Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

Review

123min

Genre:     Action, Adventure, Comedy

Director:  Jake Kasdan

Cast:       Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart…and more

Writers:   Jake Kasdan, Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg… and more

-Synopsis-

Now college students who’ve drifted apart, the group of small-town teens reunite and return to the immersive video game to rescue their buddy, only to unexpectedly find an older generation pulled into their gaming avatars, while new challenges and unforgiving locales await them in this sequel to 2017’s jungle-set adventure blockbuster ‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle’.

Nearly twenty-five years after Joe Johnston adapted the Chris Van Allsburg fantasy picture book into a big screen  holiday season blockbuster with the help of the late, great Robin Williams, and two years after Jake Kasdan ditched the board game for modern video gaming and dragged the story into the 21st century virtual world—the writer/director reassembles his starry cast and adds a host of new players to go bigger and crazier with another CGI-heavy, action-packed seasonal story of friendship and family.

Alex Wolff returns as ‘Spencer’, home from college for Christmas where he reunites with his grandpa ‘Eddie’ (Danny DeVito)—himself reunited with estranged old buddy ‘Milo’ (Danny Glover)—but pining for past glories when he decides to relive them in the malfunctioning magical game he rescued from the scrapheap. Enter his high-school friends to rescue him from ‘Jumanji’ doom, as they’re pulled into the adventurer gaming avatars of ‘Dr. Smolder Bravestone’ (Dwayne Johnson), ‘Franklin “Mouse” Finbar’ (Kevin Hart), ‘Professor Sheldon Oberon’ (Jack Black) and ‘Ruby Roundhouse’ (Karen Gillan)—but not in the order they intended and with some elderly new players—as they meet new figures and struggle with dangerous new enemies and locations, on a collision course with the game’s megalomaniacal new villain ‘Jurgen the Brutal’ (Rory McCann) for the prize of survival.

If you saw Kasdan’s 2017 reboot you’ll know what to expect from this sequel, plenty of video game references, copious comedy, and of course some major adventure, but as the title suggests and thanks to the commercial success of the first film Sony take everything to the next level in terms of scale here. Kasdan really does go bigger and arguably funnier here, taking our heroic misfits from the jungle and dropping them (often literally) into deserts and onto snow-covered mountains, while throwing villainous minions and rampaging animals at them—to highly comedic effect.

In fact Kasdan & co. don’t skimp on the comedy here in general, delivering plenty of quips and sight gags, and of course the humour from the basic premise of youngsters trapped in unlikely bodies, but in this case adding a geriatric element which sees Johnson and Hart bring the essence of screen legends DeVito and Glover into 21st century gaming and blockbusters. Meanwhile the rest of the fabulous foursome also pull character double-duty and get a taste of some body-switching—and there are a few new additions like Awkwafina as a nifty new avatar, and Rory McCann channelling a less sympathetic version of his ‘Game of Thrones’ grumpy warrior to provide the villain of the piece. And the cast is rounded off by the four teen characters who started the whole story coming back to deliver a broad Hollywood friendship story . . . along with everyone else.

Ultimately though ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ is every inch the big breezy blockbuster sequel, with all the patterns and predictability that come with that, an even broader and louder version of a first film which wasn’t exactly a daring modern classic, and perhaps fittingly just another level of the same game. It just feels like they’ve put their foot down slightly on the accelerator of this action/comedy vehicle, but then put it into cruise control, delivering comedy and action beats yes, but nothing to remember it by as soon as you leave the cinema—more big summer spectacle than the substantial blockbuster fare which franchises like ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Star Wars’ have led us to expect from the end of year festive season over the last couple of decades.

But if you’ve no expectations and are looking to switch off and be entertained without being challenged, ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ will deliver, and Kasdan does leave the film on a potentially promising note, wrapping it up by shaking it up and setting up a trilogy sequel which suggest a return closer to the classic 90s Robin Williams original.

The Bottom Line…

Bigger, louder, and with a little more heart, ‘Jumanji: The Next Level’ ups the scale, expands the cast and stretches the body-switching premise to deliver a crowd-pleasing next instalment of a lucrative action/comedy franchise, and a typical Hollywood blockbuster sequel—light, entertaining enough, but unmemorable.

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Four teenagers are plunged into a struggle for survival when they’re sucked into an old video game with special powers, but luckily for them they’ll take the form of unlikely avatars as they play for keeps in this jungle adventure sequel to the beloved 1995 family film.

Directed by Jake Kasdan and starring Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan and Kevin Hart among others.

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