More than two decades after Robin Williams conquered that pesky board game, “Jumanji” has been resurrected with more stars (Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black) and a comedy director. The result, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” is a sweet and generally entertaining body-swap lark with some nice messages about being yourself.

Why Jumanji, though, is a head-scratcher. Even speaking as someone who was 12 when the game came out and who genuinely enjoyed the 1995 Robin Williams adventure-fantasy film about being swept up in a board game come to life, the idea that a die-hard Jumanji fan base exists or that the Jumanji brand needs a reboot seems dubious at best.

The conceit in the new movie is that when you’re transported into the game, you are suddenly a character in the game — in body, voice and skill set but with your earthbound personality pretty much intact. This is how a group of mismatched teens sharing the same detention, including the nerdy, shy Spencer (Alex Wolff), the football player Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), the superficial popular girl Bethany (Madison Iseman) and the too-smart for gym class Martha (Morgan Turner), transform into avatars played by Dwayne Johnson (Spencer), Kevin Hart (Fridge), Jack Black (Bethany) and Karen Gillan (Martha).

It’s a role reversal for everyone – the nerdy girl is hot now (and scantily clad), the hot girl is a middle-age man, the skinny guy is the Rock and the big football player is now tiny and wimpy — and they all have to go through the stages of learning to accept their new bodies, talents and shortcomings.

There is, of course, a lot of easy comedy in these situations (Spencer admiring his new muscles and Bethany getting used to her new anatomy among them), and all the main actors are kind of great at imitating the facial expressions of their teenage counterparts, especially Johnson and Black.

How can you argue with a bunch of movie stars acting goofy and hawking a believe-in-yourself message? There are some odd beats and choices, especially around Gillan’s Martha, who is costumed in nearly nothing (surely as a send-up of what female characters usually wear in video games, but however meta it might have been intended to be, it is still literally her costume). There’s also a plot line that hinges on her learning how to flirt from Bethany (because they all decide that flirting with the bad guy security guards is the only way they can get past them). Maybe it’s all in good fun, or maybe one of the four credited screenwriters could have been a woman.

Still, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” probably doesn’t warrant that much scrutiny. Its surface pleasures are strong enough for a fun holiday afternoon at the movies.

‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’

Three stars

out of four stars

Rated PG-13; adventure action, suggestive content, language

1 hour, 59 minutes

Opens Wednesday



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