s storage room, where they come across a dust-covered old-school video-game system connected to a TV. The game that’s already loaded up? You guessed it: Contra.

…No, DUMMY, it’s Jumanji!

The big twist comes when the familiar, foreboding Jumanji drumbeats start thumping and, one by one, the teens are sucked into the video game, and next we see them, they’ve inhabited the avatars they’ve chosen. Which means nebbishy Spencer is now in the hulking body of The Rock, popular jock Fridge is now the diminutive Kevin Hart, wallflower Martha is now in the Lara Croft-ian body of Karen Gillan, and in the biggest curveball, Bethany emerges in the body of Jack Black. When I first saw the trailers, I joked that the dumb Jumanji sequel would be dismantling gender as a social construct. Only it … kind of does? Like, nobody is going to be citing Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in their trans awareness packets, but there is some satisfaction (and no small amount of relief) to the way Black and the filmmakers play with Bethany’s sense of curiosity, fun, and freedom with her new gender presentation. Sure, on the most basic level, she’s fascinated by her dick, which is not exactly a POV that will dismantle the patriarchy. And I wish the film had been brave enough to go further and let Bethany become even more unmoored from the shackles of proscriptive gender. But for a mainstream, fun-but-dumb reboot of a fun-but-dumb family comedy, Jumanji feels more progressive than most.

The other members of our central quartet end up learning about themselves via their new avatars too, in more expected (but fun and funny) ways. Spencer learns to embrace his strength; Fridge acquires some empathy and craftiness; Martha picks up some confidence, and a not-inconsiderable amount of dance-fighting experience, which should hopefully serve her well in all kinds of contexts.

The film is essentially a video game, with a central objective to accomplish, a trophy to retrieve, and levels to best. The self-awareness at play helps keep things fresh, as do some of the clever touches (in-game characters who provide information; the way that extra lives are tallied and carried out). The characters are all savvy teens when it comes to video games (it’s really where they have most in common), and Kasdan makes the right decision to let the kids be smarter than the game on several occasions. It’s also quite funny! All four leads are having a ball, being awkward with their own bodies and playing against type. Johnson and Hart are the perfect actors to cast in an action-comedy hybrid, and not just because they could easily re-create the Schwarzenegger/DeVito Twins poster. Jack Black can easily tip into too-much territory, but he keeps himself admirably character-based here. And Karen Gillan — who was already my favorite part of Guardians of the Galaxy — is just so much fun to watch. Dance-fighting, I’m telling you.

So, yes, perhaps expectations were low and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle cleared a short bar. But it’s a genuinely great and fun time with a movie that’s always just a little bit smarter, a little bit more empathetic, and a little bit better than it needs to be.

Where to stream Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle