I was moderately surprised by Jungle Cruise for awhile… I was low-key enjoying the movie and, in most respects, that didn’t change too drastically. But there was just enough off or misguided that I ultimately have to ding the film ever so slightly. It’s such a good natured and enthusiastic movie though that it makes me feel a little sad to do so.

Jungle Cruise is, indeed, based on the Disney ride that’s full of good-natured yet physically painful puns. And the movie is certainly truth-in-advertising as we get an in-movie jungle cruise sequence where Dwayne Johnson pulls out all the terrible puns to his customers. It was amusing, in a teeth-grating (yet very appropriate and welcome) way. It helps that Johnson is very good at being a great big ham (in a good way).

The actual story, set in 1916, has Emily Blunt’s character traveling to South America to find a magical flower that will cure whatever ails you. She hires Dwayne Johnson to pilot a river boat down the Amazon while being harried by a German U-Boat and plagued by undead conquistadors (as you do).

This movie is genuinely kind of low-key fun. It never got to the level of really enjoyable but it was mostly a good-natured Disney adventure. There’s some witty banter between the two leads that is never quite as witty as they think it is… but it’s good. There’s some pretty decent spectacle and certainly some impressive sets. And its sometimes quite funny… at least I laughed out loud on a number of occasions. This was a pretty good time at the movies.

Until the supernatural angle kicks in. It adds in a crew of undead/cursed conquistador ghosts that were clearly on loan from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (movie). If you were to tell me this was a part of a shared universe, I’d believe you. Not that there’s anything necessarily wrong with cursed conquistadors except that they are underused, over-designed, and look like a hot mess in action scenes. Really, when they show up for some action, it just becomes a lot of visual noise (doesn’t help their scenes are filmed in the dark). And they make an overstuffed final action set piece even worse.

As far as Johnson and Blunt go, they work well-ish together. Some of their banter is funny bordering on merely amusing. Never thought it was as funny as they did though. And I felt they had a little chemistry as bickering rivals but zero romantic chemistry. Yet we get some romance too. It didn’t work for me.

So… yeah… this is hardly the worst movie ever. It’s still a reasonably fun family adventure film that properly invokes the ride (probably more so than Pirates). But I think they made some design and editing mistakes with the ghosts and Blunt and Johnson didn’t really gel as well as they should. It was enough to knock my score down slightly. Still maybe worth checking out, especially if you enjoy the ride (ironically or otherwise).

Score: 74