The Student Events Board (SEB) continued its Weekly Movie series with “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” the 2017 reboot of the 1995 classic. As usual, the seats in the Sports Zone were full and the popcorn was hot and fresh. SEB will play the movie for the weekend of April 7 in LH1 at 9 p.m. Note: this review will be spoiler free.
For most 90’s babies, “Jumanji” is a nostalgic classic that had the perfect amount of drama and suspense. The eerie effects and dim lighting used in the movie contributed to the reasons why most kids wouldn’t watch this movie alone or at night. Board games were never the same after this blockbuster hit the screen.
As we all know, reboots can be either really good or really bad. There usually is no in between. Is a remake necessary two decades after the fact? It’s the question everyone wanted to know, which is probably part of the reason why “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” got so much attention in the media. Not a commercial break went by without one of the trailers playing.
This 2017 take seemed to completely shift from the original feel of the movie. It is clear that the target audience was a teenage crowd and the directors were desperate to connect with this audience as much as they could. Key pieces from the original “Jumanji” were modernized, like that the cast turned into video game characters instead of getting sucked into an antique board game.
At first glance, the movie’s cast list is drastically different than the original. Kevin Hart, Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan are all known to be powerhouses in comedy and kept the audience laughing the whole time. So what are they doing in “Jumanji”? Although they seemed a little misplaced, they all added a great deal of laughter to the otherwise melodramatic film and their characters were honestly pretty hard to not like.
Overall, the movie seemed to get pretty decent ratings. Scoring a 76 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and an 88 percent Audience Score, the movie did better than most expected. The box office brought in $393,201,353, which is a little low compared to other movies that came out within the same couple weeks.
Washington Post contributor Jane Horwitz reviewed the movie, praising its hilarious actors, fantastic animation and digital effects, and the overall message that the movie was telling its watchers. She said the message geared to their teen audience was “about overcoming their insecurities to participate fully in life, without pounding the lesson into the ground.” And who doesn’t love a good message?
If you haven’t seen it yet, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is definitely worth the watch. To catch all the showtimes, visit SEB’s page on myumbc.edu.
