Review: Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Even if its release date hadn't been moved by nearly two-and-a-half years to avoid direct competition with Jon Favreau's "live-action" remake of The Jungle Book, Andy Serkis' Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle would still feel lacking. A darker, un-Disneyfied approach to the Rudyard Kipling classic tale, Mowgli is a curious creation: too brutal for younger viewers, often plodding for older viewers, and more distancing than emotionally riveting.
Even its technological achievement isn't quite as impressive as it should be, and this is not only because the CGI and special effects wizardry in Favreau's film boggled the mind. Certainly no one is better equipped than Serkis, the indisputable reason that motion-capture performance is regarded as art form, to handle Mowgli's technical complexities. Opting for a photorealistic approach that finds the animals resembling the bone structure and expressions of the actors on which they were modelled, Serkis actually achieves the opposite of what he may have intended. The animals look too human and, therefore, the artificiality is more pronounced.
Which is not to say that the tactic is wholly unsuccessful. One may even chuckle at what Method madness one imagines Christian Bale underwent for his intense and serious-minded portrayal of Bagheera, the black panther who discovers the orphaned Mowgli and begets him to wolves Akela (Peter Mullan) and Nisha (Naomie Harris) to raise as one of their own. The "man-cub" (well-played by Rohan Chand) is in constant danger from being devoured by the villainous Shere Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch), who vows to everyone who will listen that Mowgli's blood will drip from his chin one day.
Though there's nothing wrong per se with the filmmakers highlighting the inherent dangers of living in the jungle or the outside forces that menace its inhabitants, the filmmakers don't exactly steer the narrative into anything other than the familiar. Favreau's version was not without its own issues with pacing and characterisation, but it at least had a more stirring resonance than this rendering. Despite putting Mowgli through the ringer - he's beaten, battered and even put in a cage at one point - the one character that truly endears and merits audience investment is Bhoot, the albino wolf pup played by Serkis' son, Louis Ashbourne Serkis, and it is no spoiler to say that he is the character most likely to be sacrificed for narrative purposes.
One wishes that Mowgli would have been more successful in execution, but unfortunately it becomes wearisome all too quickly despite everyone's best efforts.
Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle
Directed by: Andy Serkis
Written by: Callie Kloves
Starring: Rohan Chand, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Naomie Harris, Andy Serkis, Peter Mullan, Jack Reynor, Eddie Marsan, Tom Hollander, Matthew Rhys, Freida Pinto
