Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

**Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle surprisingly exceeds the original and all expectations as one of the best, funniest, and most entertaining sequels of all time.**
The sequel no one saw coming or expected to light up the box office as it did! Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle is a fun adventure film with hilarious characters that works in every way. I will be honest; I was not a fan of the original movie - it freaked me out as a child. But the new film minimized the horror elements of Jumanji and focused more on adventure and humor. This time instead of a board game, Jumanji has morphed into a video game that sucks its unsuspecting victims into its deadly world. Welcome to the Jungle leans into all the video game tropes with hilarious results with jokes about skills, lives, NPCs, boss battles, and more. The movie is at its best with all the humor surrounding the body-swapped teens dealing with the game’s characters they now inhabit - the skinny nerd becoming the muscular hero, the jock becoming a tiny sidekick, and the funniest of all, the pretty popular girl becoming Jack Black (who is the real stand out of the film). Jumanji is a must-see family adventure film that brings fun and laughs to everyone who dares to play the game.

The effects have improved (as you'd hope they would over the course of 22 years), but _Welcome to the Jungle_ didn't really do much for me. It completely lacks the charm of the original movie, but also the worldly scope of the animated series. I sat there patiently as weak joke after weak joke bounced off of me ineffectually, but the person I watched it with seemed to be having a great time, so maybe I'm just dead inside?
_Final rating:★★ - Definitely not for me, but I sort of get the appeal._