A sequel to the 1995 Jumanji, Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, came out, starring multiple highly-known actors like Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Nick Jonas and Jack Black.
The movie is about four teenagers that are sucked into a magical video game and the only way they can escape is by winning the game, or in this case, saving Jumanji. They each only get three lives and have to rely on each other to win the game.
The first Jumanji movie incorporated this theme as a board game, while the new Jumanji has it as a video game.
This is a reflection of the prominence of technology in modern time. One aspect of Jumanji which is present in both films is that they had to try and free somebody that had been stuck in the game for multiple years.
Alex, the character they save in the second movie, is living in a tree house. However, before Alex was even stuck in that tree house, it was occupied by Alan Parrish, the character they had to rescue from the game in the original movie.
In the video game, all four teenagers have to choose their own character.
These characters are Dr. Smolder Bravestone played by Dwayne Johnson, Ruby Roundhouse played by Karen Gillian, Moose Finbar played by Kevin Hart and Professor Shelly Oberon played by Jack Black.
These four characters are each equipped with their own strengths and their own weaknesses.
Bravestone’s strengths are stamina, courage, reflexes, climbing, smoldering intensity and boomerang throwing. Bravestone also apparently has no weaknesses. Roundhouse is proficient in karate, tai chi, jujutsu and capoeira. Her only weakness is venom.
Finbar is Bravestone’s weapon valet and is skilled in cranial assault. His weaknesses are cake, strength and speed. Professor Oberon’s strength is his intelligence, but because of his obesity, endurance is his weakness.
Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle is still ruling the U.S. Box Office, almost a month after its release. Its production cost totaled $90 million and it’s lifetime gross rose over $291 million.
The gross isn’t surprising considering the previous reputation set for the film and the well known cast which also brings in viewers.