Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is a 2018 Netflix Original Film that was released on December 7th of 2018. It's based on Rudyard Kipling's All the Mowgli Stories collection. It was also given a limited theatrical release, but was heavily marketed as a Netflix movie. The movie was directed by Andy Serkis and written by Callie Kloves. The cast includes Christian Bale as the voice of Bagheera, Cate Blanchett as the voice of Kaa, Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of Shere Khan, Andy Serkis as the voice of Baloo, Rohnan Chand as Mowgli, among others. I had heard that this movie was being made a few years ago, but I didn't know how far along it was until Netflix sent me a notification a few minutes ago telling me, "Hey, the movie is done! Come watch it!". Serkis promised that his version of the Jungle Book story would be, quote, "darker" than what Disney did with their 2016 Jungle Book movie. In my opinion, if he was going for that, he probably should've got this movie released first. But, whatever. It's here now, free to watch if you have a Netflix account. So, how was it? Let's find out.
Well, Serkis lived up to his promise of it being dark. It certainly was that. I'm sad to report that, in this case, darker doesn't equal better, though. Yeah, this movie wasn't that good. but, let's get all of the positives out of the way first. The scenery in this movie is breathtaking! Every shot of this movie is oozing with beauty, whether it be from the environments or from the animals. I don't know if it was filmed somewhere or if it's all green screen, but, either way, I wanna live there. I would probably die very quickly, given how slow and weak I am, but I still wanna at least visit that gorgeous jungle at least once. The jungle in this movie looks colorful and vibrant, it feels full of life. I'll also say that this movie has a very good cast. It doesn't get much better than Benedict Cumberbatch as Shere Khan. He was legitimately intimidating in this role. Christian Bale was unrecognizable as Bagheera, in a good way. It wasn't until I took to IMDb to find out the main cast for this review that I noticed he was voiced by Batman. And I loved Cate Blanchett's Kaa voice. She didn't have a lot of screen-time, but she was mesmerizing when the camera was on her. She didn't get to sing "Trust in Me", but I'll give it a pass since it's a different studio. The background characters were well-acted, too. I generally don't have many complaints about the acting department. Key word is "generally".
But what about Rohnan Chand's performance as Mowgli? I liked it. He did good with the material he was given. Unfortunately, it wasn't good material. The dialogue was not well-written at all. The lines didn't feel real. They were delivered well, yes, but they didn't feel natural. I didn't believe that these admittedly very well animated animals would say the lines they have. Another thing is that I found myself not liking any of the characters, except for two: Bhoot and Shere Khan. And both of them die off, so now who am I supposed to root for? Every other character is mean and hateful, for seemingly no good reason. Mowgli is a whiny brat for the majority of the movie that snaps at Bhoot (making him cry) and throws a plate foot back in the face of one of the members of the man-villagers (ungrateful child), Aleka kicks Mowgli out of the pack after he saves them from Shere Khan, Bagheera almost killed Mowgli when he caught him during the ceremonial hunt scene (and then ended up abandoning him when he has the chance to rescue him from the man village). And Baloo. Serkis, what did you do to my boy Baloo? He's usually the best part of the story. He's a chilled out, friendly, playful bear that also has a sense of sternness and protectiveness over Mowgli. In this movie, he's just a jerk. A total jerk, with very few scenes in which he acts like the Baloo that we're used to. I understand that you're going for a more gritty and real interpretation of the story, so Baloo being more strict makes sense, but there comes a point when he stops being strict and starts being flat out mean. I'm not saying I'm against a more parental take on the character, but it was taken a bit too far in this instance.
There were also a lot of plot elements that were very predictable, which I chalk up to a badly-written screenplay. For example: There's a hunter character that shows up halfway through the movie and then suddenly decides that he's a bad guy during the third act. He says to Mowgli and a few of his friends that he, quote, "Never missed a kill once", followed by him vowing to kill Shere Khan. Well, guess what happens when the hunter has the chance to shoot Shere Khan? Yep, he misses. Three times. Once, he fires at Khan and hits Mowgli in the arm. Twice, he fires at Khan and ends up killing Aleka. Thrice, he fires at Khan and hits a tree inches away from him. For a supposed "master marksman", he sure does suck with a gun. Then he gets curb-stomped by an elephant, which was very satisfying. The hunter also killed Bhoot, so that pretty much instantly squashed any interest I had in that character from that point on. After that, I was just counting down the moments until he got killed off. Another instance of predictability in this movie came when Mowgli was being trained for the hunt ceremony. He's told that, if he fails, he can't join the pack. Alright, well I already know that he's gonna fail now. Doesn't help that he's constantly shown failing his training. He almost makes it, but Bagheera catches him at the last moment. Real nice, Batman. Real nice.
There were also a couple moments that were just dumb. Mowgli helps an elephant reattach one of it's tusks. I didn't know that elephants could just put the broken tusk back into place and have it stay there without using glue. Maybe they can, I don't know. It was still dumb. Also, what year does this movie take place in? When we see the man village, it appears to be both advanced and primitive. We still see the women fetching jugs of water like what every other Jungle Book adaptation does, but we also see the hunter drinking bottled beer and carrying a pistol. The pistol was invented in 1892. Now, this could be possible given the fact that the original book was written in 1894, but we also aren't told in what year the story actually takes place. Maybe it actually does make sense and I'm just an idiot, but it still felt off. But, to be positive once again, the motion capture animation was pretty impressive. Slight uncanny valley, but not enough to break my immersion. I could see the actors in the faces of their characters, but I also believed that those characters were there. The animals looked really good, huge props to whoever did their designs. You did a great job. And, yes, the amount of passion Serkis put into this project is extremely commendable. He was so invested in this project from the get go, and it shows. In addition to portraying Baloo, he also directed the movie. And did so very well. I love him as an actor, and he shows promise with his first directorial project. Hopefully, he'll direct more movies in the future. He does a good job of showing off the gorgeous scenery.
And, to finish off on a positive note, I loved everything about this movie's version of Shere Khan. For all it's flaws, it certainly knows how to build up a frightening villain. Benedict Cumberbatch was the perfect choice to provide his voice/motion capture. Every second Shere Khan was on-screen, he genuinely freaked me out. His best scene is when he drinks from a pond. With every slurp, we see blood being watched off of his face and now doubt polluting that pond. It's really creepy, as well as legitimately suspenseful when he notices Mowgli underwater and slowly start smiling at the camera. His interactions with Mowgli were also very chilling. One instance saw him slice open one of Mowgli's veins (which somehow doesn't kill him) like he was ripping through paper. The only reason why Mowgli wasn't killed right then and there is because Kaa saves him. It's never explained why Kaa saves him, mostly cause saying "cause you're the main character" would break the entire movie. Although, that brings me to another flaw: How exactly does Mowgli survive all of the injuries he sustains? He gets his head slammed into a rock, shot in the arm, one of his veins is cut completely open, he gets thrown off of various ledges, Bagheera tackles and almost mauls him, has his face slammed into the grass about seven times while trying to jump from one branch to another, he gets struck in the back by the butt of the hunter's pistol, and he still has enough energy to kill Shere Khan at the end. How? Mowgli, what is your X-Men power? Enquiring minds want to know.
I had high hopes for the movie. I love the cast, I love the visuals, the trailers looked promising, and it actually did have a good start to it, but it ultimately turned out to not be anything too memorable. It's not terrible, though. Like I said before: It looks pretty, the motion capture is great, the actors do a great job with their roles. But that's the only joy I got out of it, I'm sorry to say. Andy Serkis seems like a great guy, and the amount of effort and dedication he put into this project is highly respectable, but it really doesn't hold up that well. It had a very uneven tone, awful characters, wonky dialogue, and it appeared to rely on the visuals a little too much at various points. Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle gets a 5/10. It wasn't actually that bad all things considered, but it could've been a lot better. It isn't the worst thing I've ever seen, though. I am glad I saw it. Probably won't watch it again any time soon, though. Oh, also, Mowgli screams "KHAAAAAN" at one point when calling Benedict Cumberbatch over for a fight, and I see what you did there. I hope that was done on purpose. That'll warrant you a few more respect points if it was.
