• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

First Reviews for Jon Favreau's "The Jungle Book"

Status
Not open for further replies.
Saw it, thought it was ok. The whole plot was pretty typical (reminded me a lot if the lion king, although maybe the lion king was inspired by the source material for this. Havent read the book or seen the cartoon in ages) and nothing really jumped out or interested me besides the visuals.

The Trench scene in particular... Lion King was my very first thought.
 

BeforeU

Oft hope is born when all is forlorn.
Fantastic movie. Saw it in IMAX 3D. I say god damn, that is gotta be the visual effect work.

But did not like the last 20-25min of the film. It was alright. But its a kids movie, I wont go over the plothole.


Sher Khan man, brilliant.
That scene at night when Raksha wakes up and finds her cubs playing with sher khan and ge send them off but the way he keeps one of them for brief moment. HOLLYFUCK, that expression on the mothers face. I alost skipped a heartbeat. I almost thought he was going to kill the cub.
 
Saw it, thought it was ok. The whole plot was pretty typical (reminded me a lot if the lion king, although maybe the lion king was inspired by the source material for this. Havent read the book or seen the cartoon in ages) and nothing really jumped out or interested me besides the visuals.

The Trench scene in particular... Lion King was my very first thought.

In the book(s) *spoilers obviously*, Shere Khan
is killed by a trap set by Mowgli and the buffalo in a trench.
 
Fantastic movie. Saw it in IMAX 3D. I say god damn, that is gotta be the visual effect work.

But did not like the last 20-25min of the film. It was alright. But its a kids movie, I wont go over the plothole.


Sher Khan man, brilliant.
That scene at night when Raksha wakes up and finds her cubs playing with sher khan and ge send them off but the way he keeps one of them for brief moment. HOLLYFUCK, that expression on the mothers face. I alost skipped a heartbeat. I almost thought he was going to kill the cub.
Is it about the time it took? Because that can be easily explained by a film editing fast travel system. I mean, look at the blaze. That took some time.
 

Cuburt

Member
Sher Khan man, brilliant.
That scene at night when Raksha wakes up and finds her cubs playing with sher khan and ge send them off but the way he keeps one of them for brief moment. HOLLYFUCK, that expression on the mothers face. I alost skipped a heartbeat. I almost thought he was going to kill the cub.
What a great scene that was.

For me, that's when I really saw how much of a threat Shere Khan is beyond his size and why the animals of the jungle were afraid of him. He's so devious and it still feels so characteristic of a tiger to me in his methods.
 

y2dvd

Member
Great movie.
+The visuals. I couldn't believe most of the background was CGI. Convinced me most of it were practical effects.
+The animation. The way the animals moved, the muscle movement, the details, all were extremely realistic.
+The soundtrack was amazing. They made perfect use of the original TJB theme.
+Most of the voice acting. Shere Khan especially was about as perfect of a cast as you could make.
+Shere Khan. What an amazing villian. He had motivation. He was scary. He commanded every scene he was in. He was vicious. I thought he may be too intense for very little kids haha.
+Neel Sethi. He did good as a new kid actor working mainly with a greenscreen.
+The tension. The entire audience was on the edge of their seat.

-Neel Sethi. At the same time, I didn't think he was a great child actor, but he wasn't bad at least and knowing what he had to work with, it was still impressive.
-Kaa's voice wasn't how I imagined it sounding like. No knock to Scarlet Jo.
-
Babloo was just strolling up in the high vines and ran into Kaa and Mogwli? This bear is too lazy to be that high up.
-
King Louie's song. I don't mind musicals. The Bear Necessities came pretty organically. The King Louie song came outta nowhere and felt out of place. If the movie was gonna commit to being a musical, then it should've had more numbers.

8.5/10
The negatives were hella nitpicks and didnt hurt the enjoyment by much.

Easter egg.
A cowbell, King Louie, and guess who it is voiced by...
 

rashbeep

Banned
I'd say it was... competent?

Was well made and the characters were likable, but it didn't feel very memorable to me.

The ending
with Mowgli burning down the forest was rather stupid, and just made you side with Shere Khan lol
 

esel

Member
My 6 year old REALLY wants to see this, but some reviews mentioned that the movie is a bit too dark for small children. Question for those who seen it: dark = dark / adult themes or dark = scary moments / characters?
 
My 6 year old REALLY wants to see this, but some reviews mentioned that the movie is a bit too dark for small children. Question for those who seen it: dark = dark / adult themes or dark = scary moments / characters?

Scary moments. I would say nothing as scary as say Jurassic Park though and more in line with a normal Disney movie.
 
My 6 year old REALLY wants to see this, but some reviews mentioned that the movie is a bit too dark for small children. Question for those who seen it: dark = dark / adult themes or dark = scary moments / characters?
I took my six year old who is no stranger to Jurassic Park, Ghostbusters, Star Wars etc. Depending on your child's viewing habits and fear threshold, should be fine. Dark = a scary moment or two with a death or two that isn't graphically shown at all.
 

Hazelhurst

Member
Special effects were great, but I didn't really enjoy the movie as a whole. I thought it was too simplistic and the kid was annoying. For a kids movie, I thought it was a little too violent as well.
 
For those who've seen the movie, how jarring/not-jarring is the CG?

Trailers look splendid so far, but the dissonance between realistic animals and talking with human voices almost took me out of it the first time. Does one get accustomed to it pretty early on in the film?
 
For those who've seen the movie, how jarring/not-jarring is the CG?

Trailers look splendid so far, but the dissonance between realistic animals and talking with human voices almost took me out of it the first time. Does one get accustomed to it pretty early on in the film?
Yes you get accustomed to it early on. When all the animals are on the screen, you'll love it, especially when Shere Khan shows up.
 

vaderise

Member
Saw this today.For me it's the best movie of 2016 so far.
+Amazing visuals.I haven't seen a movie that mixes CGI and real life like this.It looked phenomenal.
+I liked every single tweak to the original story.It amde it mroe believable and much more exciting to watch.
+Voice acting was top notch (Especially Bill Murray and Idris Elba) and the kid was great.
+Very well balanced comedy-drama.Also action sequences were much better than i expected.
+ John Debney's score.
So this movie has all the elements of what makes a cinema experience good.
I rate it 9/10.
Great job Favreau.
Now pls return to MCU ASAP.
 

nib95

Banned
Saw this earlier and was absolutely blown away. Just Loved it. The visuals, the animations, locations, cinematography, voice acting, everything. Just so beautiful, delightful and thoroughly breathtaking. It's simple and predictable, but it's sort of made for kids as well as adults, so I can understand why.

My only real negatives were that I felt Scarjo and the Anaconda/Python were undercooked, and Baloo and Mowgli's relationship wasn't properly fleshed out, but I suspect both these things were a matter of time constraints with editing. Aside from that though, just magic. Every shot was a delight, and the characters were just so well realised. Shere Khan, Bhageera, King Louie, Baloo etc, they just nailed not only the designs, but also the VA that coincided. I couldn't have even imagined a better version of these characters.

I also really liked the little tweaks they made to the story, and to Mowgli's character. It just elevated it all, giving it that little bit of extra charisma, imagination and entertainment factor.

If I had to rate it off first viewing, I'd probably give it between a 9 or 9.5/10, but I generally dislike attributing scores after first viewings. The true testament to a quality movie is whether it can be equally entertaining with multiple viewings. I suspect for me, The Jungle Book will be.

Fantastic job Favreau. Loved The Chef and really enjoyed Iron Man as well, so this guy has yet to set a foot wrong for me.
 
Saw this earlier and was absolutely blown away. Just Loved it. The visuals, the animations, locations, cinematography, voice acting, everything. Just so beautiful, delightful and thoroughly breathtaking. It's simple and predictable, but it's sort of made for kids as well as adults, so I can understand why.

My only real negatives were that I felt Scarjo and the Anaconda/Python were undercooked, and Baloo and Mowgli's relationship wasn't properly fleshed out, but I suspect both these things were a matter of time constraints with editing. Aside from that though, just magic. Every shot was a delight, and the characters were just so well realised. Shere Khan, Bhageera, King Louie, Baloo etc, they just nailed not only the designs, but also the VA that coincided. I couldn't have even imagined a better version of these characters.

I also really liked the little tweaks they made to the story, and to Mowgli's character. It just elevated it all, giving it that little bit of extra charisma, imagination and entertainment factor.

If I had to rate it off first viewing, I'd probably give it between a 9 or 9.5/10, but I generally dislike attributing scores after first viewings. The true testament to a quality movie is whether it can be equally entertaining with multiple viewings. I suspect for me, The Jungle Book will be.

Fantastic job Favreau. Loved The Chef and really enjoyed Iron Man as well, so this guy has yet to set a foot wrong for me.

I really liked Elf and Zathura as kid friendly family films. You may enjoy those. I've yet to see The Chef but I guess I prefer more of the fantastical fiction variety.

As for your "I couldn't have even imagined a better version of these characters" comment, I personally prefer their book counterparts and really look forward to the Serkis version of JB next year in hopes it's more faithful to the source material.

But as an adaption of the original toon? Fantastic.
 

nib95

Banned
I really liked Elf and Zathura as kid friendly family films. You may enjoy those. I've yet to see The Chef but I guess I prefer more of the fantastical fiction variety.

As for your "I couldn't have even imagined a better version of these characters" comment, I personally prefer their book counterparts and really look forward to the Serkis version of JB next year in hopes it's more faithful to the source material.

But as an adaption of the original toon? Fantastic.

I've never read the book and was mostly looking at it from the perspective of being an adaptation of the original cartoon, only spruced up and modernised.

I also didn't realise Favreau directed both Elf and Zathura. I enjoyed Elf, though it didn't exactly blow me away. Likewise for Zathura, which I found entertaining, but nothing stand out.

I would also highly recommend The Chef, even if it isn't your typical genre of choice. It's honestly an excellent film, especially if you love food, and just want a simple, funny, feel good, warm and hearty comedy/drama.
 
I've never read the book and was mostly looking at it from the perspective of being an adaptation of the original cartoon, only spruced up and modernised.

I also didn't realise Favreau directed both Elf and Zathura. I enjoyed Elf, though it didn't exactly blow me away. Likewise for Zathura, which I found entertaining, but nothing stand out.

I would also highly recommend The Chef, even if it isn't your typical genre of choice. It's honestly an excellent film, especially if you love food, and just want a simple, funny, feel good, warm and hearty comedy/drama.
Yeah, I meant to add I wouldn't mind checking it out. I've never heard of it until the bad Photoshop movie posters thread haha.
 
It was a fine movie I guess. Maybe I was expecting a little too much based on the Rotten Tomatoes score. But it wasn't quite as good as I expected. There just wasn't a lot too it. And it felt like it was made for the same age group as the cartoon version. Which I guess should be expected? But for whatever reason I guess I thought it would appeal to all age groups a little more. A lot of the performances were really good. Idris Elba and Bill Murray were standouts.

What was not a standout was the kid. Which surprised me because I'd heard a lot of good things. I know he was working with a ton of green screen (the visuals were amazing by the way), but geez he really didn't draw me into the world at all. His delivery was really bad, and I couldn't even understand what he was saying a lot of the time.

It was a fine movie, but nothing spectacular. I'd give it a solid 3/5.
 
I thought the kid was perfectly fine. I think I prefer the natural, dead pan delivery more than some over-acted dramatic delivery that I imagine when I read negative comments against the kid. He did great.
 

Matt_

World's #1 One Direction Fan: Everyone else in the room can see it, everyone else but you~~~
Just got back from it and really enjoyed it.
The ending was a little eh for me, but I think thats because I'm too attached to the animated film. It just doesn't make sense that shere khan would go chasing mowgli into a flaming jungle when hes been scarred by fire before
I also wanted more from the elephants but thats really just nitpicking

King Louie was my favourite. When he got up and let out that roar I got fucking chills
 
Saw this last night on a whim. I enjoyed it a lot more than I anticipated and it wasn't really on my radar. I barely have any real connection with the animated movie so I went in as 'without expectation' as that allowed.

That Shere Khan though. What an ASSHOLE. I loved it.
 
One thing I want to point out: The opening shot of the castle in the beginning was pretty cool! I read afterwards that it was actually cel painted too.
 
I really liked Elf and Zathura as kid friendly family films. You may enjoy those. I've yet to see The Chef but I guess I prefer more of the fantastical fiction variety.

As for your "I couldn't have even imagined a better version of these characters" comment, I personally prefer their book counterparts and really look forward to the Serkis version of JB next year in hopes it's more faithful to the source material.

But as an adaption of the original toon? Fantastic.

You're going to be waiting another year on the Serkis movie.
 

Skel1ingt0n

I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
Probably one of the best Disney movies I've ever seen. Loved it, through and through. In the entire film, there was a single 3-sec shot
poor compositing when the main character is swung
, and a 1-minute distraction
the almost musical scene
that was less than perfect.

Otherwise, I'd give it AT LEAST a 9/10 after the first view. Go see this film.
 

Astral Dog

Member
man, very good, and surprisingly violent and realistic in some parts.

I dont like Mugli, he felt...boring, or distant, very calm then suddendly goes full revenge against the tigger the kid was the worst part about the movie but considering the actor its still impressive, and the animals looked a bit off.
 
It was okay.

Negatives
-Kaa pointless
-Songs pointless. I remember hoping the songs would be in the movie. Once they started singing I was like, never mind.
-I miss the cartoon ending
-Kid

Positives
-Sher Khan
 

Joeku

Member
I don't know if it was just me, but King Louie looked like Christopher Walken. Mostly the eyes. Maybe they could do that since he'd have a face closer to a human's.

I loved the way the animals were realized. So cool.
 

Astral Dog

Member
It was okay.

Negatives
-Kaa pointless
-Songs pointless. I remember hoping the songs would be in the movie. Once they started singing I was like, never mind.
-I miss the cartoon ending
-Kid

Positives
-Sher Khan

Kaa was not pointless she gave the whole backstory, was killed too soon though.
edit:yes King louies eyes were based on Christopher Walken.
 
What a film.

Kaa I felt was a little unnecessary. I think they should've made the bond between Baloo and Mowgli tighter with the extra couple of minutes and have that
Your father was the one who burned me
moment as a reveal towards the end.

Shere Khan and King Louie were the standouts for me. They felt so visceral and fierce. The whole movie did actually. But these two were actually really scary and intimidating. Walken singing was one of the best parts tbh. Every character I felt a connection with, and that's something super rare with movies. The wolves were fantastic as well.

The CG my god. This needs to win an award for best Visual Effects because this was the most realistic and alive Jungle in any piece of media I've seen. Truly outstanding.

The best scene in the movie for me was the
Elephant scene.
It was truly moving, and I felt something that I never really ever got in a film. That was one of the at least 3 times I got chills.

I would honestly rate this movie a solid "Go fucking see this now"/10
9/10
 

Einchy

semen stains the mountaintops
Shere Khan was one of the most intimidating villains I've seen in awhile.

You could really feel why everyone in the jungle was scared shitless of him.
 
Shere Khan was one of the most intimidating villains I've seen in awhile.

You could really feel why everyone in the jungle was scared shitless of him.

Exactly! Hell, I was scared shitless of him. When he was
at the Wolves Den the first time and killed their leader I was like OH FUCK.
 

Krammy

Member
Saw this earlier in the week and was kind of disappointed with the voice acting. Scarlett Johansson as Kaa sounded really phoned in, and it really felt like Bill Murray was there just to be Bill Murray and not a convincing Baloo. King Louie and Shere Khan were outstanding though, and I still had a good time with the movie overall.
 

rogue74

Member
Just got back from seeing this and I really enjoyed it. The CGI was phenomenal.

I was just doing some reading on Wikipedia trying to see how faithful of an adaptation this was and was surprised to see that there is another version of The Jungle Book coming out in 2018. This one will have Benedict Cummerbatch as Shere Khan, Christian Bale as Bagheera, Andy Serkis as Baloo, and Cate Blanchett as Kaa. The director is Andy Serkis.

Lot of talent there but why two adaptations so close to each other?
 

ArmGunar

Member
Just got back from seeing this and I really enjoyed it. The CGI was phenomenal.

I was just doing some reading on Wikipedia trying to see how faithful of an adaptation this was and was surprised to see that there is another version of The Jungle Book coming out in 2018. This one will have Benedict Cummerbatch as Shere Khan, Christian Bale as Bagheera, Andy Serkis as Baloo, and Cate Blanchett as Kaa. The director is Andy Serkis.

Lot of talent there but why two adaptations so close to each other?

And WB pushed back their movie from 2017 to 2018 after the Jungle Book's strong results.

Plus, Disney is going to prepare for a sequel ahaha
 
Just got back from seeing this and I really enjoyed it. The CGI was phenomenal.

I was just doing some reading on Wikipedia trying to see how faithful of an adaptation this was and was surprised to see that there is another version of The Jungle Book coming out in 2018. This one will have Benedict Cummerbatch as Shere Khan, Christian Bale as Bagheera, Andy Serkis as Baloo, and Cate Blanchett as Kaa. The director is Andy Serkis.

Lot of talent there but why two adaptations so close to each other?
Well the other was announced first but Disney's is a remake of their cartoon film while the other may be a bit more faithful to the books (which I happen to prefer).

This happened before with those two Snow White films that came out near each other. The Huntsman version and Mirror Mirror.

Edit: currenly watching the live action JB from the 90s starting Alan Grant, Cersei, and Dread Pirate Roberts and it isn't doing much for me. I loved it when i was younger simply for the live action Bagheera scenes. Not much of an adaption.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
Back from seeing it. Pretty good, and I enjoyed it overall, but wasn't as enamored as I'd hoped to be. Strengths in visuals and action staging/direction, and several performances (Murray, Elba, Nyong'o were standouts). The kid was pretty good; sometimes a bit flat but never a distraction to the film. Given how much of the story rested on his shoulders, and how the film was made, that's no small feat. The score was effective. I enjoyed how often the film paused to build tension and atmosphere; it wasn't all breakneck chasing and running.

I'm not familiar with the original - haven't seen it in 30 years, and barely remember any of it - so I don't have much point of reference. But some elements of the story didn't work for me at all. The film plays with distance in a way that didn't seem to make sense.
Mowgli travels for what seemed like days, across plains, down the river, through more of the jungle. Then at the end he gets back to his home in what seems like minutes, beating the bear and puma with barely a head start. My wife and I were like, what?

Staging in the finale was weird.
Mowgli's main accomplishment was to set the forest on fire; he does kill the big bad because of it, but it felt like a really strange development,demonstrating why man is so dangerous, and then only using it as a way to kill the bad guy rather than reinforcing the themes of how man and the wild intersect. After, it's conveniently extinguished and forgotten.

Why did everyone recite the Law of the Jungle, coming together in a pack, and then stand back while the bear fought the bad guy solo, and then all attack only after? I was like, give him some help! Remember that whole 'strength of the pack' bit? He would have been overwhelmed of course, and so it was a contrivance to set up the finale.

I hated how Murray's character decides to encourage Mowgli to move on - by pretending to be a dick. Mowgli trusted him, and would have moved on if he'd encouraged him to do so. Felt out of character, and done only to shoo Mowgli into the tree.

The songs didn't work for me. It wasn't a musical, so the Bear Necessities (I think?) song coming in was strange, but I rolled with it since it was just two friends signing as they floated the river. But
Walken's character busting out in song
was really strange and took me out of the scene completely.

But story issues aside, it was otherwise very well done. The theater I was in was pretty full, and the audience seemed quite sucked into it. Can definitely see why it has such strong word of mouth.
 
Just got home from seeing it. Really good. A nice mix between being dark and cute. The kid who played Mowgli was excellent, and I burst out laughing when I realized it was
Christopher Walken as King Louie and started singing "I wanna be like you".

I just realized that Mowgli used a
cowbell to accidentally summon King Louie.
That had to be an intentional Easter egg.
 

jj984jj

He's a pretty swell guy in my books anyway.
I saw it yesterday and found it enjoyable but three things bothered me.

1. The new ending left me with mixed feelings.
2. The new story structure downplayed Baloo. Sure his character is not meant to be serious, but that doesn't mean he wasn't vital to the story.
3. What I really didn't like most of all was the implementation of Kaa. This character could have been edited out of this version and nothing would have changed.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom