Certain
movies take a long time to get a sequel. This can be their benefit as the old
version is less likely to be compared to it (unless it’s an absolute Classic:
I’ll get to you Marry Poppins Returns later) to the original. It also offers
the grounds for being a reboot/sequel, where you keep only the bare minimum on
common with the original.
Jumanji:
Welcome to the Jungle is a sequel/reboot to Jumanji, which we covered a few
weeks ago. Its announcement came with some backlash as sequel/reboots such as
the 2016 Ghostbusters had soured people to the idea (Ghostbusters 2016 isn't very good, but the hatred toward it can be extreme) plus the announcement came
shortly after the death of Robin Williams and people noted it might’ve been in
poor taste. But positive word of mouth clearly helped this grow roots, as it
made an impressive $960m at the box office on a $150m budget. Bear it mind, it
came out around the same time as Star Wars: The Last Jedi and the Greatest
Showman, so this is an impressive feat.
It got a
decent 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but with a caveat of only a 6.2/10
average score, with an audience rating at 87% averaging 4.3/5. Let’s take a gander
and see what we’re looking at this time.
