3 Short Paragraphs: Jungle Cruise

2021, Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) -- download

Hoping to bank on the same formula as Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney produced yet another adventure movie based on one of  their resort attractions. Funny how nobody complains about these movies as being bad adaptations of the attractions, but we will forever be pointing out that it wasn't as good as Pirates. We will be doing that forever, because I doubt they will ever again recreate the perfect storm of genre mashing that those movies were -- adventure and comedy and horror and CGI and nostalgia.

Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt bring a boatload of charm and charisma to a movie, that I am surprised even exists in today's "woke" world. Adventure movies set during late colonial period of English history are generally in bad favour now, given all the overt cues of abuse. Completely not self-aware, this one just leans into the period, where upper class British folk who believe they know better make their way to the Amazon with too much luggage, to find and pillage the indigenous culture's treasures. But in an Emily Blunt nice way. Don't get me wrong, I am very fond of the trappings of this genre, one of the last times when the culture I am part of (western, white, predominantly male) would go boldly forth and explore an unknown world. I enjoy the fish out of water aspects, but mostly just what the genre is - adventure and exploration. I wonder if we could carry these aspects to outer space colonization genre stories and avoid the whole dark nature? Doubt it. We do us.

So, Emily Blunt runs to the Amazon, with her gay brother, luggage and gumption. They are trying to find the legendary tree of life. She believes a single flower bloom from the tree could advance medical research in England. Meanwhile the Evil Germans are chasing her for... other reasons. She bumps into Captain Jack Skipper Frank and coerces him into leading her to the location of the tree. But behind the journey, fraught with dangers such as piranha and fake hippos, and the adventure there is a more magical story, which frankly (pun intended) I just didn't buy. In the end we get a competent tale with all the magical and bombastic stunt filled elements of the Pirates movies but nothing pulls it together.