The Jungle Book (Jon Favreau, 2016)

[knives]

It's been getting some pleasant reviews, but the new Jungle Book has so much of what is wrong about the modern American blockbuster is on display here. A lot of the problems have to do with the film's relationship with its pair of source materials, but that doesn't need to be got into given the other problems on display. Primarily the film lacks any character or point of view whether the animated version's engagement with youth culture or even Sommer's Tarzan knock-off the film sifts through the motions not really engaging with why it is a Jungle Book movie rather then some other fantasy setting. And actually the film would work better as a Star Wars film, if still very generic, as the animal setting undermines the very basis of the story as does several plot points like the backstory with Shere Khan or the stupid macguffin. Outside of one action Shere Khan comes across as the most honest character and makes several good points about the danger of Mowgli who only works to prove him right in the climax until deus ex elephantas pops up. The Johansson and Walken cameos could have been nice (Johansson's for example does some nice stuff with the audio), but are mushed about too much to be enjoyable on their own and feel inorganic in story as if the writers couldn't figure out how to movie forward and so just stuck a character in there to force it forward.

[Trees]

I was a little disappointed with Jungle Book as well. Shere Khan was scary and his CGI was superb. Bill Murray was amusing as the bear. But most of the rest of the film just seemed average.

[flyonthewall2983]

Favreau, as considerate and knowledgeable about film as I've seen in interviews, seems content to be a by-the-numbers blockbuster director. Not as extreme as Michael Bay because he does have a good sense of story, but I don't feel like he's got what made Spielberg or even Lucas the big watermarks in that realm of filmmaking.

[cdnchris]

My wife took the kids to see it. They liked it.

That's all I got.

[flyonthewall2983]

I heard that the animals were pretty scary, especially to younger kids.

[knives]

Honestly I'd favour Bay in that comparison because though Favreau makes better films Bay at least has that point of view I was talking about at the start. With Bay I at least feel I'm seeing a film developed with some personal investment while in Favreau's case there may as well have been no director.

[flyonthewall2983]

Which kind of made him perfect for the two Iron Man films, where he was possibly more guided by the vision of what Marvel wanted out of him. As was the case with Edgar Wright, there is obviously some conflict when a guy comes in with his own comparable ideas.

[knives]

You're right, but even then there are journeymen who have made films better then any of the ones I've seen from him. Even something more personal like Chef.

[Trees]

I heard that the animals were pretty scary, especially to younger kids.

Definitely scary.

[flyonthewall2983]

Honestly I'd favour Bay in that comparison because though Favreau makes better films Bay at least has that point of view I was talking about at the start. With Bay I at least feel I'm seeing a film developed with some personal investment while in Favreau's case there may as well have been no director.

You're right, but even then there are journeymen who have made films better then any of the ones I've seen from him. Even something more personal like Chef.

I could be wrong in my interpretation of this, but I remember an episode of Dinner For Five (can't remember what it was), where he basically said he had little to no interest in foreign films. Now, that alone doesn't make one a bad director, but it certainly pushes one towards the kind of blandness we're talking about. I think Bay at least must have been a student of John Woo's stuff.

Speaking of which, it's funny to me that for so long he was practically the face of the Independent Film Channel, and by the end of that decade he was the epitome of Hollywood. I realize that it's not as a tacit a betrayal as I make it sound (because of the downfall of the indie world, made even more apparent by the channel's own change in priorities), but the irony is certainly there.

[colinr0380]

The main take away I've had from all of the publicity surrounding this film so far is that the 90s live action Jungle Book with Jason Scott Lee seems to have faded into obscurity as part of the Disney canon. I guess this might be due to wanting to play up this latest version as being the first live action version to feature the Disney songs, though it was interesting to hear Favreau say in an interview that the Disney executives were apparently more than prepared to do another non-musical version until the filmmakers wanted to add the songs back in.

[Trees]

Come on, flyonthewall2983. Michael Bay???!

[flyonthewall2983]

Come on, flyonthewall2983. Michael Bay???!

I think my comment was mostly damning with faint praise. I can't say I have any definite opinion of his work because I've only seen three of his films, but what I've seen I mostly liked (I didn't care a whole lot for Armageddon mostly). Don't want to turn this into a Bay thread, but I think the point knives and I subsequently were making is that like him or not, he definitely has a style where Favreau's kind of an empty suit in comparison.

[Mr Sausage]

I don't think Bay's style owes anything to John Woo--they both have an entirely different aesthetic approach to filming and editing action. But they both share a similar origin in American musicals. There's a very good video on Bay that shows, for instance, the influence of West Side Story on his visual style. So I don't think Bay has to've seen foreign films.

The comparison between Bay and Favereau is entirely academic, isn't it? Admiring the stance of films you don't like over ones you do is a non-issue when it comes to the practical decision of what you prefer to watch.

[Trees]

Favreau's face when he reads this thread.

[cdnchris]

I heard that the animals were pretty scary, especially to younger kids.

Possibly, though I think it really comes down to the kid. My wife told me our daughter freaked out during a couple of sequences (and she's seen Jaws, all the Jurassic Parks, Poltergeist and a bunch of other shit I really shouldn't let her watch). Our son, though, who is half her age, apparently didn't react much.