JUMANJI:

WELCOME TO
THE JUNGLE
MOVIE REVIEW

SUBMITTED BY

STEPHANIE L. DE LEON

11-ABM 1 MOTHER THERESA OF CALCUTTA

 SUBMITTED TO:

MA’AM ZENAIDA ESCAREZ

SUBJECT: ENGLISH FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

JUMANJI: WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

JUMANJI: Welcome to the jungle is a 2017 American fantasy adventure comedy

film directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Chris Mckenna, Erik Sommers, Scott
Rosenberg and Jeff pinkner. based on a story by McKenna. It is a direct sequel
to Jumanji (1995) and the third installment of the Jumanji franchise, which was
based on the 1981 children's book of the same name by Chris Van Allsburg. It
pays tribute to Robin Williams, the star of the first film, by mentioning his
character's name. In addition, a replica of the board game piece used by
Williams's character also appears as a clue for the Jumanji game's new players.
The film stars Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas,
and Bobby Cannavale. Set twenty-one years after Jumanji, it follows four
teenagers who are transported into the video game world of Jumanji and play
as their chosen characters. Joining another player, they must beat the game to
return home.

In the beginning of the movie, it was shown that the teenager Alex Veeke (1996)
is given a Jumanji Board game that was found on the beach. Uninterested, Alex
set the game aside. That night it turns to be a video game cartridge,and there
was a green light that flashes into his room and then he disappeared. It flashes
on the screen the word“JUMANJI” That scene I think was the appetizer so
that the viewers have a clue or hint about the flow of the movie and at the same
time will caught the viewer’s attention and curiosity.

20 years later, four students at Brantord High are given detention; The
characters here is Spencer (Alex wolff) a nerd and a gamer. At first look you will
totally recognized him as a total nerd and base on his appearance and looks,
the character of being a nerd really suits him. The second one is Fridge (Ser
Darius Blain) , a football star and Spencer’s Best friend. They are accused for
cheating. The third one is Bethany (Madison Iseman) She played a role of being
a party girl who is addicted in taking selfies and cannot live without her phone
in her side. She was detain after her teacher caught her making a phone call
during class. And lastly, Martha (Mortha Turner) a bookish and socially anxious
student being detain after she don’t want to cooperate in a gym class. As a
consequence, they are assigned in a school basement to clean the room. Fridge
found the video game and they decided to play it. In a game, it has five
characters, they are unable to select the first one so they chose the 4 characters
that are available instead. After choosing their character, they heard the drum
beats; this sound effect gave a big contribution in this movie because it gives
the viewers a clue that it is related to a jungle or something. After hearing it, the
green light flashes again and they all disappeared. When they landed on the
jungle, I was surprised because there are new characters but supposedly, they
are the four students formed according to their game avatar that they have
chosen. Spencer-a nerd turned as a tough, muscular explorer and Archaeologist
named Dr. Molder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson). Fridge the jock as a zoologist
named Franklin Finbar (Kevin hart); Martha the social anxious as the super fit
and killer of men named Ruby Roundhouse (karen Gillan). And lastly, that really
caught my attention is Bethany a girl who loves taking selfies and is addicted to
her phone turned as a overweight male cartographer named professor Sheldon
Oberon. Spencer therefore conclude after Bethany was eaten by the hippo and
Martha has a wound and disappears and bring back to life again, that the 3 line
tattoo in their hand is represented as their lives and if they lose it all, they can
die in real life.

They have their own purposes according to the strengths, skills and
weaknesses of the characters in the game that they have chosen. The characters
have a good acting and action skills because they project their characters very
well. And they never failed to make the viewers interested in watching it
because it is not just all about into action scenes but they balance it well by
putting some comedy scenes so that the viewers will be entertained.

Their Main goal so that they can return in real life again is to save Jumanji and
bring back the jewel that is being stole by the archeologist John Hardin Van Pelt
to the jaguar statue to lift up the curse. Their first step is to find the missing
piece after given a map by the man(who is also part of the game )that guides
them on what is their mission. The twist here is that, the missing piece is not a
piece of a paper of a part of the map but it was Alex the teenager who plays the
video game in 1996 and disappeared 20 years ago. He appears on the first part
of the movie. And he is the missing piece to begin their journey. As a viewer,
I’ll never thought that it is the missing piece that they should be finding. I
think that they used a personification wherein Alex a human described as a
missing piece that completes the five characters.

In this movie it has many special effects, just like a green light that flashes and
as a sign that they will landed in the jungle, and in the jungle the different kinds
of animals really makes the viewer think that it is realistic like the big hippo who
ate Bethany on the first scene when they landed on the jungle; snakes and the
other wild creatures that appeared on the jungle. They don’t have a
background music but a background sound instead.The drum beats as the
signed of something will going to happen and is related to the jungle an also
the roaring of wild animals that gave an intense feeling in the viewers.
 The storytelling techniques that they used here is Monomyth or a hero’s
journey. The hero is called to leave their home and sets out a difficult journey.
Just like in this movie, the four students turned as a character that they have
been chosen in the video game and landed in the jungle and only have one
goal; to save JUMANJI. They encountered many challenges that test their
strengths, believes in their selves, cooperation and relationship with each other.
And after overcoming a great trial they returned in their real life with a new
found wisdom and a lesson that turned him to be the best version of their self.

So, all in all it was a great movie indeed and highly recommended tho it will not
happen in real life. But the lessons that it taught will help us in our everyday life.