There’s several ways you can look at “Jumanji,” a reboot of the franchise started in 1995 with Robin Williams, but quickly abandoned. One, the modern version features Dwayne Johnson, arguably the world’s biggest and bankable star, so it has that going for it. It also looks like a cross between “Kong: Skull Island” and “Land Of The Lost.”
READ MORE: Dwayne Johnson’s 6 Best Movies, And Why He Is The Biggest Star In The World
But what’s perhaps more interesting to us is the fact the film’s being directed by Jake Kasdan, the comedy filmmaker behind films like “Bad Teacher” “Sex Tape” and Judd Apatow’s “Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.” And like many filmmakers around him, Kasdan is making the ambitious leap into big-budget filmmaking with “Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle.” Sure, it looks like it possesses elements of comedy too, Jack Black stars in the film too, but it’s labeled as a 3D action adventure film and looks quite serious too. It appears that the film straddles the line of a kids movie and a modern action picture and it’ll be interesting to see if both audiences turn out for the film beyond parents taking their tweens out to theaters. Here’s the official synopsis:
When four high-school kids discover an old video game console with a game they’ve never heard of – Jumanji – they are immediately drawn into the game’s jungle setting, literally becoming the avatars they chose: gamer Spencer becomes a brawny adventurer (Dwayne Johnson); football jock Fridge loses (in his words) “the top two feet of his body” and becomes an Einstein (Kevin Hart); popular girl Bethany becomes a middle-aged male professor (Jack Black); and wallflower Martha becomes a badass warrior (Karen Gillan). What they discover is that you don’t just play Jumanji – you must survive it. To beat the game and return to the real world, they’ll have to go on the most dangerous adventure of their lives, discover what Alan Parrish left 20 years ago, and change the way they think about themselves – or they’ll be stuck in the game forever…
The film also stars the Rock’s good buddy, recent partner in crime Kevin Hart plus “Guardians Of The Galaxy” actress Karen Gillan, Missi Pyle, Bobby Cannavale, Tim Matheson, and Nick Jonas.
Check out the new international and domestic trailers for “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” which opens on December 20th.