Jungle Cruise is a movie that resembles other adventures, but has fun with its two leads and some twists to the story! The director of the film is Jaume Collet-Serra who also directed the Liam Neeson thriller, The Commuter (2018) and has upcoming the Dwayne Johnson superhero film, Black Adam. There are some extensive writing credits; story by John Norville and Josh Goldstein along with Glenn Ficarra and John Requa, co-screenwriters with Michael Green. The latter of whom co-wrote Blade Runner 2049 (2017) and has next year, Death on the Nile. We dive under the Disney logo river and to see the Tears of the Moon, a tree with pinkish petals under water, the narrator, Jack Whitehall) says that one petal can cure any sickness. This has led many expeditions to find it, one of which is the conquistador, Don Aguirre (Edgar Ramirez), but the jungle defends the tree with snakes lashing out and other dangers. The guardians of the tree are local tribesmen who capture Aguirre, he strikes out and tries to escape, but is captured forever by the jungle. The curse of the Tears of the Moon is very Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006).
The speaker is making a presentation and in the balcony is a lady (Emily Blunt) mouthing his words, it’s of course her speech. It is London, 1916, two years into the Great War, and speaker notes that the petals would be needed for medicine and healing of the wounded and sick. He requests access to the archives of the organization and an arrowhead recovered by Dr. Albert Falls, a former explorer, and a reference to the Disney attraction. He reads from the note cards, “Pause for dramatic effect”, funny. The group, The Royal Anthropological and Diverse Adventures Society, refuses his request. The lady has left her seat at the upper balcony at the failure of the speaker’s proposal and walks down guided by the map drawn on her arm. She encounters a German aristocrat examining a spear (Jesse Plemons) who sends her to the upper floor with the secretaries. The lady lockpicks a room and then is caught by an assistant, but she manages to chloroform him! She moves to a room next to the hall where the society members are speaking to the speech maker. He says they granted him, MacGregor, access because of his late father and gave a similar paper presented by Dr. Lily Houghton, his sister who wrote the speech!
Lily sneaks around an archelogist, snatches up his map, and while he is chipping away at a rock, pries open a case from the A. Falls expedition. Very like Dr. Jones hitting the library floor in time to the librarian stamping books. She opens the crate and finds a box that contains the arrowhead. Then, Lily hears that Sir James Hobbs-Coddington (Andy Nyman) is escorting the German aristocrat into the archives because of his generous donations. Hobbs as in the character that Johnson plays in Hobbs & Shaw? He sees Lily who has the supposed Zulu spear and wields it as pole vault to reach the rolling ladder while knocking down society men. Her antics is similar to Evelyn Carnahan in The Mummy (1999) whom also had a hapless brother. The aristocrat knocks a box to have her holding to the ladder outside a window. This happens at the same time her brother is escorting out of the building. The music has a simliar cadence to Raiders of the Lost Ark. The aristocrat asks Lily to give him the box and he will help her. MacGregor goes out to the street to stop a double decker bus. Lily throws the man the box. The bus stops right under Lily and she drops to find soldiers heading to the war. MacGregor is clever saving Lily. The action, though slightly familiar, has a fun energy and it is really livened by Blunt’s performance.
The aristocrat opens the box only to find a tiny toucan carving that was also in the crate. The society official apologizes to Prince Joachim Wilheim. He does not like that his identity is revealed and kills several society personnel. Prince Joachim confronts Sir James to ask him if he knows who is the woman. This shifts to the hotel room where Lily is packing up as MacGregor goes over her crimes. He is actually not just a complainer, his story is actually interesting when it is later revealed setting him above comic relief. She is packing for steamer trip to Brazil for them. Lily drops a pamphlet for steamer boats saying they need a skipper. We of course get the steamer, La Quila, and her captain played by Dwayne Johnson. His last film was Jumanji: The Next Level (2019). The boat looks similar in design to the attraction, but more run down and larger. The tour group worry as the skipper works on the steamer’s engine. He swings to the cabin and steers the steamer away just in time to avoid a spiky tree. Then, the skipper makes a dad joke about two toucans on a branch, but the tour group is just stunned and then groan at his jokes. He takes out a machete to activate his props around the river. He cons tourist groups when he can show them the real Amazon. The skipper warns them about the dangers out the river.
Some “natives” use blowguns on the boat. A tourist offers him money to go faster. The steamer chugs along to Porto Velho, Brazil. A small town and dock similar to Port Royal in the first Pirates movie. Arriving by train to the port is Lily and MacGregor. A businessman in white suit, Nilo Nemolato (Paul Giamatti), is walking down to the dock to collect money from the skipper he calls Frankie. Giamatti, who was also in San Andreas (2015) with Dwayne Johnson, plays up the silliness of the character. His men take away the steamer’s engine and lock up the boat giving the key to their boss. Lily goes to a bar to check on Mr. Nilo and is pointed out his office. Frank sees Nilo look away the key to the boat and sneaks into his office. Lily knocks on the door and of course mistakes Frank for Nilo. She wants to hire him to take the cruise and he opens the door when she says she has money. Lily is headed upriver to Lagrimas De Cristal. She mentions the Tears of the Moon. Frank thinks it is all stories. He points out the cabinet that has the key to his steamer. Lily opens it using a map reading caliper and opens the cabinet. They start negotiating a price joined by MacGregor with Nilo. Frank sees Lily’s arrowhead necklace and wants to join the expedition.
Everyone is startled by the appearance of a jaguar. The CG animals and some of the scenery is convincing enough. Frank wrassles with it and then throws the dropped steak from his meal out the window. The jaguar jumps for it and everyone cheers for Frank. The price is agreed and Frank checks the engine. He doesn’t want to play ball with his jaguar Proxima, another scam. At the dock, Lily is upset at caged birds, she is thrown into the cage and lifted away. Frank begins tossing away MacGregor’s luggage. Lily manages to grab a woman’s hatpin and frees herself. Frank has left the dock with the steamer and then puts the wheel in MacGregor’s hands. Lily fights off the men and runs into Frank. He defeats the bullies the same way as Bravestone in Jumanji. Frank leaps in the water to reach his boat. Lily tries to make a daring(?) escape on a rope to get to the boat, she can’t swim! Prince Joachim as a submarine and hires its machine gun at the steamer. His German commander is like all of the Nazi villains in the Indy movies, but a little over-the-top. Somehow they have to escape Joachim and make their way to the forbidden location of the mystical Tears of the Moon. They also encounter Trader Sam from the ride and some surprises. I can imagine more cruises to India and ultimately Africa like many of the memorable scenes of the attraction following the journeys of Lily and MacGregor’s father. Jungle Cruise may have familiar scenes and characters, but there is still crowd pleasing fun and adventure with Blunt and Johnson and some twists at the end!
Four Arrowheads out of Five!
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