Jumanji: The Next Level

Jumanji: The Next Level

Starring Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Jack Black

Directed by Jake Kasdan

Back in 2017, I heard that they were re-making the classic Robin Williams-led "Jumanji," and I for one wasn't excited at all, thinking it was going to be hackneyed and unnecessary, a film that again tries to cash in on its history.  I didn't end up seeing it in theaters, and was relatively surprised to find that it amassed almost a billion dollars worldwide, and thought maybe I had judged it too harshly.  I finally saw it on Redbox, and I'm the first to admit when I'm wrong:  I was wrong, as I found it to be an exciting, fun, funny, and even heartfelt adventure film with four amazing lead actors.

Then, as it tends to happen, a sequel was greenlit, and again my skepticism rose.  After seeing the first trailer, my skepticism only continued to rise as it turns out that they were adding Danny DeVito and Danny Glover, and that they would be sucked into the game, and felt that the film would just re-hash the same old jokes from the first since essentially they were starting over again with two new characters, but this time it didn't deter me from seeing it in the cinema.  Once again, I was wrong.  While it wasn't as amazing as the original, it was still an action adventure thrill ride filled with humor, heart, and suspense that made for a fun time - even if some of the jokes became stale too quickly.

After their events in the Jumanji game, friends Spencer (Alex Wolff), Fridge (Ser'Darius Blain), Martha (Morgan Turner), and Bethany (Madison Iseman) have gone their separate ways, but agree to get together again come Christmastime, except for Spencer, who's struggling with insecurities and being marginalized in a bigger world.  He returns home for Christmas to find that his grandfather Eddie (Danny DeVito) is staying with them while he's recovering from hip surgery, and decides to re-enter the game.

Meanwhile, Eddie's old estranged friend Milo (Danny Glover) decides to pay Eddie a visit after fifteen years, and the two have disagreements over their past friendship.  They're soon visited by Fridge, Martha, and Bethany in hopes of finding Spencer, and learn that he entered the game again.  They decide to go back in to save Spencer, and the game sucks them in - along with Eddie and Milo.

Martha returns as her original avatar, Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), but Fridge comes back as Bethany's avatar Professor Oberon (Jack Black), while Eddie comes in as Spencer's old avatar Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson) and Milo arrives as Fridge's avatar Mouse Finbar (Kevin Hart) - Spencer and Brittany are nowhere to be found.  The group then learns that Jumanji is under attack, and must save it from an evil overlord who'll bring death and destruction to the world as well as finding their friends - and hopefully staying alive in the process.

What made the original film so fun was the relationship between the four lead actors, and how well they played off one another.  Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan delivered fantastic performances while also revealing their characters' fears and insecurities, and learned to work together since they weren't friends to begin with.  This time around, the gang is split up, different people are playing different characters, and the game itself has changed tremendously.  Outside the jungle, they must now endure the heats of the desert and chills of the frozen mountains to find their friends and save Jumanji yet again, and this time around there's two new characters added to the mix who add their own different rationales.  Dwayne Johnson has to now play an old man who's more keen with having working hips and looking buff than actually being in a video game and the idea of survival, while Kevin Hart has to play an older man who talks very slowly (which is bad news for a zoologist) and struggles with his old friend.  Meanwhile, Jack Back has to now be an athletic black man in the body of an overweight middle-aged white man, and Karen Gillan has the easiest job due to the fact that she's the same character in both films.

As the group embarks on their adventure, they run into a new character named Ming Fleetfoot, played by the hilarious Awkwafina, who adds another dimension to the film and a new fresh comedic face to the bunch, but I couldn't help but wish I would've gotten the same as before - the jokes between Hart and Johnson became stale early on, and even though I found myself chuckling here and there, I wasn't laughing as loud as I did the first time around.  The charm was still there, but it got a bit dusty with time.

The story itself is filled with adventure and fantastic action pieces, and steps up from the first film in grandiose ways, thus proving the title that they've achieved the next level.  Whether they're running from a gang of ostriches in the desert or perilously jumping from one floating breakable bridge while being chased by mandrills, the action is fast and furious, and loads of fun to see these characters try to work together.  When it comes time for the final boss, however, a moment before makes it all the more simpler and seemed to prove my earlier point that the film would've worked a lot better if the original players were in their original avatars from the start.  Still, despite this, I found myself really enjoying myself the second time around.

Much like a video game it portrays, "Jumanji: The Next Level" raises the stakes and gives us new locales and enemies, but maintains a small sense of normalcy with its charismatic actors who once again work well together and seem to have the time of their lives.

The Score: A+