Jungle Cruise – Film Review

Movie Details

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Writer: —
Actors: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Edgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Dani Rovira, Sulem Calderon, Veronica Falcón, Andy Nyman, Raphael Alejandro, Quim Gutiérrez, Mark Ashworth, David Lengel, Emily Marie Palmer, Ilana Kohanchi, Alfredo Tavares, Annika Pampel, Keith Arthur Bolden, Pedro López, Philipp Maximilian, Simone Lockhart, Piper Collins, Faith Fay, Justin Randell Brooke, Josué Gutierrez, Jason Szabo, Stephan Goldbach, Madeline Brumby, Peter Luis Zimmerman, Danny Pardo, Jason New, Romualdo Castillo, Nicholas Ryan Hernandez, Matt Lindquist, Michael H. Cole, David Turner, Alexandra Velez, James Quattrochi, Ryan Boz, Dan Dargan Carter, Met Clark, Mariama Diallo, Kylie Michele Fuller, Ryan Dinning, Nick Benseman, Abraham Takatsuki, Casey Nelson, Keith Nussbaum, Tom Vodnik, James William Ballard, Jay D. Kacho, Shawn McBride, Xavier Leblanc, Henardo Rodriguez, Sebastian Blunt, Allan Poppleton, Caroline Paige, Stephen Dunlevy, Diederik Verhoef, Pedro Haro, Christina Souza, Michael Cole, Hector Banos, Luis Burbano, Travis Gomez, Marcus Young
Runtime: 2 h 07 min
Release Date: July 28, 2021
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Comedy, Action
Certification: PG-13

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt team up together in Disney’s Jungle Cruise, a rollicking thrill-ride down the Amazon with wisecracking skipper Frank Wolff and intrepid researcher Dr. Lily Houghton. Lily travels from London, England to the Amazon jungle and enlists Frank’s questionable services to guide her downriver on La Quila–his ramshackle-but-charming boat.

Lily is determined to uncover an ancient tree with unparalleled healing abilities–possessing the power to change the future of medicine. Thrust on this epic quest together, the unlikely duo encounters innumerable dangers and supernatural forces, all lurking in the deceptive beauty of the lush rainforest. But as the secrets of the lost tree unfold, the stakes reach even higher for Lily and Frank and their fate–and mankind’s–hangs in the balance.

When Disney announced that they would be turning the fan-favorite Jungle Cruise ride from Disneyland parks into a feature film, I don’t think I was alone in grumbling and wondering how in the world they would make a film about that and make it have good characters and fun scenes.

However, once it was announced that Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt would lead the cast, some of our worries were put to rest. Johnson is without a doubt one of the most likable actors working today and Blunt always manages to prove time and time again how versatile and strong she can be. Just this year, she delivered an Oscar-worthy performance as Evelyn Abbott in A Quiet Place Part II.

Both of these actors have incredible energy and charisma, and because of their lovable traits, they make for the perfect dream team in Jaume Collet-Serra‘s Jungle Cruise – a surprisingly entertaining and hilarious adventure that’s fun for the whole family. Interestingly enough, this movie does not reek of corporate greed and it doesn’t feel like it exists solely to make money. I can tell that the screenwriters, as well as Collet-Serra, genuinely wanted to make an exciting family film and they did exactly that.

At a surprisingly lengthy one-hundred-and-twenty-seven minutes, you would expect Jungle Cruise to feel extremely long and you may even expect a few scenes to be boring and non-essential, but I’m happy to report that’s not the case at all. Whether it’s Johnson and Blunt partaking in hilarious banter back and forth or them getting into a big fight with a handful of bad guys, there’s always something happening in the film to keep people entertained.

This was more than likely done to ensure that the children that watch this movie are always looking at something fun on-screen. Although it would’ve been nice to have taken a breather during some scenes, it’s hard to deny just how much fun is had on this daring journey that Frank Wolff and Lily Houghton find themselves on.

Courtesy of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

All of the set pieces are intricately made and are some of the most impressive of the year so far. Of course, it’s no Avengers: Endgame – not even close – but for what this movie was going for, all of the sets were unique and had their own personality traits of sorts. No two locales in Jungle Cruise look or feel the same.

A lot of this movie seriously reminded me of the earlier Pirates of the Caribbean movies – particularly The Curse of the Black Pearl. It has that similar sense of swashbuckling adventure that made families all around the world fall in love with it and made them want to see a whole series get made, which, of course, did happen.

And make no mistake – Jungle Cruise could easily become a franchise as well and if it does, I think the potential for greatness is quite strong. Of course, since this is a Disney property, there are some limitations to what the filmmakers can do but they can definitely still make a solid, relentlessly entertaining sequel(s).

If they do make a follow-up, one thing that needs to be improved upon is the villains. Here, we get a couple and one is a group of people who basically resemble human bees. They drip honey and half their bodies are disintegrated. The CGI for these characters isn’t half bad, but the character depth for them is literally non-existent. They’re just kind of there to go after Johnson and Blunt and that’s about it.

Jesse Plemons serves as the main villain and while he definitely had a blast in the role, his character was disappointingly dull and far too underdeveloped to be compelling. A great villain should be someone who you don’t necessarily agree with, but you understand why they’re doing the things they’re doing. Two examples of this would be Joker in The Dark Knight and Thanos in Avengers: Infinity War.

You understand that the things they’re doing are certainly bad, but at the same time, their motivations are crystal clear and you can kind of, even if for just a moment, understand where they’re coming from. Plemons’ character feels like the definition of a mustache-stroking villain – someone who wants infinite power. Why? Well… because…. power of course!

It’s definitely a major issue here but the simple matter of the fact is that kids and families that go to see Jungle Cruise are not going to care about that too much. They just want to go on a fun, swashbuckling adventure and that’s exactly what you get. After all, who’s going to turn down going on a journey with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt? I certainly wouldn’t.