Here’s my impression of me during the first new Jumanji movie – “Wah, why is the boardgame now a video game? Wah, that’s not my Van Pelt. Wah, wah, wah.” I knew I was being a little overprotective, but the original Jumanji movie is near and dear to me. I’m all for the idea of Jumanji holding a lighter tone, the Rock and Kevin Hart trampling around the jungle with hilarious hijinks, but why couldn’t they have played the Jumanji boardgame at a lame bloke’s night or something, and been sucked into it that way? Ugh. But you can’t always get what you want, and change is an inevitability of life so, I watch this Jumanji movie, Jumanji: The Next Level, as a sequel to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, with all my whining behind me… I can do this! And I did rewatch Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle again recently, in preparation for this sequel, and I valued the quality of that movie a lot more the second time around.
A few years have passed since the end of the last adventure – the friends that bonded over their shared experience in Jumanji have gone on to separate colleges, but kept in touch. It’s Christmas holidays, and the teenagers are returning home and plan to catch up. But Spencer (Alex Wolff) has lost the spark of personal strength he gained from his game as the rugged Smoulder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson); he re-enters Jumanji, and the others, Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), Martha (Morgan Turner) and Bethany (Madison Iseman), plan to help him out again. But the game, that was busted at the end of the last movie, has other ideas, bringing in Spencer’s grandpa Eddie (Danny DeVito) and his old friend Milo (Danny Glover) as well. The mission is different, and the players behind the avatars have changed. Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillian and Nick Jonas all return as Jumanji avatars too, with Awkwafina (and a horse) also joining the ranks. Jumanji: The Next Level is directed by Jake Kasdan.
The decision to bring in Danny DeVito and Danny Glover for Johnson and Hart to mimic respectively, is genius. Everything Kevin Hart says is a stitch! Danny DeVito is just a funny fellow, as the comedian he is, so to have him in mind behind the characterisations of Johnson, and later, Awkwafina, is hilarious. I always find I have a soft spot for Awkwafina; I simply find her to be a very talented and funny lil’ lady, and she fits in fantastically with this team of now nearing-veteran actors. I’m also quite fond of the decision to have Jack Black and Karen Gillian be the brains of the mission this time around, thanks to Fridge and Martha’s previous experience being inside the game. Fridge is outraged about going from being the Kevin Hart avatar, the slow midget who can’t eat cake, to being the overweight maps guy with the worst weaknesses again – although the teens are adamant they are never ever going back into Jumanji again, we’ve got to see Fridge as Smoulder Bravestone just once, don’t we?
I thought this Jumanji sequel was closer to the original in a few scenes where the characters were actually being terrorised by animals in the game – the ostriches and the mandrills provide some exciting action pieces where our heroes get working through the dangers. We don’t stay in the jungle for long, with Jumanji: The Next Level taking us across quite a many different terrains. By the way, am I the only one who got heaps of vibes of others movies in this – Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mad Max: Fury Road, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Mission Impossible, Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom, Alien: Covenant and then even Game of Thrones? I feel it was deliberate, but it could be my brain is fried from watching too many movies as well. If not, it was pretty cool I say. I loved Jack Black popping his head up from the desert sand like he was Finn crash landing on Jakku; the best.
Our players swap Jumanji avatars more than once, and with all the body-swapping, player abilities, lives to track and general gameplay, Jumanji: The Next Level must rely on a steady cause and effect that’s easily digestible. With the extra avatars, and costume changes too, I felt the entire movie straddles the border of being too convoluted, and I think falls off the edge with something crazy the horse does near the end. It’s a credit to the movie that it keeps the complicated storyline together, whilst moving at a brisk pace, but you must be paying attention on the same level as Inception to fully grasp what’s going on. Needing that level of concentration, and since we pretty well know how the movie is going to end from the beginning, I’d probably say Jumanji: The Next Level is 10-15 minutes too long. But, the concept of other people going into a video game, and our stalwart actors having to take on their mannerisms continues to be a winner. If I’m left with only one resounding thought, then it’s quite easily this; that was fun!
Who would have thought a young Asian female/gruff New York grandpa, talking to his 79-year-old friend/horse would carry the emotional weight of a serious drama… In film, anything is possible. And I never clicked that Grandpa’s old shop, Nora’s, had the same name as Judy and Peter’s Aunt in the original Jumanji! Her cameo at the end was a great surprise. If the mid-credit scene is anything to go by, it looks like a sequel might be going for a similar story to the original. It looks like Smoulder Bravestone might be coming to the real world – can’t wait!
3.5
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