Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (2018)

Director: Andy Serkis
Stars: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch
Runtime: 104 minutes

Synopsis: Mowgli, a human child raised by wolves, must prove that he belongs in the jungle by defeating the evil tiger known as Shere Khan.

• Performances: 5/10

Why? Such a waste of a talented cast. Rohan Chand, while looking the part of Mowgli, did not sell the character as well as Neel Sethi who played the adopted child in Disney's live-action adaptation of the same material. The rest of the main cast, which includes names like Christian Bale (Bagheera), Cate Blanchett (Kaa), Benedict Cumberbatch (Shere Khan), Andy Serkis (Baloo), or Naomi Harris (Nisha) did a fine job animating the animals through motion capture technology, but did not succeed at delivering the voice performances that made the ones present in previous adaptation as likable and iconic as they are.

• Screenplay: 4/10

Why? By now, everybody must be familiar with the story of Mowgli and his struggle to fit in with the pack he considers to be family. I was looking forward to this adaptation ever since director Andy Serkis announced that it would be a much darker take on the tale, a decision I thought made sense knowing how disturbing the story of Mowgli actually is. Unfortunately, the film fell in the same trap as David Yates' Tarzan reimagining that hit theaters back in 2016. It almost entirely focused on delivering a grittier, more adult version of the story and forgot to work on the elements that make a movie a great one. The always lovable Bagheera and Baloo were completely wasted in the movie, as were most characters who were barely developed at all. The dialogue was cringe-worthy and hard to digest. The film also lacks a lot of heart, which I believe is the key to Mowgli's story being as iconic and powerful as it is.

• Special Effects: 3/10

Why? The reason why a lot of people consider Jon Favreau's live-action take on "The Jungle Book" such a success was the near perfect special effects used to give life to both the animals and the jungle. Knowing Andy Serkis' history with motion capture technology, I was expecting the effects in "Mowgli" to be even better. But boy was I let down. The animals looked absolutely terrible, to the point where I had an incredibly hard time taking them seriously, and I could sometimes see the green screen used to mirror the scenery of a jungle, which sometimes looked like a Windows default wallpaper. The film looks like a fan-made remake of the excellent 2016 retelling, and I now completely understand why Warner Bros. got rid of this project and sold it to Netflix

• Costumes/Makeup: 7/10

Why? The costume/makeup department only had to worry about one character: Mowgli. He was the only human character in the movie (well, for most of it at least). I have to admit, though, that they did a great job making him look like he's been living in the jungle since he was a baby. The cuts and scars he receives during the movie are also very realistic-looking.

• Editing: 6/10

Why? I never felt that the film was dragging. It definitely contains a few scenes that were unnecessary and some slow-motion shots that were questionable, but that didn't bother me a whole lot. 

• Cinematography: 6/10

Why? Hard to judge when most of the film is CGI. There were a few interesting looking shots though, as well as compelling color mixing.

• Score/Soundtrack: 5/10

Why? Extremely generic. Another letdown.

FINAL GRADE: 4/10