“If we as an industry feel we must be shackled to franchises for name recognition sales, this seems like a good way for the creative to beat the system; just make something cool and randomly slap a franchise name onto it.”-Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw

Croshaw was referring to the video game industry, but this quote could just as easily apply to the film industry, and especially to the new Jumanji film, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. The new Jumanji is a total reboot in all but name. This movie could have easily been an unrelated, stand-alone film, and for the most part, functions that way aside from the iconography of the Jumanji universe and a few references and homages to the previous film (especially that of Robin William’s character, Alan Parrish). As it stands, however, Welcome to the Jungle is a humorous, big-budget adventure film with a light-hearted tone that stands in stark contrast to the original.

Image Via: AmazonAWS

One of my favorite critics, Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, once described a formula for making a good sequel. He said, “A good sequel is one that uses the original as a jumping off point for a whole new story with whole new technology. While a bad sequel merely wallows in the original like a hippo in a vat of liquidized children.” Croshaw was talking about video games, but this formula can be applied to Independence Day: Resurgence and is helpful when explaining why it's a horrific disaster. The film certainly showcases new technology both in the film, and in terms of CGI since the original, and that’s about it. Independence Day: Interstellar Regrets is a terrible travesty.

Image via: Vanguardia.com.mx