Jungle Cruise Review

July 28, 2021 at 4:48pm
By Jason Stettner

This is the latest film based on a Disneyland ride, Jungle Cruise takes some of the core concepts of that journey and then throws in an extra adventurous element. The just of it is that Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) runs a regular cruise with some setup jumps and scares for passengers. He’s got some money issues, and tries his best to drum up tourism in being a cheaper option. This is where Lily (Emily Blunt) and her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) come into the picture.

The former is out for an adventure whereas the latter doesn’t really want any part of this but comes along to help out. He’s more of some comedic relief while also having a side story line that would be cut out in certain regions around the world. You could see the clear spots where that would happen, if you know what I mean. Still, a fairly cool character that has more purpose as time goes on.

Blunt does take up a primary role here right alongside Johnson, with the two having a forced romantic angle that comes across as awkward as there really wasn’t any chemistry there. I was also a tad disappointed that we didn’t get more heroics out of Blunt’s character as she comes across as very Indiana Jones like at the start of the film and that tapers off for Johnson to get the big action segments as the film progresses.

This is very much a typical type of adventure movie. If you’ve seen anything from Dwayne Johnson in the past, you know exactly what you’re getting here. Now with that being said, this does bring a twist or two that I definitely did not see coming. That was very clever, so bravo in that regard.

I thought in general the performances were really good here. All of the leads were fairly charismatic and played their parts quite well. Again to talk about the chemistry element, I actually thought Johnson and Whitehall connected better throughout this journey. Anyways, it was a fine watch.

The scenes felt vast, sometimes mystical. At the same time the CGI was very rough to look at, the animals stood out really badly in the version I viewed. That could be due to how it’s streamed, but that’s just how it was there. The pacing also felt somewhat off, this is a very long film to view so keep that in mind.

The Conclusion

Jungle Cruise is an alright adventure to go on, it has some fun and provides a number of twists along the way. It brought a couple laughs here or there, particularly the big cat after it spent a bit too much time with a bottle. The narrative was fine, did a good job of diverting expectations. The action was well done, but nothing too out of the ordinary in that regard. It was mostly just a fine viewing that went on a bit too long and explained too much in some situations.

I found it to be something that was easy going for viewing, but not necessarily something that fully captured my attention. I believe most will have an idea of what this is just by viewing a trailer or seeing who’s attached, and that would be an accurate feeling. Oh, and Jesse Plemons’ character of royalty was fun to see in action. They certainly hammed that one up for sure.

Jungle Cruise Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Screening was Provided by Disney

Rating Overall: 6.2