Metacritic reviews

Jungle Cruise is a rollicking adventure full of humor and heart anchored by Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt's winning heroes.

While those parents who grew up with Indy and Romancing the Stone might have seen a lot of this stuff before, it’s right in the wheelhouse for movie-loving youngsters not quite ready to watch Nazis’ faces melt in "Raiders." For those kiddos, Johnson’s big lug and Blunt’s eager explorer offer an enjoyable welcome to the “Jungle.”

It is a fine adventure with two genuine movie stars that may very well become a rewatchable staple like the films it references. But on first watch, it mostly comes across as an earnest and safe homage.

An action vehicle that, in trying to do it all, does a little too much; Johnson and Blunt keep it afloat.

Absent cleverness, Collet-Serra offers some comfort for weary eyes, like the flashes of silent black-and-white footage of the stars shot with Lily’s newfangled movie camera. At the risk of sounding like a critic from a way-old demographic, Jungle Cruise works best when it leans in this more old-fashioned direction.

Jaume Collet-Serra’s deft touches elevate what otherwise feels like another formulaic contemporary Disney blockbuster.

It’s a film that wants to be a little of this, a lot of that and funny in the bargain. You want to like it so much that you can sense Disney getting a new franchise out of it, even if it doesn’t quite come off. But if they do sequels, they’d bloody well better hire somebody who knows comedy to film them.

Disney’s latest attraction just isn’t rousing enough to sustain the fun of a 20-minute ride for more than two hours, and the rewards are few and far between for a movie that taps so many resources to reach them.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra and his fully crewed vessel of writers never sink all the way to the bottom, but the very best they accomplish is keeping their heads above water.

The spark that was there in the opening section disappears and the film splutters out into something directionless and derivative and dull.