Review of Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018) by Devaughn B — 07 Dec 2018

Andy Serkis directs a beautiful, darker interpretation of the Jungle Book story here, with some impressive special effects and decent voice and motion-capture. I know this film's production has been through the wringer, needing to separate the project from Disney's 2016 Jungle Book adaptation, and then Warner Bros. having to sell the rights to Netflix for a direct release. I don't have a problem with this darker story; I was actually really interested the first half, from all of the action included, the conflicts with Benedict Cumberbatch's Shere Khan. This film's third act is so rushed and choppy, it definitely hurt to see it all turn out this way. The special effects are excellent, though not on the level of Disney's Jungle Book, or the Planet of the Apes reboot film series which of course Andy Serkis knows so well.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan is intimidating as hell, I really enjoyed his performance. Rohan Chand as Mowgli is a standout here as well, I believe he did an outstanding job with what he was given. But wow, talk about a completely underutilized Matthew Rhys in this role. No idea what happened there, if there were more scenes of his cut out (we all know how Warner Bros. Pictures likes to do it...) but I was extremely disappointed on that end. Overall, this is an okay Jungle Book adventure to lie down with this weekend on Netflix.