The Jungle Book (2016) Review (Reposted)

NOTE: This is a review drafted on 4/30/2016 on a different blog that is no longer in use. I decided to transfer content from that website to this to maintain consistency. 

The Jungle Book (2016) - Spoiler-Free Review

Release date (US): April 15th, 2016

Rating: PG

Starring: Neel Sethi, Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Christopher Walken, Ben Kingsley, Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Giancarlo Esposito

Blurb/Synopsis: When a young boy living in a jungle named Mowgli (Neel Sethi) and his wolf-pack are threatened by the sinister tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba), Mowgli must leave the pack and travel with the black panther Bagheera (Ben Kingsley) in search of his home.

Expectations/Background: Going to be completely honest, when I first heard they were going to make a "live-action" version of the Jungle Book, I laughed. How could they pull that off? That's insane! It's like right now when Disney is saying they're going to make a movie about the Jungle Cruise or The Little Mermaid. I'm still skeptical about how they can manage to pull that off. How were going to manage a giant brown bear and a child walking through the jungle together. Then the first trailer came out. Well, before that, at D23 (Disney's own little Comic-con), they released footage of the film. And apparently it was incredible, but to be honest, I still didn't believe it. I just couldn't wrap my mind around it. But when the first railer came out, I was blown away with how absolutely incredible it looked. I thought to myself that they must have traveled far and have gotten real animals. Then I did some research and found that the only thing real in the entire movie was Mowgli, and that blew my mind even more. A couple of concerns I did have with the trailer was that when the animals talked, it did feel a little odd, as if the sounds of their voices were coming not from their own mouth, but from somewhere far away, but I put that aside. But the Super Bowl trailer is what really won me over, because in my opinion, it is one of the best trailers ever released. My goodness is it brilliant. It starts out rather weakly, but as the trailer reaches a climax and the orchestral version of The Bare Necessities starts playing, that's really when I was sold. And entering the movie, I could not have been more excited to see the movie, especially riding off of the super positive reviews that it was being given.

The Movie: I cannot stress enough how absolutely floored I was by this movie. This movie was amazing. Incredible, no other way around it. Riding those high expectations, I was not let down at all. This movie was full of heart and reminded me of the old Disney animated classics, like the Lion King, and more recent Pixar films such as Finding Nemo (well, fine, it wasn't that recent). Jon Favreau manages to inject so much heart into this movie, it's incredible that there was only one real actor on the sound stage during filming. Talking about the plot, the plot was not a very complex one, but at the same time, it really didn't need to be. This was a movie that was riding on how connected you were to the characters, and by the end, I cared about each and every one of them, even Shere Khan, to a certain extent. More on the cast and characters later, but they were absolutely phenomenal. I cannot say that there was one bad performance in this movie, none. Major props to Neel Sethi, who did amazingly acting to nothing. And this movie is engaging. There wasn't a moment where I looked at my watch, and by the time the movie ended, there was a sense of fulfillment. Yet, even with that sense of fulfillment, I just wanted more out of this world, this jungle, and these characters. And speaking on more positives in this movie, the settings of the movie are gorgeous. The entire movie, there is not a single moment in the film where you think to yourself that this movie takes place in a sound stage. Because everything is so realistic. And all the animals' movements are so organic, that it's almost like the crew got real animals and had them move around, which would have been impossible. Although this movie is nearly perfect, there are just a couple things that I did take issue with. One of them was one plot point that occurred in the middle of the movie. No spoilers as this is a spoiler free review, but the plot point in itself was rather jarring and took me out of the movie a tiny tiny bit. Adding to the fact that it was never resolved, and I felt that it could have been handled a lot better, and could have added a lot of extra emotional depth. However, the mere fact that people who have actually seen the movie may not know what I am talking about is a testament to the fact that it is a very very minor flaw, and could have easily passed by the casual moviegoer. The only other complaint I really have is music. And I'm not talking about the actual soundtrack, which is absolutely brilliant, and I think fits the tone of the movie in absolute perfection. No, I'm talking about the songs that were included because...well they kinda needed to be. There are two songs in the movie, and one of them is not seamlessly integrated, and since it needed to be there, it was welcome. It wasn't a full blown song anyways, but more of a back and forth. However, the second song was almost like it came from a full blown musical movie. All of a sudden, the orchestra begins to play and a character bursts into song, and that's rather jarring as well. This also leads me into another point, which isn't quite negative, but not quite positive. It's just a thing I noticed, I suppose, and it's that there are several moments in the movie that I thought, from a critical standpoint, did not need to be there at all, but needed to be there at the same time because they were such integral parts of the original movie, which I will touch on a little bit more in the cast and characters part. Regardless, I just felt that to make a good movie, objectively speaking, there could've been a couple parts removed, but overall, this was still a beautiful, amazingly crafted, well-rounded film.  

The Cast/Characters: Perfect. Absolutely perfect. There is not a single character that I didn't care about. The highlights of the film were easily Bill Murray as Baloo, Idris Elba as Shere Khan, and Neel Sethi as Mowgli. Baloo comes into the film, and right away, you just love the character, and I can easily all the laugh out loud moments came from his character. Idris Elba came off as a truly frightening and menacing villain, which I did not expect at all. Seriously, if you told me that a completely CGI tiger in a 99 percent CGI movie was going to be actually a good villain, I would've laughed. And Neel Sethi was just perfect as Mowgli. This guy needs more work, and I truly believe that he will have a bright future ahead of him. The other characters are not to be ignored either, as Ben Kingsley turns in a magnificent performance as Bagheera, and he and Baloo clash on how to live life, one very rule-abiding and the other very rule-breaking. The wolves, Raksha and Akila were also very good, and Lupita Nyong'o sold her one emotional scene with Mowgli very very well, and her deep calming voice was very appropriate. Giancarlo Esposito was very good too, but he really didn't have much to do and came off as a plot point. Even Christopher Walken was very entertaining to watch as King Louie, but a little more on him later. The one character that confused me was Kaa, voiced by Scarlet Johansson. I'm not discrediting the voice, because she was voiced perfectly, but she was one of the elements that I felt did not have to be there. I was surprised at how little she was actually in the movie, considering she was featured heavily in the promotional material. And I felt honestly that her scenes could have been cut entirely, and the movie would have been just fine. Overall though, complete home run, amazing cast, and amazing characters.

The Villain(s): As I said, Shere Khan was truly menacing. There was a small backstory involved with him, which wasn't quite nearly as strong as it could have been, but at the same time, it wasn't really a selling point to his villainy, The climax was truly amazing, and Idris Elba sold his lines absolutely perfectly. Again, the motivation for him going after Mowgli was a little weak, but it really was not a problem, because you could understand where his anger was coming from. I could not have asked for a better villain for an amazing movie. And then we come to King Louie, and honestly, he's not really a villain, more of opposition. And Christopher Walken plays his role perfectly. There really was not a better person to voice the role, and you could see the motivations behind him. His role was small, but overall very enjoyable. 

The Verdict: This movie is truly a testament to how far CGI has come. It is truly stunning how accurate it is, and how consistent it is. The actors and characters all come to play, and they all bring something to the movie. Mowgli, Baloo, and Shere Khan especially stand out, and as the movie keeps going, you feel Jon Favreau's love for this film show through. The heart of this movie completely overpowers the minor flaws I have with this movie. Amazing movie, which I highly recommend within in the theaters on a huge screen (this movie might even warrant 3D GASP). Watch it at least 3 times. Letter Grade: A Number Score: 9.6 **quick side-note** GASP you rated this movie higher than Star Wars: The Force Awakens how dare you. Let me say, that these two movies are entirely different movies. I had entirely different expectations and an entirely different "rubric" if you will, for Star Wars versus this movie. For the expectations I had for Jungle Book, it met them at the score I gave them, and Star Wars met its expectations according to the score that I gave it.