Note: This review is spoiler-free and does not require having seen the film to comprehend.

Pirates of the Caribbean was a game changer.

The original 2003 film, The Curse of the Black Pearl, despite being based off of the eponymous Disney theme park ride, was a true original. Complete with perfect casting, stunning, primarily practical visuals, and surprisingly witty writing and storytelling, the film combined nostalgia of previous generations with the tension and adventure desired by the new.

Released nearly 50 years after Disneyland opened, the film ushered in a new wave of love for the ride, which otherwise could have been relegated to the ranks of other sit-down boat rides at the park such as “it’s a small world.” But alas, the Black Pearl may have been its own curse. The film became a franchise, spawning 4 sequels of decreasing approval from fans and critics, each of which seeming to be a spoof of the one before, turning what started as a truly exciting, smart concept into just another lighthearted and cliche adventure story.

All of this is necessary context for July 2021, when Disney released their latest live action blockbuster, Jungle Cruise. 

The ride that the film was based on opened with the original Disneyland lineup in 1955, and has transported over 1,000 patrons per hour since then. Framed as a tour deep through the jungles of Africa, the ride acts much more like a safari as opposed to a ride like “Peter Pan’s Flight” that has a definitive narrative to follow.

This film, on its most basic, surface level, continues the tradition of Pirates of the Caribbean by being a big budget adventure story based on a theme park ride, and, even during the opening sequence of the film, it seems like it will live up to these expectations, and it does…to an extent. After just a first watch, Jungle Cruise does turn out to be a fun and campy action film, but it does so relying on the Pirates method rather than its execution.

To put it simply, Jungle Cruise checks the metaphorical boxes that would be outlined in a pitch for Pirates, but takes those elements and is able to build a unique world that can still be enjoyed with the knowledge that it’s been done before.

The Pirates formula could be outlined as this: hire A-list actors that can crack jokes and perform (or have their body doubles perform) impressive stunts in a high stakes journey through unfamiliar areas of the world to stop villains of mythic proportions. Of course, this is a drastic oversimplification, but these basic elements are present in each film in the series, along with Jungle Cruise. Frank Wolff (Dwayne Johnson) is not a direct parallel to Jack Sparrow, but he does serve the same purpose, that of a character who, despite copious amounts of charisma, takes the length of the film to show the audience that he is worthy of their approval.

Johnson’s character of Frank is much different from Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow, and this is because of the differences in the world built for Jungle Cruise and Sparrow’s Caribbean. Instead of being a chaotic force in a reality bound world, Frank takes himself very seriously in an environment filled with larger than life characters, such as the comically sunburned Nilo Nemolato (Paul Giamatti), the stuck up fish out of water McGregor (Jack Whitehall), or the gun-toting German Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemmons). 

It is Johnson’s banter with his co-star Emily Blunt (as Lily Houghton) that really sets Frank and the whole Jungle Cruise universe apart from Pirates. Every delivery feels organic and fresh, even if the ideas behind lines like “Everything that you can see wants to kill you,” are archetypes of the genre they inherit. Blunt’s character of Lily is given screen time and personality that very few supporting characters in Pirates have, allowing both Blunt and writers Michael Green and Glenn Ficarra to flesh out a unique dynamic between Lily and Frank. 

The film is far from perfect, however. There are many movies that benefit from or are even known for getting straight into the action, but to have Jungle Cruise, a film that does need to build a whole new world for itself, start with an intense action scene and leave exposition for later means that there is a period in the middle that simultaneously feels slow and rushed. Plot points are happening left and right, but are gone so quickly that the audience is left with extremely clunky exposition that, unfortunately, even Johnson’s charisma can’t save.

Even the supporting cast of Giamatti and Plemmons get very limited screen time or fleshed out personas. Their caricature-esque writing serves them well in that they are memorable, but if the audience were to try and assess their motivation or ethos, it would be a tough task to accomplish.

The film does benefit from its source material being memorable and unique as well. The Jungle Cruise ride is notorious for two main reasons: the animatronic animals and the eye-roll inducing jokes delivered by the skippers assigned to each boat. 

It is here that an undercurrent of the film is stumbled upon. The ride isn’t supposed to have as much mystique or gravitas as the Pirates ride, therefore the film decidedly doesn’t try to either. The focus of the ride is also never really the story or environment (a trait fleshed out much better in its Adventureland roommate), but rather on the person guiding you along the trail of animals.

To that end, Jungle Cruise does its job: being a unique and entertaining adventure story, capturing the essence of its source material and standing strong in the shadow of a cultural giant. While not a perfect film by any means, it proves to be a lighthearted and relaxing way to spend an afternoon enjoying, just like the ride.

And, of course, it features the backside of water.

6.5/10