Jumanji 2017

From what i understand, this movie is a sequel to Jumanji and they explain that the magical board game evolved into a videogame to attract new players.

It needs to be more gamey, then. There's a reason the movie skipped the events that happened "In the jungle you shall wait, until the dice read 5 or 8". The jungle's boring. The jungle's not what's interesting about this premise; a man being trapped in there for a couple decades is, but the jungle itself? F*ck, it's just a jungle. If the movie had been all about the jungle, then it'd just be a weird reverse-Tarzan piece with an awkward start.

That's what I see when I look at this: a bunch of kids accidentally get trapped in an action movie based on the most boring element of Jumanji. Not a game, because nothing gamey happens in the trailer.

The people making this should give Scott Pilgrim a watch. If they really want to roll the "trapped in a video game" premise, it has a lot of helpful demonstrations for how to depict gamelike features in a live-action world.

Even then, however, it'd still feel like a weaker premise because we're spending it in the jungle. Half the fun of Jumanji was the way the game brought the jungle to you.

edited 29th Jun '17 11:48:06 AM by TobiasDrake

scraping the bottom of the barrel

Basically, I think this film would be better off being its own IP. It might actually be a decent flick, but calling it "Jumanji" invites comparisons I don't think it's equipped to live up to.

Not feeling the "Hollywood homely girl becomes Hollywood hot girl cause we're trying to make a commentary sexism" trope. And Jack Black playing a teenage girl trapped in a man's body? I thought we learned that wasn't funny from Rob Schneider.

Everything else doesn't look too bad I suppose.

I looked up the release date for this. It's a week after The Last Jedi. Not looking too good

Okay... so I actually really like the idea of updating Jumanji as a video game, even though it does the exact opposite of what Jumanji in the previous movie did (pulling people into the jungle normally as apposed to as a special effect, rather than making the real world more jungle-like).

But it loses me as "the characters are a bunch of bland high school character types who then turn into a bunch of bland action movie character types." Though at least the second set of bland character types are played by actors and actresses with personality, it really seems like the whole thing will be a pain to sit through.

edited 29th Jun '17 12:24:24 PM by KnownUnknown

I feel like this movie wants them to be trapped in an action movie, not a video game. And I also feel like maybe that would be better? The star power feels kinda wasted in a premise like this without being able to make jokes about the actors.

Like, imagine if they could be like,

• "Guys, it'll be fine. Everything will be alright. We've got this."
• "No, YOU'VE got this, because you're THE ROCK. I'm Jack Black. I'm here to make fart jokes and get beat up."

Oh, man. That would be glorious. We haven't had a great self-referential action movie since The Expendables.

Well, I suppose there's Deadpool too if you count superheroes.

edited 29th Jun '17 12:30:18 PM by KnownUnknown

And Tobias has just singlehandedly made an idea that would be a thousand times better than this movie. Bravo.

Tobias, your criticism of "how boring the jungle is" just reminds me of the Jumanji cartoon. Remember that? From my vague recollections, it was all about the kids traveling through the game jungle with Alan.

I barely remember anything about the show.

...maybe that means something about the premise...?

I barely remember anything from any show back then, so I doubt it. I do remember watching it every morning, so it had to have done something right.

The trailer is hyping this up as an Action/Comedy movie. Though it had it's share of funny moments, the original Jumanji had more of a sense of tension and drama to it that what this is displaying so far.

Never saw the cartoon, but it apparently it was really surreal. Like, the sun is an artificial satellite, there are two tribes of ant people at war, there's another board game inside Jumanji that has the same rules only it's for the city instead of the jungle. This article sums it up pretty well.

It was a fun cartoon from what i remember.

I think the movie looks good. They picked a great group of actors for the video game characters who don't take themselves too seriously and can sort of play up certain things. Gillan, Johnson, Black have never been shy about poking fun at themselves.

The cartoon was able to keep things interesting because of its episodic nature. The rules of the game were altered to fit the serial nature; every episode had a riddle the kids had to solve in order to escape the jungle. Alan was trapped there not based on a roll of the dice but because he had never solved his; IIRC, he didn't even see it, so he couldn't solve it.

I'm gonna put my cards on the table and say that the original Jumanji was nothing special. It's a serviceable little family film with a kinda cool premise, but it's not the kind of thing I'd want to watch more than once or maybe twice. So I'm really not feeling the cries of "They're desecrating a classic!" I'm seeing all over the internet.

And dang, guys, excuse me if I'm not too good for a goofy-ass movie about the silly shenanigans of four wacky people in a CG jungle. It looks like a hoot and I make no apologies for my opinion. I don't mind the idea of a Jumanji sequel, I think the premise they're going with is solid, and I like all four leads. Furthermore, I didn't get the memo that jungles are inherently boring or that an idea done poorly one time ruins it forever. Life's too short and I get my yuks where I can.

Which isn't to say that no one is allowed to think this thing is stupid stupid dumb, but the reactions I'm seeing are pretty darn overblown.

I actually kind of put Jumanji and Zathura mostly on the same level. They're fine kids movies with an interesting premise. Are they great? No. They're fun, they hold your attention. (Admittedly, the acting is a bit worse in Zathura, but one of the kids is way younger there, so whatever.)

This is actually true of a lot of the "classic" kids movies. Most of them aren't bad, but they aren't amazing enduring classics either. Which is fine. Like what you like. And anyway, even if this movie doesn't really have any connections to the first one...it's not like there isn't precedent for that. While the movie of Zathura removed all references to Jumanji, there's no reason they coudn't be in the same universe, one with weirdly horrifying games that put people at massive risk for no apparent reason.

edited 30th Jun '17 7:53:40 AM by Zendervai

I think the games are supposed to teach a lesson and bring people together. Alan Parsons didn't really respect his father and his lesson was to show that his father did love him. I forget what the blond and kids were to learn; though they got their parents in the end, so yay. In Zathura, the elder brother did not like his brother, and the game helped him get a connection with his brother that wouldn't have happened otherwise.

Wait wait, his name is Alan Parsons?

Well I wouldn't want to be like him.

TBH I feel like the original Jumanji kind of unintentionally promotes abuse and bullying apologia. Like is Alan really a coward for fleeing an entire gang of bullies on foot? Or a man with a gun? And maybe Alan would have liked his dad a bit more of the guy weren't such a dick.

what do you mean?

edited 30th Jun '17 9:39:50 AM by windleopard

The original Jumanji is much like the original Ghosbusters to me.

Solid, fun films (but highly flawed) carried mostly on the charisma of the cast that somehow became timeless classics put on a pedestal for their brilliance.

It'd be like if I time-traveled to 20 years from now and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is a timeless classic beloved by all and praised for its cinematic genius.

I feel like that's already happened to Curse of the Black Pearl.

Eh, just a reference to a song by The Alan Parsons Project. Nothing Sirius.

Alan has to learn a bunch of lessons by the end of the movie. Responsibility for his own actions, standing up for himself, understanding his father while also dealing with his fear about his father's approval, etc.

While they are protagonists for a bit of the movie, the other kids are mostly there to be part of Alan's aesops (and then have horrible things happen to them) than to really learn anything themselves. Sarah doesn't really have a arc either.

I just re-watched Jumanji and it feels like It's A Wonderful Life but with CGI.

Alan's disappearance led to a chain of events that made everything worse for everyone. The events of the movie ransformed a very depressed kid who felt like he was worthless and meant nothing to anyone into someone who found his self-confidence and realized how important he was to those around him.