Today I watched Disney's Jungle Cruise. This is, after Pirates of the Caribbean the second movie, (franchise), that is named after a ride in Disney's amusement parks.

The Story

Lily Houghton is searching for the Tears of the Moon, flowers of a tree inside the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil. These flowers possess the power to heal injuries and cure sickness. She wants to use it to revolutionize medicine and help the British War efforts in World War I. She steals an artifact from the Royal Society, which wanted to sell the artifact to Prince Joachim of Prussia, King Wilhelm II. youngest son, and also doesn't want to support her, because she is a woman.

They go to Brazil, during that time the First Brazilian Republic, they search for a guide, and find Frank, who is quite a show-off most of the time and lies a lot to earn some money. He is though a good entertainer, who knows how to trick tourists. After frist declining, Frank accepts seeing the arrowhead around Lily‘s neck. They cannot get out of bay, since they are being attacked by the U-boat of Prince Joachim right away.

When looking around, Lily finds research on the Tears of the Moon in Frank's cabin. She confronts him with that information, but he just says that he gave up the search long ago. Lily's trouble about Frank grow bigger, when she realizes, that there isn't a lot real about him and he is always double crosses her. They get captured by Puka Michuna who threaten to eat them, but it is soon revealed, that they are just paid by Frank to do so. The tribal chief, Trader Sam, is able to translate the writings on the arrowhead.

The same time, Joachim finds the conquistadors petrified in a cave and makes them agree to exchange the arrowhead for some flowers - so they can be free of their curse. They track down Lily and her friends and someone of them stabs Frank in the heart.

They also try to catch Lily, who has the arrowhead, but she is advised to flee inside the forest and as soon as they loose sight of the river, the conquistadors are pulled back to the river by some vines.

Lily and her brother later find Frank alive, which comes as a surprise. They still have to get the dagger out of him and get to know the story of the conquistadors, who came to search for the flower, to save Aguierre's paralyzed daughter. They did come to the rain forest and got lost, sick and injured and then found by the Tribe and taken care of. After they regained their strength they ask for the tree, but the tribe's chief, considers them to be unworthy to show them where the tree is and give them some of the flowers, so they slaughter the whole village to get to the heart. Whilst dying the tribal chief lays a curse on the conquistadors. This gives his daughter the chance to escape them with the arrowhead.

Lily and Frank continue their journey and reach the La Luna Rota Waterfall, where they manage to get to the chamber by drying out the water fall. They then discover, that Joachim awaits them, led by MacGregor, who wanted to save the tribal people.

They then get inside and Lily uncovers the secret of the arrowhead, so the tree, who seemed dead, starts to bloom for a short period of time. The Germans soldiers drown and Joachim gets crushed by a rock after hunting Lily. Frank crushes his boat into the columns of the temple, to block the river, which leads to the petrification of the conquistadors and also of Frank, since they again loose sight of the river. This saves Lily with the only flower she got from the tree.

But since she fell in love with Frank, she just fed it to him, to save his life and bring him back to mortality. He awakens after they already lost hope and tried to make their way back to a ship. In a last moment, the moon sends another beam on the tree, so Lily could get another flower, for her research.

They then travel back to London, where she teaches him driving, after they declined to be members of the Royal Society. Lily also becomes a full professor at Cambrigde University.

My Opinion

The movie has some strengths, but also a lot of weaknesses.

The dynamic between Frank and Lily doesn't work too well. Also the conquistadors and the Germans are not really "deep" villains. So the whole movie really stays on the surface. But it is good entertainment. Some things are predictable, while others aren't. The humor is good, but nothing to great. It feels like an average (or maybe a little bit below average) movie. I don't think that this will lead to a new franchise like Pirates of the Caribbean. The characters are to plain.

Still I would say it was worth watching. The pictures are beautiful and it great to see the animals and Amazon rain forest. And I think that it is a nice family movie to watch, even though some things are a bit cruel.

Cheers, @andy-plays

All the images are taken from Disney+