Review | Jungle Cruise movie review: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt in enjoyable adventure based on Disney’s popular theme park ride
- Disney’s latest film inspired by a theme park ride has hints of Indiana Jones, ‘Romancing the Stone’ and ‘Uncharted’
- It’s an engaging and enjoyable adventure, and only time will tell if it matches ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’
3.5/5 stars
Dwayne Johnson headlines an old-fashioned romp through the Amazon in Jungle Cruise, the latest film spun off from a popular Disney theme park ride.
Like Pirates of the Caribbean, the studio will doubtless hope this action adventure spawns a multimillion-dollar movie franchise, even if it doesn’t boast a character as memorable as Johnny Depp’s Captain Jack Sparrow.
What it does have is some genteel chemistry between Emily Blunt’s headstrong adventurer Dr Lily Houghton and Johnson’s amiable Frank, the skipper of a rusty boat she hires to take her and her brother MacGregor (Jack Whitehall) into the heart of the jungle.
He calls her “pants”, due to her love of wearing trousers; she calls him “skippy”, mocking his captaincy of the boat.
The film is set in 1916, and the intrepid Lily is searching for a petal from the Tears of the Moon, said to cure all ailments. Out to stop her is Prince Joaquim (Jesse Plemons), a Teutonic villain with his own submarine, who believes acquiring this mythical tree of life will help win The Great War. He enlists the help of three Conquistadors, led by Édgar Ramirez, who were left cursed and trapped in the Amazon for 400 years.