Jungle Cruise

While this family-friendly adventure film does feel like a very derivative combination of Pirates of the Caribbean and the 1999 version of The Mummy, its charismatic cast keep the film entertaining throughout, and younger viewers are likely to enjoy the ride.

Premise: In 1916, intrepid scientist Dr Lily Houghton (Emily Blunt) travels to the Amazon with her younger brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall), in search of the fabled Tears of the Moon tree and its healing petals. But they’ll need the help of down-on-his-luck riverboat captain (and part-time con-man) Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) to take them through the jungle, if they are to beat the ruthless Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons) to the magical prize.

Review:

I want to start off by saying that although Jungle Cruise is objectively not a great film, I did enjoy it, and it’s not a bad film per se either. It’s just that everything about the film feels like it was put together by a committee that was trying to piece together a new film from ideas that had worked on previously successful films.

So the most obvious direct inspiration for Jungle Cruise is probably the original Pirates of the Caribbean film, given that they are both films that were “inspired” (if that is the right word) by Disney-owned theme park rides. Both films also involve plots that revolve around quests for magical objects, enigmatic boat/ship captains, ancient cursed villains rendered in CGI, and other similarities that I can’t mention without giving away spoilers.

“…the character relationships seem to have been lifted directly from 1999’s ‘The Mummy’…”

At least Jungle Cruise didn’t also try to recreate the character dynamics from Pirates of the Caribbean between Captain Jack, Elizabeth and Will, although the relationships do seem to have been lifted directly from 1999’s The Mummy, what with the plucky female scholar (Emily Blunt/Rachel Weisz), her comic relief brother (Jack Whitehall/John Hannah), and the dashing rogue (Dwayne Johnson/Brendan Fraser).

Although Jesse Plemons’ villainous Prince Joachim (based on a real historical figure) doesn’t feel like a direct reproduction of an earlier antagonist from another film, he’s also a character who’s only very superficially sketched out. Other than saying that he’s ruthlessly committed to finding the Tears of the Moon for himself at any cost, I’d struggle to tell you anything else meaningful about his character. Equally, the casting of Paul Giamatti and Édgar Ramírez in smaller roles is welcome (they’re always entertaining on screen) but surprising, given how little they get to do.

“…the cast is so good that it’s fun to spend time them despite the film’s other shortcomings…”

If it sounds like I’m being harsh, perhaps I am. The truth is that despite the flimsy plot, paper-thin villains, and the feeling that pretty much every set-piece has been lifted from another movie, I still enjoyed watching Jungle Cruise, and would happily watch it again. This is probably entirely due to the talents of the cast, who are so good at what they do that it’s fun to spend time with the characters despite the film’s other shortcomings.

Emily Blunt is arguably the lead of the film, and she balances Lily’s character perfectly between being fiercely independent, intelligent and self-reliant, but also emotionally vulnerable beneath the bravado. Lily is neither the annoying know-it-all, nor the damsel-in-distress, nor the out-of-her-depth bookworm, and that is largely down to Emily Blunt’s performance. Dwayne Johnson, meanwhile, gets to play a slightly seedier (but still good-hearted) character than he usually does, as his Frank is as much a con-man as he is a riverboat captain when we first meet him. Frank’s penchant for telling knowingly corny jokes may feel like a writer’s affectation, but I really enjoyed it.

“…there’s still plenty of fun to be had with this family-friendly adventure…”

I also wanted to specifically mention Jack Whitehall’s comedic performance as Lily’s brother MacGregor, which for me was one of the highlights of the film. Jack Whitehall breathes enough life into MacGregor that he feels like a genuine character, and not just the comic relief. His complicated relationship with Lily feels believable (where he is both protective of his older sister, and exasperated by her obsession with this quest), and his backstory is genuinely touching. MacGregor’s backstory, together with the misogyny experienced by Lily and the film’s depiction of the indigenous people of the Amazon, feel like refreshingly up-to-date elements in an otherwise fairly familiar story.

Ultimately, despite feeling like a film made by a studio committee, there’s still plenty of fun to be had with this family-friendly adventure, which gets by on the strength of its humour and the great chemistry between its cast – and even the weak plot is unlikely to be an issue for younger viewers who have not seen the other films that Jungle Cruise riffs off. All that, and the film also includes a collaboration between composer James Newton Howard and Metallica on a new orchestral version of their classic song “Nothing Else Matters”, so it can’t be all bad!