“Jungle Cruise”, based on Disney’s riverboat park ride of the same name, is now available on Disney Plus. The main cast includes Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson as Frank Wolff, Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton, and Jack Whitehall as McGregor Houghton.

Wolff, a riverboat captain, is hired to take the Houghton siblings down the Amazon River in search of the legendary tears of the moon: flowers that can heal any illness. This movie takes place during World War 2, so we have Prince Joachim (Jesse Plemons), who wants to use the flowers to give Germany the upper hand to win the war.

This movie went beyond my expectations. I wasn’t expecting undead Spanish conquistadors animated by snakes, bees, and mud, nor was I expecting a U-boat in the Amazon River. Or for the Rock to have a pet jaguar. 

I usually consider myself to be good at anticipating plot twists, yet nothing could’ve prepared me for the plot twist. And the fact that all the clues were there made this movie even better.

But I still think this movie was missing something. While it was fun to watch, it feels like Disney tried too hard to give the movie a happy ending. I was expecting, and fully prepared for, a bittersweet ending, and was rather disappointed by what we got instead.

But the plot twist, combined with the humor (which I was expecting) and the promised adventure, makes it a great movie. I’d give Jungle Cruise 4.5/5 stars.