As I sat waiting for the lights in the theater to dim, I contemplated what could possibly make Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle a movie worth seeing before it comes out on Netflix or On Demand. By the end of the movie, I had decided that there was very little substance other than humor.

To start things off, the cinematography was subpar. The quality of the footage was amazing but also kind of shaky at some points, and it was difficult to tell whether or not it was intentional. The special effects were also decent; had I not had any sort of common sense, I would have thought the exotic animals and backgrounds seen throughout the film were real.

The storyline itself was also a bit too cheesy to be taken seriously at any point. It’s understandable that it contains humor because it’s a comedy, but the movie is also categorized as an action film. With that, there would have been hardly any humor without actors/comedians Jack Black and Kevin Hart. All in all, the storyline was iffy and could have used some major work.

The movie is about four students who find a video game called Jumanji, and when they attempt to play it, they are sucked into the artificial world of the game as their characters. In order to leave, they have to finish the game without losing all three of their lives. Each player has a specific set of strengths and weaknesses. Professor Shelly Oberon (Jack Black) for instance, was knowledgeable in map reading but lacked in stamina.

One of the few scenes I found truly entertaining was somewhere in the middle of the film in which Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson) and Moose Finbar (Kevin Hart) get into a heated argument about their lives in the real world. As the fight becomes more intense and personal, the two forget about their current traits, and Moose foolishly goes to punch the doctor even though one of his weaknesses is strength while strength is the doctor’s best quality. This led to Bravestone pushing him hard enough that he falls off a nearby cliff and ultimately wastes one of Finbar’s lives. Although cliche and predictable, there had already been so many other predictable scenes that I couldn’t help but laugh at its ridiculousness.

The acting itself was okay based on what the actors were given to work with. I personally enjoy a lot of other movies that feature Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and the rest of the cast, but they had very little to make do with. I couldn’t really picture them as the characters they portrayed even though they were physically on the screen in front of me.

In the end, I think the movie contained a good amount of comedy but very little of anything else. It would be a better idea to wait until the movie is free on television networks rather than pay to see it at the cinema.