Reviews by:
@ryan_the_nixon
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Jungle Cruise
2021
12A
Director: Jaume Collet Serra
starring: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall, Edgar Ramirez, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti etc
Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) enlists the aid of wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) to take her down the Amazon in his ramshackle boat. Together, they search for an ancient tree that holds the power to heal a discovery that will change the future of medicine. I was incredibly disappointed with this film, and it was for me one of Disney’s weakest entries in their live action cannon.
My first few positives would be the cinematography, background to the plot and fun set up. As well as the charming tone and chemistry between the leads. The film was visually stunning. With some beautiful cinematography and the scope of the film was fantastic. The shots built such a rich and colourful world and was one of the films strongest elements. I liked the background given to the plot, the details about why the ancient tree was so important and setting up a lot of the film’s mythology was a really great element. Leading to a fun set up when Lily and Frank met that introduced the characters well and was a solid way to develop the plot into the second act. The film did also have a lot of charm in places. This was mostly due to the lead performances from Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson. Their characters were so likeable and charming that it really made the scenes work a lot better. The chemistry from Emily and Dwayne was also excellent, they worked excellently together. They bounced off each other very well, with some fantastic banter and even well written romantic chemistry between them both that worked so well.
However, my first few negatives would be how generic and corny the film was. The lack of set up. The messy first act and the poor villains. The film was unfortunately very unoriginal. Following far too many tropes from this kind of genre. And borrowing far too heavily off other better films before it. It felt like a rehash of other films and didn’t do enough to carve its own brand and product. The film was also extremely corny, the dialogue was very poor and so by the books and it just didn’t work. This film just went to over the top and corny and it really made it awkward to watch. There was also a lack of set up to the main plot point. It felt like they did only half the job with the set up. Setting up the main two characters on their journey well. But almost forgetting about the actual threat to their journey and not setting up the villains properly. There true intentions were shown too late within the first act. The first act in general was very messy. It felt rushed and unfocused and did a mediocre job with setting up the main plot point and needed a lot of refining. The villains were also poor. One was way too over the top and campy and didn’t pose enough of a threat for me too care. And the other more interesting villains were extremely underused and were a missed opportunity.
My next few positives would be the humour and fun scenes. The connection between the villains. As well as the action and great worldbuilding. I thought some of the humour really worked. The jokes between Lily and Frank worked very well, and some of the corny puns from Frank also worked very well mostly due to Dwayne Johnson’s comedic timing but also reflecting what the ride is like in real life. There were also some fun scenes with the boat that worked well, seeing how Frank did his tours on his boat was incredibly entertaining, and a lot of the scenes with just the characters travelling on the boat were also fun and thrilling to watch. I also liked the connection between the villains. I liked that the film connected the two villains. I think it would have been even more messy if they had two separate villains with different goals. But the film did a good job at connecting them both and having both characters have a similar goal. The action was also a lot of fun. It was entertaining, funny and well-choreographed. Emily Blunt especially did a fantastic job with her action scenes that really made her character stand out. I also thought the worldbuilding with the film was excellent. The film went into good amounts of details of the curse with the villains and really expanded the story world of the film excellently. It left it open for more to be explored and added more layers to the film that was needed.
My next few negatives would be the terrible CGI. Most of the humour falling flat, the pacing issues. As well as the bad queerbaiting and annoying character moments. The CGI within this film was poor in places. Considering its 200million budget, you could tell when green screen was being used. And so many of the animals looked laughably unrealistic. Most of the humour in the film fell completely flat. It was awkward to watch. The film was trying way too hard to make the jokes land and it achieved the complete opposite. With jokes that didn’t even really work the first time repeated constantly to the point where it got annoying and tedious. The film had so many pacing issues. I honestly got bored through a lot of the second act. The pacing was so inconsistent, ranging from completely rushing over scenes to just dragging along without much happening in the plot. There were also some annoying character moments. Frank would often trick Lily into certain scenes, were it would appear something was happening but then it turned out to be planned. This made the pacing extremely clunky. And it just meant the plot wasn’t really going anywhere and it completely ruined any form of tension that was created. One of my biggest issues with the film was the Queerbaiting. Disney keep on doing this. Where they have an obviously gay character, but never mention anything about it apart from one copout scene that fell flat, and Disney achieved nothing apart from making themselves appear diverse when they weren’t.
My final few positives would be the fun character designs, the great plot twist and character depth. And the fun final act. I thought the character designs for the cursed soldiers were great. They were inventive and fun, and all the different crew had their own distinct design, and their powers were interesting and dark in places. I also thought the plot twist was excellent. I didn’t see it coming at all. It added a much-needed twist to the film. Frank being immortal really added so much more depth to his character and raised the stakes due to the connection with the villains. Finally, the final act was also entertaining. The action was fun, the tension between Frank and the villains was well developed. And it was fun to watch.
My final few negatives would be how predictable the film was as well as the odd creative decisions. The film was painfully predictable, especially in the final act. This was disappointing because so many elements were entertaining. But I could see the twists and certain plot points happening from a mile off. They were corny and caused a massive eye roll. I also thought that there were just some bad creative decisions with certain characters in the final act, where they would just go off randomly with another character for no reason and it felt very out of place to me.
Overall, Jungle Cruise is held together by the charms of its leads. It had its charms and was entertaining. But borrows too heavily from other films and fails to carve its own path. In an unoriginal, predictable and dull film that unfortunately falls flat. And is sadly one of Disney’s weakest live actions.
Overall rating 54/100
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