'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' REVIEW: A charming cast elevates this by-the-numbers comedy

'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' is in fact the sequel to Jumanji (1995). After hearing the announcement of a new Jumanji film, I was both excited and reserved. I'm sure other people were angry at the idea of a new Jumanji film after the death of Robin Williams in 2014. If you want my thoughts of the old Jumanji film, here it is. Nostalgically, I liked it. I recall that it was a fun enough adventure film that was elevated by the charm of Robin Williams. In fact, Jumanji was one of the first few Robin Williams movies that I ever saw. I then went on to watch the old Jumanji animated series which is also fun to watch. Zathura (2005), the spiritual sequel to Jumanji was also quite a lot of fun and more heartfelt than I remember it to be. Now, we have here a more direct sequel to Jumanji. How is it? I actually enjoyed this better than the original.

In the first film, the plot was that two kids played with the Jumanji board game and all of its inhabitants come to life in the real world. Now, the Jumanji board game has transformed into a video game cartridge that would be played on an old Nintendo console. Four high school kids named Spencer (played by Alex Wolff), Fridge (played by Ser'Darius Blain), Martha (played by Morgan Turner) and Bethany (played by Madison Iseman) get stuck in detention together and find the old video game console with the Jumanji cartridge attached to it. They all try to play the game to pass the time only to find out that they all get sucked into the video game and they become their avatars. Spencer becomes Dr. Smolder Bravestone (played by Dwayne Johnson), Fridge becomes Franklin 'Moose' Finbar (played by Kevin Hart), Marthy becomes Ruby Roundhouse (played by Karen Gillian) and Bethany becomes Professor Sheldon 'Shelly' Oberon (played by Jack Black). Together, they need to follow the game's rules in order to leave the game.

What sticks out to be as the film's biggest assets are its cast. Dwayne Johnson once again is very charismatic and super likable even when he's in a bad film, he would probably be the best part of that film. Like Central Intelligence (2016), he played against type and here he does the same. He has a manly physique, but has a mind of an awkward high school nerd who has all the knowledge of how to navigate the video game world. Kevin Hart is Kevin Hart. If you've seen him in films like Ride Along (2014) and Get Hard (2015), then you've seen him here making jokes about his height and inferiority to Dwayne Johnson. Karen Gillian has also the same situation with Kevin Hart where the real-life and video game personalities aren't to contrasted enough to get a laugh, but she does well performance-wise. Jack Black has the funniest role here as he's an overweight middle aged man with a mind of a popular high school girl. Jack Black has all the funniest lines and both he and Dwayne Johnson are by far the standouts of this film. Together, they all have great comedic chemistry and that cascades all throughout the film.

The film also has loads of fun with the gimmick and self-referential joke that the whole movie is essentially played out like a video game. The script gladly doesn't break its own rules and know what aspects of a video game to make a joke out of. The younger cast, while one seen briefly are all really good as well at showing the distinctive personalities before entering the video game. The funny writing alone makes me think that this film is better than the original. Jake Kasdan is the director of this film and he makes the film consistently exciting and fun to watch overall. The action sequences are well done along with some impressive stunt work.

The major negatives of this film are almost the same negatives with the original film and one of them is the noticeable CGI. The CGI work for all the animals are not very consistent and it's just plain noticeable and took me out of the experience of seeing this film. I also don't appreciate that the film needs to cut back to the villain character who's so one-dimensional and uninteresting just like a typical video game villain. I wish the film implemented more humor into that area, but the film just doesn't. At a point the film does feel long, but the cast and funny jokes do keep this film moving at a frantic pace.

Overall, this film is indeed an improvement over the original. The film makes a wise choice to have the majority of the film set in the jungle instead of the real world. I felt that the consequences here are more dire unlike the original. The cast and characters are a huge reason why this film was a lot of fun for me. I wouldn't say that it's anything special by any means and it's predictable as hell, but the film is just a good time and I think that's all this film needs to do.

'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' gets a B+