Jungle Cruise (2021)

Movie Info

Rollin’, Rollin’, Rollin’ Down the River!!!

Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) has dreamed of following her father’s quest to find the Tears of the Moon…a legendary tree growing in the Amazon that provide immortally for those who have the blooms.  Teamed with her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) and pursued by Germans led by Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), Lily heads to the Amazon where she finds herself hiring a con-artist skipper named Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) to take them into the depths of the jungle on Wolff’s boat the La Quila.  The Amazon is a deadly place, and Wolff might not be all he seems.

Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Jungle Cruise is a family adventure-action romance.  The movie is based on the Disney Adventureland ride which first premiered at Disneyland in 1955.  The film was delayed due to COVID-19 and was released in theaters and also premiered on Disney+ with Premiere Access on July 30, 2021.  The 3D movie received mixed reviews and an average box office return.

Um…you have something on your face…

With the release of Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney wanted a lot of their property developed…and Jungle Cruise seemed like an obvious choice.  After a lot of delays, the movie came out.  Unfortunately, attempts to emulate Pirates of the Caribbean led to a copycat film.

The movie is pretty much a blend of the plot of Pirates of the Caribbean and the characters of The Mummy.  The movie features cursed conquistadors, a “treasure”, and a race to get it.  Unlike Pirates which features a love triangle, this movie seems to feel closer to the Brendan Fraser Mummy with a meet-cute antagonist type relationship between Frank and Lily, a goofy brother, and an angry German…it all feels like rehash.

It is too bad because it wastes the actor’s talents.  Emily Blunt is normally charming but is drab here.  Johnson still has his charm but doesn’t have much script to develop it.  Jesse Plemons seems to have fun as the generic stereotypical German bad guy, but the character isn’t interesting.  Jack Whitehall is not much more than a sidekick and Édgar Ramírez as Lope de Aguirre feels like he should have been the primary villain.  Paul Giamatti is fun, but the film is below him..

We’ve entered the world of Pandora!!!

The movie has the look of a Pirates movie with cursed conquistadors that seem like a combo of the ghosts and monstrous creatures of Davy Jones’s locker.  Jungle Cruise suffers from being shot as a 3D movie with random things flying at the screen and many of the 3D designed creations just aren’t as quality as a fully fleshed CGI creature.

Rides don’t always make good movies, and Jungle Cruise is proof of that.  The movie is the type of film that you don’t hate, but it is also nothing special.  It is just extremely average.  Kids might enjoy it and it is tolerable for adults.  It just is too bad that good people get stuck in a ho-hum movie.  Don’t hop aboard Jungle Cruise for surprises or anything original…it is simply time filler.  A sequel to Jungle Cruise is in the works.