Summary
“Everybody get aboard the Jungle Cruise and fill up all the available space. That’s the best way to enjoy the ride: fully loaded. Please watch your head and if you can’t, watch your mouth – this is a family film.”
There’s almost a formula to writing about these things. You reflect on Disney’s penchant for remaking their own products in live action. You throw in a dash of self-satisfied humour about films based on theme park rides. You compare it to other major franchises while pointing out the heavy use of CG. Still, if you’re being super honest, you might also conclude that it’s because of all these things, not in spite of them, that JUNGLE CRUISE is a hell of a lot of fun.
Following in the footsteps of Pirates of the Caribbean and Country Bears, director Jaume Collet-Serra helms a story inspired by one of Disneyland’s original 1955 rides. In a prologue, 16th century Spanish conquistadors led by Aguirre (Édgar Ramírez) search the Amazon for the Tears of the Moon, a kind of tree of life that can cure just about anything. Defying the local tribes, they are cursed to never leave sight of the river that gives the jungle life.
Cut to 1916, two years into the War, and Dr. Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) is determined to cut through the chuff of the male-dominated academic world and find the Tears of the Moon for the benefit of all. Heading out to the Amazon with her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall), they hitch a ride aboard Frank Wolff’s (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson) cruise boat. With the nefarious Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons) in hot pursuit, it’s a race to find the MacGuffin.
Much like the ride it is based on, JUNGLE CRUISE rarely lets up and offers no way to get off until the end. Which is a good thing in both cases, although you’re much less likely to get wet if you hit stop on your Disney+ service. The kitchen sink approach sees more than a dash of Indiana Jones mixed in with a backstory that’s a straight rip on POTC by way of The Mummy. The backdrops are teeming with computer generated critters, lending an air of unreality to everything.
While it’s occasionally exhausting, and filled with the kind of terrible puns the ride made famous, the moment to moment set-pieces are impressive. Blunt being captured (and escaping from) a giant birdcage is a total lift from Raiders of the Lost Ark, but entertaining in and of itself. The build-up to an encounter with some rapids is genuinely exciting. The finale, a giant cavern filled with digital figures fighting each other, takes a leaf out of the Marvel playbook.
All of this could feel completely hollow were it not for this charming cast. Blunt and Johnson are no strangers to Disney family entertainment, and the latter’s unfolding backstory gives him a little more depth than his usual action persona. Supporting characters Plemons and Paul Giamatti apparently find the digital Amazon delicious, because they spend a fair bit of time chewing on the backgrounds. Much can also be said for the LGBTQI+ revelations of Whitehall’s MacGregor, even if his still mostly coded character is played primarily for broad buffoonery.
If JUNGLE CRUISE stumbles anywhere, it’s in the almost fatal flaw of overlapping villains. By the time Aguirre is reintroduced, we’re already invested in Joachim as the moustache twirling antagonist. The overwrought final act piles underwater wrangling, glowing tree-top chases, and the romantic plot all on top of each other and squeezes it out the log flume at the other end. You may not queue up to get on the ride again immediately, but you’ll enjoy it while it last and — just might find yourself looking back at the photos fondly in years to come.
2021 | USA | DIRECTOR: Jaume Collet-Serra | WRITER: Michael Green, Glenn Ficarra, John Requa | CAST: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Édgar Ramírez, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti | DISTRIBUTOR: Disney/Disney+ | RUNNING TIME: 127 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 30 July 2021 (Global)
