Remakes are a tricky business, always have been and always will. They have a notorious habit of either bombing horrendously, such as the infamous 2006 remake of the Wicker Man with Nicholas Cage, or soaring beyond expectations, such as The Ring, which was heavily based off a Japanese film under the same name.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle managed to land itself an odd place right in the middle of the spectrum, simply because it made itself so unique from the original that it could barely be compared to the old movie released in 1995. The only thing reminiscent of the old version is the major plot, the adventure of trying to escape a magical game that takes place in the jungle.

Honestly, even though I had watched the original Jumanji first when I was younger, I can say without a doubt in my mind that this was a decent movie. Despite the fact that it took a much more comedic approach in contrast to the more serious tone of the original, it never failed to entertain. I appreciated the little but fun twist of abandoning the old board game for a video game, and although the jokes were unmistakably stupid, I had a lot of fun watching it.   

I will say that this is not the movie for nostalgic adults to enjoy, and many who were eager for the return of old characters won’t get a single cameo from the original cast. This movie is best suited for young teenagers who recognize the popular actors and most likely haven’t seen the 1995 Jumanji.

With that one complaint out of the way, this isn’t a bad movie, it just seems to be better suited for younger adults or teenagers. There were no heart racing moments in the little action that it had, but stunts were still enjoyable to see. Many viewers won’t appreciate how dumbed down the speech seems to be, but others will ignore it for the sake of comedy. This is one of the movies that you watch once and forget about months later when the new Star Wars movie comes out. Overall, it deserves a solid 6/10 in my book. Not too shabby, but not groundbreaking in any way that makes it memorable.