An average movie

Even though ‘Jumanji’ was rather poorly received after its original release, I always had a weak spot for this flick. Of course, it was nothing mind-blowing but I thought that the special effects were pretty cool, I enjoyed the whole chaos created by the plot and this chaos was a good match with Robin Williams’ hysterical blend of humor. So, when I heard they were making a sequel (sort of…), I was rather intrigued. Basically, the plot follows the same template as in ‘Jumanji’, except that, this time, the board game transports the players into outer space instead of a mysterious jungle. Unfortunately, I thought it was a little bit more underwhelming than its predecessor. I don’t know, maybe I have outgrown this kind of stories (on the other hand, I was more than 15 years old when I watched ‘Jumanji’ the 1st time around) but I was missing something in the plot or the characters to make it really entertaining. I mean, ‘Jumanji’ was honestly totally wack but that’s why it was pretty fun whereas this flick was just way too straightforward. Still, it remains a fun flick with some pretty cool special effects and it was also pretty neat to see both Josh Hutcherson and Kristen Stewart both starring in this before their break-through. For Jon Favreau, it was again a really solid directing effort, following the successful ‘Made’ and ‘Elf’ and his next directing gig would be ‘Iron Man’ which was, of course, a huge critical and financial success. Unfortunately, it seems that his career as a director has taken a blow with ‘Cowboys & Aliens’ but I hope he will recover soon and come up with another great feature. Anyway, to conclude, even though this movie was nothing really amazing, I still think it is a rather entertaining family feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you need to entertain your kids.

6/10