Review of Jungle Cruise (2021) by Nateed — 02 Aug 2021

Jungle Cruise was so much fun to watch. The energy in this movie is so high that there is rarely ever a dull moment. It is largely due to the amazing cast. The casting director should get a raise because every single person does a great job here.

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt are so great here and have amazing chemistry. Both of the characters have great character arcs and lots of hidden secrets that get revealed along the way. Jack Whitehall also does a really good job as MacGregor and has a lot of great chemistry with the other characters as well.

All three characters are the highlight of the film as they crack so many funny jokes while still keeping the story present. Jesse Plemons is also great here and really adds to the humor aspects of the film.

Édgar Ramírez also does a great job, but I would've loved to have seen more of his character or learned more about him. The story in this movie is great. It keeps you pulled in right from the start and keeps throwing new, exciting twists till the very end.

The story is also very easy to follow with the lore being very creative, yet never too complicated. I would've loved to have seen a little bit more of the lore aspect of it, but what was there was good.

I guess that leads me to the comedy and story ratio which I think was good. Not the best, but it was solid. It helps that a lot of the jokes are actually funny and sometimes even move the story along.

I just think the movie could've focused a tiny bit more on the lore. Something I do appreciate is that the film was able to combine all three plots into a cohesive story which a lot of other films have a hard time doing.

I think the biggest problem in Jungle Cruise is the pacing and runtime. This movie is way too long, but also way too fast. This film could've been easily under 2 hours. The 2nd act goes on for a bit too long and doesn't have that same excitement factor as the first and third acts.

As for the pacing, it feels very fast. Most of the scenes in this movie are very short, yet they do create excitement and keep you entertained. That's why I think this film works in a way, but sometimes the pacing brings it down a bit.

Even though the film gets slow at some points, it will pick right back up in the next scene. The only other problem I had was the use of CGI and special effects. This movie is full of CGI. I would say that 20 minutes of the 2-hour movie doesn't have CGI.

That isn't bad, but a lot of the CGI looks fake and doesn't do a good job integrating it with the live actors. For example, there is a scene where Frank is holding a jaguar, but it doesn't actually look like it's in his hand.

For the number of times this film was delayed, you would think that CGI would be a bit better and spread out evenly throughout the film. Overall, Jungle Cruise is such an enjoyable film with a great cast and cohesive story that never loses track of its main goal.

With wonky CGI and some slight pacing issues that bring the film down a bit, Jungle Cruise still knows how to stand on its own. Read more reviews like this one at postcreditreviews.