Anaconda Reboot Movie Review: This creature-feature is middling on multiple levels

Anaconda Reboot Movie Review:

The announcement of a reboot of the 1997 classic Anaconda and its premise seemed to indicate that the new film will be a glowing tribute to the Luis Llosa film. Both the writing, performances and sensibilities were anything but a tribute. You need to rummage through each scene to see if the film reminded you of the chills you got with the original movie. The criticisms do not take away the fact that Jack Black and Paul Rudd hold this flimsy fare together with their situational and slapstick humour. But again, this could have been in any movie. Some things have gone miserably wrong in the film, and there are some things that worked that don't amply justify an Anaconda Reboot.

The film introduces two childhood friends, Ronald "Griff" Griffin Jr (Paul Rudd), a failed actor who lands minor roles in films and series, and Doug McCallister (Jack Black), a wedding videographer. Now in their late 30s, they still carry their childhood fascination with the film Anaconda, and are determined to work on the creature feature's remake. Their boring and parched lives get replenished one day when they get a now-or-never opportunity to remake their favourite childhood movie. The two decide to escape the rut of monotony and take a shot. They, along with their friends Kenny Trent (Steve Zahn) and Claire Simons (Thandiwe Newton), venture into the Amazon to wrap the film in a compact schedule. But the verdant rainforest and the mysterious creature lurking in it are waiting to.

Anaconda Reboot has been made in picture-in-a-picture format or meta. This meta is a conscious choice of the makers. There are some unintended metas in this film, which, upon realisation, are unintentionally funny. Whenever Doug comes up with a screenplay idea, he sits with his laptop in a symmetrical shot. What comes out after that writing session? Something he easily replaces that requires less cajoling. Given how one scene moves to another incoherently, chances are high that the story writing and discussion sessions of the four leads of the film are inspired by the brainstorming sessions of the creators of the reboot. It is quite possible that the randomness in jumping from one theme to another and one tone to another did not deter the makers from proceeding with the film, as a semblance of this attitude is visible in the ever-excited Doug.                          

Cast: Paul Rudd, Jack Black, Steve Zahn, Thandiwe Newton

Director: Tom Gormican

It seems that director Tom Gormican was assigned to keep his writing true to the spirit of this monster film. But the fix is, the final product of Anaconda Reboot is also suggestive that he wasn't asked to dial down his batshit crazy ideas, lest the film would have been saved from the mishmash of sensibilities. Whenever the plot comes to a head, a subplot comes, then another subplot, and then returns to the plot. The degree of worseness only increases with every sub-plot introduction. A weak narration is replaced by an even weaker narration. The gold smuggler episode and the internal drama between the four lead characters sideline the USP of the film, The Anaconda.  

The film doesn't take off even after the creature self-invites to the party. Gormican remains indecisive throughout whether to make this a film about the creature, humour, the smuggling or interpersonal drama about Griff's insecurities and his failed relationship with Claire. Similar to the Jurassic World reboot earlier this year, this film also suffers from weakening the absolute evil of the creature. The titular predator wrangles (kills) and regurgitates (spares the life) according to who we would want to see living and dying, when the lack of such discretion is what makes the creature hair-raising. Though Ice Cube's cameo was celebratory, it was just the last-ditch effort to attempt what Doug calls "The Big Hollywood Ending". That was just one of the several self-reflexive beats of the film. That too doesn't land.

Looking back, there is hardly anything worth remembering about the film, barring a few jokes and goofy scenes treated seriously. Anaconda Reboot is a confused film that ends up getting nowhere, with its genre-bender pursuit. With the ambitious introductions of jokes and a seemingly serious smuggling plot, the film moves far away from its core strength of effortlessly being a creature feature. Doug, in his award acceptance speech, says, "Snakes are the metaphors for all monsters that come out to stop us from realising our dreams." The makers should have listened to the snakes that dissuaded them from their dream of working on a reboot that none were eagerly waiting for.