This massive budget Warner Bros. film was another huge film that somehow managed to pass me by unnoticed. I think a big part of this was because the film wasn't released in very many theaters and was meant to be a Netflix exclusive. Most professional critics didn't care for it but whatever man, I found it entertaining.
I don't know if you can read the small script on the above picture but there are some heavy hitters doing voice-over work on this project including Christian Bale and Benedict Cumberbatch. It's funny because I thought i recognized some voices throughout the film but couldn't quite put my finger on it. Now that I've seen the credits, it seems so obvious.
As you would expect from a film featuring talking animals, a great deal of the movie depends on CGI since we aren't exactly going to put a baby in the middle of a bunch of wild animals.. well, that is unless you are as nuts as the people that made the movie Roar, who likely did precisely that.
The movie has a striking resemblance to Jungle Book, which had been released just a bit prior to this one. The films would have likely been released in the same season if it weren't for the fact that Mowgli had some pretty bad problems with delays. The name of this film actually originally was Jungle Book: Origins but that was scrapped for some reason or another. One of the explanations I have heard was that this film was going to be significantly darker than Jungle Book and either Disney or Warner Bros thought it would be a better idea to not affiliate the two - this film is definitely darker and there are no musical numbers either (thank goodness.)
The CGI is absolutely stunning throughout the film. It looks real! At no point in time did I feel that any of it looked even remotely fake, and that includes the scenes that had human actors involved in the sequences.
I also take my hat off to Rohan Chand, who is the actor that plays Mowgli. Normally, i really don't like child actors but he pulled it off and at no point did i want to throw things at him due to bad acting.
from the official Netflix channel
I think a lot of the negative criticism was off target as the primary complaint you hear is that the film was too dark for children (and this is a very real thing, i don't think that kids should watch this movie.) Also, a lot of adults might find it too tame and therefore it kind of doesn't have a true audience. I applaud attempting things like this and you can't really get on director Andy Serkis' case to suggest that he is duping kids into being exposed to violence. He did advise parents to not watch this film with their kids after-all.
There is a tremendous amount of animal violence and even a bit of murder which I kind of enjoy since Disney-oriented films of this sort are normally a bit too tame for my liking. I feel as though this is a more accurate representation of what might actually happen among the members of the animal kingdom. There are some quite brutal and bloody encounters along the ride as well. It certainly isn't a kids film and perhaps that is the reason why I feel the opposite way that the professionals do when comparing this to Jungle Book - which was always going to happen.
I thought it was fun and visually appealing. I wouldn't go and put it on a "must watch" list or anything but it was one of the better films I have seen in a while. It is also very easy to follow, as you might have expected.