A compact review of The Jungle Book (2016)
I saw the Jungle Book today and feel that I must write my thoughts down to fully express them. How can I say that The Jungle Book is exactly what I thought it would be, without feeling like it should feel? Mowgli's acting was good. The voices suited the characters mostly well (despite an odd mix of different accents in an Indian jungle). The pacing was decent and, at two hours, it wrapped itself up relatively well. The dialogue was fluid if not a bit overdone for teaching purposes. The CGI was as good as it gets, not a single detail went ungraphed. And yet there was a distinct lack of soul . It didn't come together as an art form should. I cried at times, but the tears were greatly indebted to my own empathy and not the film's tender moments. The fight scenes were well choreographed and, aside from the difficult-to-track camera switches in times where movement was to fast for it to matter, the visuals were...