The Jungle Book (Jon Favreau)

[Peng]

http://f.ptcdn.info/782/041/000/o5kyu8ghrhAMKEUhzi4-o.jpg

[Peng]

I imagine it must be difficult at that age to interact wholly with green screens or tennis ball on a stick or what not, but the kid's acting leaves a bit to be desired at various points, though thankfully not outright distracting. Also, a lot of scenes are just *slightly* on the side of long-winded, maybe because the filmmakers want to linger on in each set piece just a bit more.


But really, who can blame them? I still can't believe they hadn't taken a single step into the wild and it's all conjured up with CG. The thick forest, the glistening river, the rocky cliffs... they are rich, detailed, and just feel real, especially in IMAX 3D (for me this is the first film since Life of Pi and Gravity to be worth plunging those extra price for). Not to mentioned those animals: fully realized, believable interactions, and with such terrifying, vicious impact (as far as PG can get you) whenever a fight scene occurs. It's just an old-fashioned, rollicking good adventure wrapped in stunning visuals that aid the storytelling fully, with ace voice acting all around. MVP: Bill Murray as Baloo.

[TGM]

I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'm really not digging any of these live action remakes from Disney so far. This movie just did nothing for me. The visuals are nice, sure, but I just got nothing out of it. In fact, hell, by the time we get to the big climax, I actually found myself rooting for Shere Khan's side. The kid playing Mowgli was really hit or miss, he was fine for the most part, but holy crap was he cringey at others. And the voice acting was decent, nothing exceptional, though Christopher Walken as King Louie stood out like a sore thumb as a particularly questionable low point for the movie. In fact, the musical numbers in general stood out, seeing as this wasn't actually a musical. I understood them wanting to toss in The Bear Necessities (though their execution of its inclusion was one of those aforementioned cringe-inducing moments), but randomly having Christopher Walken singing his song just really didn't fit in with the rest of the movie at all. Either be a musical, or don't, but randomly breaking out into song like that didn't even fit within the moment itself, let alone the movie as a whole, and stood out as just really misguided. But I dunno, I didn't hate the movie or anything, but I can't say I was a fan of it, either. It just felt kinda pointless to me. :\

[dreamdead]

This is a flash of pretty meh. Gorgeously rendered throughout, and probably more esteemed if I researched how much is CGI, but the end result is very much one where I struggle to understand the need for this film to exist in this format in addition to the animated version.

I'm happy that the lone human was actually played by a non-white, but otherwise, this doesn't really add or adapt in new ways Kipling's story. A few of the images are succinctly beautiful, and the red flowers business during the snake's flashback is done in a more allegorical and thus interesting manner, but meh. The direction is good, the lead is competent enough (some line deliveries just don't quite work), but I'm most excited for the international markets to see this story, even if it doesn't do too much with colonialism.

[Spinal]

Engaging film, although I haven't thought about it much since. The visuals are impressive. The performances are solid. And it made me laugh a few times. I thought the kid did a fine job. I did feel that King Louie's song felt stylistically strange. When Baloo sings, it's because he's got a favorite song he likes to sing to himself. Whereas Louie is singing his feelings in a film that is not really a musical. It's also somewhat disappointing when a family film has to resolve in a fight, but it was exciting nonetheless.

[Dukefrukem]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkNArCG80Bg

[Dukefrukem]

Loved this. Even got a little emotional at times, which apparently, is easy to do lately. Not sure if it was my nostalgic view of the 1967 film, or how much I loved seeing this kid interact with life-like animals in a jungle. Either way, I enjoyed the hell out of this. I am really looking forward to the live action Lion King now.

[Sycophant]

and the red flowers business during the snake's flashback is done in a more allegorical and thus interesting manner, but meh

This was almost really interesting. The film almost seemed to be building to saying something a little interesting and maybe even challenging about humanity's relationship to nature, but it puts that hot potato down way far away where we can't see it anymore because satisfyingactionclimax.

I was glad to see this in the theater to marvel at how good looking it all is. But it's ultimately pretty perfunctory and--like every*yawn*thing these days--a little too ready to be turned into a franchise.

I know I had more thoughts when I saw this a few months ago. I thought I wrote them down then, but it looks like they've largely evaporated. I do remember it having a couple of satisfying emotional moments (or hitting a couple of satisfying emotional beats, in today's parlance). The kid was kind of awkward sometimes, but also sometimes really affecting.

It is, at the very least, my favorite Jon Favreau-directed movie*.

*I don't like his other movies at all.