Jumanji Open World just unleashed its first trailer and apparently the jungle is now coming to us, which sounded cool in theory until everyone saw what it actually looks like. The third installment brings the video game avatars into the real world, and the visual effects are getting absolutely dragged across the internet. Ostriches stampeding through suburbia should be epic. Instead it looks like someone rendered them on an actual lunch break.
Here is the premise. The core four, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan, are back as their avatar counterparts, but this time they are stuck in demo mode inside the real world. Bravestone speaks Spanish. Mouse Finbar is presumably still short. Professor Shelly Oberon is still Jack Black doing Jack Black things. Jumanji Open World should be a slam dunk. The cast has chemistry. The concept is fun. So why does so much of this look like a cutscene from a PlayStation 3 game?
The backlash is specifically targeting the animal CGI. Rhinos, lizards, oxen, and those ostriches all look weirdly glossy and weightless, like they are floating slightly above the pavement instead of actually crashing through it. For a franchise that has made over one and a half billion dollars worldwide, the Jumanji Open World visual quality feels surprisingly cheap. ILM is handling the effects, which makes the roughness even more confusing. These are the same people who made dinosaurs look real. What on earth happened here?
Part of the problem might be the release date shuffle. The film got pushed from December 11 to December 25, which usually means someone is scrambling to finish things in post. Jumanji Open World could absolutely improve before it hits theaters, but first impressions matter. And right now the first impression is that a hundred million dollar movie looks like it borrowed assets from a mobile game.
To be fair, the human elements still work. Jack Black delivering the line about suspecting they are not in Jumanji got a genuine laugh. The idea of video game characters glitching out in a real-world restaurant is inherently funny. But comedy can only carry you so far when the giant CGI creatures look like they are made of plastic.
Director Jake Kasdan has insisted this is the final film in the trilogy, and Dwayne Johnson is wearing the original prop dice from the Robin Williams movie around his neck as a tribute. That emotional weight is real. The cast clearly cares. But Jumanji Open World needs to look like a finished product, not a work-in-progress demo that accidentally got uploaded to the internet for millions to judge.
Will the effects get polished in time? Probably. Studios almost always improve trailers before release. But the damage to the buzz is already done. Jumanji Open World went from anticipated holiday blockbuster to meme fodder in about forty-eight hours. That is a tough hole to climb out of, especially when you are competing with Marvel and Dune during the same crowded holiday window.
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