Jungle Cruise: Film Review

Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt, Jack Whitehall, Jesse Plemons, Paul Giamatti, Edgar Ramirez

Director: Jaume-Collet Serra

Based on the Disney theme park ride, and proving to be as fun and as corny as the ride itself, Jungle Cruise survives solely on Johnson and Blunt's easy chemistry, and Whitehall's reaction faces and comments.

Much like the titular Disney ride, Jungle Cruise coasts by on a fantastical adventure that will be familiar to Pirates fans, Indiana Jones’ questing and CGI baddies.

But it manages to do so with a great deal of charisma in its two leads Blunt and Johnson. The duo has an easy chemistry that feels quippy when it needs to be, and affable enough to feel threatened when danger emerges.

Johnson is Frank, the owner of a cruise ship that coasts the Amazon while he makes terrible puns for the punters (the first nod to the ride). Blunt is Lily, a woman bucking the trends of the World War II times by engaging in such escapades as searching for a mythical cure-all called the Tears of the Moon and by wearing pants instead of societal-expected skirts.

Also along for the ride is Whitehall’s MacGregor, Lily’s brother who can barely hide his contempt for the situation but who will never leave her side, for reasons that become clearer later on (but which has landed Disney in a world of complaints over how they've muddied his character.)

However, when the trio heads further into the deeps of the Amazon, it soon becomes clear they're not the only ones looking for the mystical....

Jungle Cruise has its highs, and its lows.

The emphasis early on is fun - and while some may feel it's derivative of many another action fantasy franchise and steals nods from The African Queen and Romancing the Stone, the production clearly has enjoyed doing so, giving the relationship between Blunt and Johnson the life and air it needs throughout.

But if anything, Jungle Cruise is Blunt's film first and foremost.

From an opening that clearly sets her credentials out, to minor moments like when she vocally refuses to take Frank's hand to be "led to rescue", this is perhaps one of Disney's most forward-thinking heroines. Depressingly though, despite a strong start, Lily falls into conventional tropes toward the end, possibly robbing her of some of the self-empowerment.

Plemons also offers a good character performance too, giving his German Prince Joachim a comedic edge that's hard to ignore, and he makes great fist of his limited moments on screen.

Johnson's solid as ever in Jungle Cruise, milking the gags for their worth and proving to be a game companion. However, when he's saddled with backstory and exposition, the overlong film falters and splutters, landing more on rocky terrain than it should.

In fact, it's here generally that Jungle Cruise falters - the introduction of Edgar Ramirez's clutch of CQI Conquistador baddies muddles proceedings and looks murkily executed on screen, with choppy editing not helping things either. Never really emerging as a major threat, they look more like extras jettisoned to the cutting room floor from a Pirates of the Caribbean movie of yesteryear.

All in all, Jungle Cruise is a fun but flawed expedition up the Amazon. It does offer some solid hijinks and hilarity early on, but it loses its way the deeper into the jungle it goes.