Last night I saw Disney’s “The Jungle Cruise”. I am a total Disney Nerd, so naturally I went to the theater to see it. While not the worst movie I’ve thrown money at, I am here to caution others about throwing their money at it.
Let’s start with the great things about the movie! The chemistry between Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson is magical. They play very well off each other and had some great banter throughout the film.
It’s a very pretty movie to watch! From a strictly cinematography perspective, this movie has it all. I particularly loved the beauty of the scene with the sun setting. Just…chef’s kiss glorious!
Things I liked, but weren’t spectacular were the cameos through the film. There are a LOT of characters (more on that later) and most only have a fraction of screen time. All performances were well done and you could tell they all had a blast filming. I also enjoyed the big action sequences. Good intensity for all ages and looked stunning on the big screen!
The tie in to the ride happens all in the first 10 minutes. And while hilarious, it felt like they HAD to do it, so they did.
I have 2 major complaints with this movie. So major, they sucked the life out of the stuff I did like.
The first was the complicated nature of the plot. No spoilers here, but it’s a fairly linear plot made far too confusing with the multiple antagonists. Seriously. There’s 3 players in this field and there only needed to be one. It gummed up the story for me, so I imagine younger viewers would be left scratching their heads too.
The second complaint is a doozy. For some unknown reason, about 1/2 way through the movie, it’s revealed that one of the characters is gay. The gay character is NOT the issue necessarily. It’s that they were designated gay for literally no reason.
It doesn’t further the plot, flesh out the character more, or even become important later. All it was there for was simply representation for the LGBTQ+ community. Oh, it also allowed for some really atrocious, borderline offensive, puns later in the movie.
Unfortunately, forcing this into the movie pulled me fully out of the fantasy of it all. Had it not been so blatantly done, it would have been ok. Though it did not need to happen at all.
Overall, I would say it’s worth a watch once it’s streaming for free on Disney+. I just wouldn’t give it any extra money.
Made Dames 