It’s the First Trailer for ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’ (VIDEO)

I'm hardly alone in thinking that the idea of rebooting Jumanji seemed terrible on the surface. Honestly, what's the point? The original wasn't very good and if Robin Williams couldn't do much with the material, what were Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and The Rock going to do with subpar material? Thankfully it looks like the creators of this reboot scrapped everything about the original and started over with a surprisingly interesting premise. 

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle finds four teens—each representing a different ridiculous stereotype—stuck in detention together where they discover an old video game system. They're transported into the video game and each now assumes the body of a person woefully different from theirs. The nerdy guy becomes The Rock, the alpha male jock becomes Kevin Hart, the mousy girl becomes a scantily-clad Karen Gillan, and the snobbish popular girl becomes Jack Black. If nothing else, you've got to give them credit for doing something different from what we've seen before.

While the action sequences look decent and the visual effects are sure to dazzle, I'm impressed that Sony cared enough to tweak this formula in a way that we haven't seen before in a big budget action adventure comedy. Points to them for at least trying in an age where no one seems to be expending any effort. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle opens on December 22.