Jumanji 2017

I saw this yesterday. My friend laughed like a hyena at every joke; I smiled a few times, but never laughed. It's really not my type of comedy. But I can see why it's doing so well; a charismatic cast, likable and non-flat but not really particularly deep characters, and simple but effective comedic techniques that appeal to pretty much every culture and subculture (basic stuff like people falling over, dying in comedic ways, a big muscly man acting like a wimp, a fat middle aged guy acting effeminate and young, a woman trying and failing to flirt, Kevin Hart Harting the place up, etc.). Another factor might be that the film is small in scale and rather simple. The movie doesn't end with a dozen heroes fighting to stop someone from destroying the universe by shooting a giant blue laser into the sky.

edited 28th Jan '18 7:44:12 PM by NogaiKhan

I saw it last night. IMO, it's just as good as the first one. The little Shout-Out moments to the first were great, the comedy was good, the movie plot itself had just the right amount of Hamminess for me. My only complaint was that the big kiss at the end wasn't interrupted by the principal, which would have totally made that scene.

In other news, it’s made more money worldwide than Wonder Woman. Why do I have the feeling that Universal Studios will try to get the license in the near future?

We're almost certainly getting a sequel at this rate.

So... what form will Jumanji take next? A VR game? A tabletop game? Or maybe it'll be like Zathura and focus on a sister game?

It's already been a tabletop game

VR is the very likely option

I’m not sure, but I have a feeling it’s going to involve a Lost World of dinosaurs.

Jumanji, the MMO. Though that is a better concept for a tv show than a movie.

Yeah, Jumanji as an MMO sounds like a really cool idea. It's definitely the best step forward.

It's been a traditional board game. I meant something along the lines of Dungeons and Dragons.

edited 29th Jan '18 10:07:16 AM by KnownUnknown

I know that’s been suggested before, but honestly I don’t think it fits the modus operandi of the game. Because it being a board game and then a video game? It’s clearly trying to catch people quickly. Like, draw them in as fast as possible to prevent anyone from pulling out.

A tabletop RPG has too much lead-up time with character creation, and even if you have set characters, then you have the problem of the game master and what happens there. Because it can’t literally just be “open box, get sucked in” because then what’s the point of the actual game?

Honestly, I'd rather just have a Dungeons and Dragons movie with a Jumanji premise. It'd be really cool to have players trying to use the talents they want and everyone being hemoginized DPS glory killers when the game starts but then they get into the gameworld and their character sheets are blank now. As they play, they realize their ACTUAL talents and understand to take pride in what they can do vs. what they want to be, work as a team to balance each other's skills, and also build confidence in having the power to be the hero all along even when it feels like they can't.

I feel like any Jumanji take on a Table top would just feel like Dungeons and Dragons with a (vaguely) african jungle skin to it. So why not just do Dungeons and Dragons?

It would basically be like the 80's cartoon, and hopefully it will be better than the previous live action Dungeons and Dragons.

I'll be honest, I never watched the cartoon. I knew it existed, but the only thing I knew was that it had a lot of Moral Guardian Pandering in it which made it... pretty bad.

If they are going to sequalise it I think the best way would be to focus on other games who have their own twists.

Like Zathura, which was Jumanji in space.

If all they wanted to do was copy Jumanji, there's all sorts of dangerous themes they could do. There's the obvious "every other biome except jungle" ones, and then others about doing specific things that happen to be dangerous. Fuck, if they wanted to take it all the way dark they'd do a war game.

They could also go to various times in history (the Wild West, the Middle Ages, ancient Rome, ancient Egypt, the Stone Age, the Mesozoic Era, etc.)… or even the distant sci-fi future.

edited 30th Jan '18 7:56:52 AM by Spinosegnosaurus77

Seeing this film was surprisingly cathartic for me. Most of the major blockbusters recently have been complete messes with scattered plots and unclear characters. Once they got the rules of the plot going (after getting the Jaguar Eye from Mr. Exposition) I was really digging the characters, their personalities, interactions and development, as well as the way the overall story used video game tropes. In that sense it kind of reminds me of Mortal Kombat, not exactly revolutionary but has a clear story, good action and production design and clean character growth.

Johnson and Black definitely steal the show, mostly because they are playing characters so far removed from their normal personas. My favorite bit was when Fridge was threatening Spencer, Johnson did a great job forgetting he wasn't a 6'4 tower of muscle and having to continually remind himself. Hart and Gillan have their moments too. Gillan's attempt at a Sexy Walk over uneven terrain and flirt with the guards was great physical comedy. Hart was more or less in his wheelhouse of being a short, angry guy, but the fact Fridge was a tower of muscle in the real world makes it almost Meta Casting.

There are a handful of plot holes, but the movie is otherwise so clear on what it was trying to be that I really don't mind them that much.

• Alex says that he has been trying to get past that particular part of the game for months, but the entire story revolves around getting the gem to the statue. It works in a cinematic sense to pick up a new member, but as part of a game narrative Alex was supposed to be with them from the beginning. It was this point when the story does get a little lost.
• The movie emulates the Reset Button of the first movie, but suggests that it offers an In Spite of a Nail correlation where despite Alex returning to his room at the same time all the others still end up having the same adventure with him. The original movie showed that Alan and Sarah retained memories of the duration of the original game but because the kids were not born at the time the game started they did not keep their memories. This film shows the modern kids as immune to the changed timeline where Alex didn't disappear. Since there was already no explanation to how the Jumanji game ended up in the school basement, this draws even more attention to the lack of explanation.

Going to the conversation about adapting the premise as a tabletop rpg, I could certainly see a game developed around a handful of pre-set characters, rather than the loose guidelines games like D&D have. They don't have to stick with the exact five done in the movie, but could offer a number of variants on the overall character types (adventurer, support, combat, scout, academic).

I had not planned on watching this film (I saw the original only once long ago, and possibly not entirely), but I caught by chance a trailer that looked fun, and I admit Karen Gillan was another motivation (Whovian here). Quite a fun movie overall, that had me laughing heartily more than once. I am also particularly impressed with the actors' performances, especially Jack Black. Dwayne Johnson and Karen Gillan were also doing great, but Black is really believable all throughout as a female teenager. And I loved how the film regularly plays with video games tropes. A quite fun film on the whole.

Saw it today.

Damn. It's better than the original.

Saw it. It was a fun movie. I don't know if they could make a sequel though, because, assuming that this time they wouldn't want to change it completely, it would mean bringing the same actors back and it would be hard to find a good reason for them to get into the game again. Although I guess they could just bring the avatars back and have them be possessed by other people.

About your second plot hole: my theory is that in the new time line, Alex purposely donated the game to the school because he was worried about creating a temporal paradox.

edited 13th Feb '18 11:40:23 AM by nnokwoodeye1

A sequel is in the works.

What's the gimmick this time then?

On the other hand, I would want to see - like - a Jumanji support group or something, because it'd be hilarious.

On the other hand, thinking about continuity, the only person who could be in it would be Sarah - if Bunnie Hunt is willing - since Judy and Peter don't remember being part of the game.

And then we'd really be dragging an elephant into the room that no one really wants to address.

I don't think Bonnie Hunt would be willing without Robin.

Of course, we don't really know how many people have played the game and retained memories. The only one we'd know for sure would be Hunt, but they could make up others.

Given the mechanics of the game, Judy and Peter's situation is probably a bit unique, as the versions of them who played the game were from a timeline that only happened because Alan and Sarah didn't finish theirs.

On the other hand, isn't the dude who finds Jumanji in the beginning - the older brother who gets away - explicitly the guy who finds it at the end of the first movie? If so, then the only people who would have played the game besides Alan and Sarah within the last seventy years are those French guys from when Alan was a kid.

So the support group idea is a flop. Dang.

edited 13th Feb '18 10:32:32 PM by KnownUnknown