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Is this the sequel/‘reboot’/‘spiritual companion’ of the original film that we didn't know we needed? Not necessarily. The fact that we have placed the worn-out phrase in question marks shows the doubts that the new “Anaconda” generates for us, which has a really promising first part but which, little by little, falls into mediocrity.
At this point, anyone with a basic knowledge of the film industry who has seen the poster for this production without knowing anything else about it will clearly recognize that it is a comedy, because the faces of Jack Black and Paul Rudd in the promotional material leave no doubt about the genre that has been employed. And that's positive, because, in reality, it wouldn't make sense for it to have been any other way.
Certainly, somewhere on the planet, there must be a person capable of writing an installment of "Anaconda" that is absolutely terrifying and considerably superior to the first. But it wouldn't be easy to achieve that goal if the idea were to maintain both the PG-13 rating and the commercial aspect of a nineties film that, to top it off, ended up becoming a cult title for belonging to another category of popular use in the cinematic imagination, that is, the films "so bad they're good".
When Griff announces that he has the rights to “Anaconda” (a circumstance almost impossible to believe, but which finds explanation later), Doug decides to go all out to move to his side to the Amazon with the purpose of filming what he himself describes as a “spiritual sequel” to Luis Llosa's “classic” to which his friends Kenny Trent (Steve Zahn) and Claire Simons (Thandiwe Newton) initially join, and later, two Brazilian characters played by the Portuguese Daniela Melchior and the mineiro Selton Mello.
The fact that the region's own language is spoken from time to time in the story is a point in its favor, which, however, is lost in the decision to film everything in Australia. This is particularly inconvenient given that, despite its modest pretensions in Hollywood terms, the original film was actually shot in the Brazilian jungle and took advantage of its visual wonders to account for a staging that, without being dazzling, was much more showy than the one shown now. Of course -and luckily-, references to the past and the work of 1997 do not cease once our friends get on the boat that will take them through the dangerous adventure unleashed when a snake of enormous dimensions arrives to them uninvited, determined to join the cast of their coveted "masterpiece". The problem is that, as the action increases, the story becomes less interesting in comedic terms, with scenes that continue to produce smiles but do not provoke the previous laughter, which is a shame considering that both Gormican and his writing collaborator Kevin Etten were the screenwriters of “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” (2026), the first's debut, which was loaded with constant hilarity. The final impression is unsatisfactory precisely because of how much was expected from a creative duo that, this time, seems to have consciously decided to limit their wild impulses, which could be due to the fact that, in the real world, Sony has not lost the rights to "Anaconda" and was also in charge of this installment (although, curiously, "The Unbearable Weight" was also a studio title, in its case, from Lionsgate).On a technical level, the creature's appearances, which were developed entirely with CGI, are also unsatisfactory, unlike Llosa's film, which combined digital tricks with 'animatronics' to offer results that, against all odds, have withstood the test of time in a particularly dignified manner (as we were able to notice when reviewing it today, because it is on Netflix).
Beyond all that has been said, if viewed with low expectations, the 2025 "Anaconda" is still entertaining and serves perfectly to pass the time in the middle of a season that, for obvious reasons, leans towards excessive tenderness.
