OnScreen Review: "Jumanji: The Next Level"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a surprise hit that took the concept of the original 1995 movie and morphed it into a video game. Movie studios have tried to make video game adaptations for years, and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, intentional or not, ended up becoming the best video game movie ever made and it wasn’t even based on a video game. It was so successful it practically demanded a sequel, and so everyone is back with Jumanji: The Next Level, along with a few new faces.
The original teens of the last movie come home as college students for Christmas break. Spencer (Alex Wolff) gets sucked back into the game, and Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), Martha (Morgan Turner) and Bethany (Madison Iseman) decide to go back in to rescue him. Only this time, Bethany gets left behind. In her place are Spencer’s cantankerous grandfather, Eddie (Danny DeVito), and his estranged friend Milo (Danny Glover). Not getting to choose their avatars this time around, Martha ends up back in Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), but this time Fridge ends up in Professor Shelly Oberon (Jack Black), Milo ends up in Mouse Finbar (Kevin Hart), and Grampa Eddie ends up as Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson). While they try to find Spencer in Jumanji and defeat a new foe in the form of Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann), Bethany seeks out the help of Alex Vreeke (Colin Hanks), who they saved from the game in the previous movie, and his avatar Seaplane McDonough (Nick Jonas).
Basically, everything about the first movie has been ported over to this sequel. The plot is thin and surface-level but heavy on action and laughs. Why has the game changed? Why have some of the character strengths and weaknesses been changed? The console was smashed with a bowling ball at the end of the last movie to prevent anyone from playing it and getting sucked in, but it is never really explained how or why the game is changed again. A generic adventure story to retrieve a mystical jewel from a generic villain is the mission, which frankly doesn’t need much depth because it’s based on generic adventure video games from the 90s.
The movie knows how its formula works though, so the basic-ness of the plot is not a deterrent from enjoying the movie. The interactions of the characters with each other and the environment of Jumanji as a game still carry the movie. Adding two old men into the mix this time around is an entertaining way to keep the concept fresh; old people generally confused by video games has inherent comedic value (just watch a YouTube video of someone’s grandparent wearing a VR headset). On top of DeVito and Glover being in the movie, another new addition is Awkwafina as a jewel thief that is a playable character in the game. Eventually, she ends up being DeVito’s avatar and it’s a toss up as to whether she does a better DeVIto or Johnson does.
Johnson and Hart get to do impressions of DeVito and Glover as their avatars in the game for most of the movie; Kevin Hart talking like Danny Glover might actually be the funniest part of the movie and Dwayne Johnson acting like Danny DeVito is also quite entertaining. Johnson and Hart have made several movies together now and they have developed some real comedic chemistry with each other. It could be argued that Karen Gillan gets as much of a leading role as Dwayne Johnson this time around; there’s a lot of screen time for Ruby Roundhouse. She’s paired with Jack Black’s Professor Shelly, which is Fridge’s avatar for most of the movie. Based on the trailers and the impressions that Johnson and Hart were doing, I was a little apprehensive about Jack Black doing affectations of a young black man (think a less self-aware version of RDJ in Tropic Thunder or Ron Burgundy at the dinner table in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues). Thankfully, it’s mostly tame and inoffensive.
The set pieces are big and entertaining, though a little less fresh the second time around. As in Welcome to the Jungle, this movie does a fantastic job of mimicking the feel of a video game. They throw in puzzle-solving, riddles, and cut scenes. In fact, Jurgen the Brutal is almost an afterthought as the final big boss of the game. A scene outrunning a herd of ostriches and another outrunning an army of mandrills are two of the more memorable moments of the movie.
Jumanji: The Next Level adheres to a tried and true philosophy of action sequels and videogame sequels where it’s essentially the same as the last, only bigger. Everything that worked in the Welcome to the Jungle basically still works here. The video gameplay elements of the story and the strong cast keep things entertaining while the overall movie is just more of the same of what we got two years ago. A few new additions to the cast go a long way too. Jumanji: The Next Level is exactly the kind of action adventure movie that works well on the big screen and has wide audience appeal and should be a crowd pleaser like its predecessor.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars