In 2017, the restart of Jumanji welcomed a new generation of movie friends in the jungle. The movie was a lively good time: turning the cursed board game from the original Jumanji of 1995 into a video game, forcing an unfortunate group of teenagers to inhabit a series of play avatars that clashed with their own personalities. The characters were played by an all-star cast – Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan – all of whom seemed as far away from their comfort zones as they could to hear a heartwarming story of overcoming surface differences and becoming told friends.
The sequel Jumanji: The Next Level contains most of the same ingredients, including director Jake Kasdan. The turn, this time: Danny DeVito and Danny Glover accidentally come to the game. Or rather, The-Rock-as-Danny-DeVito and Kevin-Hart-as-Danny-Glover are shown in the story.
While Welcome to the Jungle aims to make friends in high school, The Next Level is about holding onto them on their way to college and beyond. Spencer (Alex Wolff), Bethany (Madison Iseman), Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain) and Martha (Morgan Turner) have graduated high school from the video game jungle after leaving the Jumanji game. Spencer, who went to college in New York, feels isolated from his friends and messes around at school. After keeping the pieces of the play after the events of the first movie, he plunged back in and sought the reassurance of returning to Dr. To be Smolder Bravestone (Johnson). And when Spencer disappears, his friends realize that they have no choice but to join him.
Choose your fighter. Photo: Frank Masi / Sony Pictures
Since Jumanji is Jumanji, the process is not so easy. The teens stopped playing at the end of “Welcome to the Jungle” to prevent the story from repeating itself. Spencer’s makeshift console interventions mean players can not pick their characters this time. Martha returns to Ruby Roundhouse (Gillan), but Fridge, who was once a zoologist “Mouse” Finbar (Hart), has taken over Bethany’s former avatar, Professor Shelly Oberon (Black). Bethany remains behind and Spencer’s grandfather Eddie (DeVito) becomes Bravestone instead, while Eddie’s former boyfriend Milo (Glover) becomes Mouse.
The Switcheroo helps to keep The Next Level fresh, though it does not differ much from Welcome to the Jungle. Hart, who makes his best impression of Glover, is particularly good, since he has to renounce the antics of the Maw, for which he is best known, and slow down his performance. Johnson as DeVito is also inspired, as it is about such opposites: The rock would probably be occupied in a modern version of Twins against DeVito. But Johnson’s impression of DeVito falters in the more dramatic scenes. Such a broad impression is easier to play for laughter than for pathos.
However, as more characters are added to the game – Bethany asks Alex (Colin Hanks) for help, the lost player they met in their first round, and Spencer is still out there somewhere – the movie gets a bit unwieldy. It’s like watching a tabletop campaign with too many players. When each character is in turn, the action slows down a bit, and when it resumes, occasionally some characters are eliminated from the action.
Who is arguing with whom? Photo: Hiram Garcia / Sony Pictures
However, Jumanji’s joy in seeing actors play roles they would never expect anything else remains. It’s just a pity that DeVito is out of the game, but out of the game. Earlier this year, Dumbo once again confirmed that he is a wonderful dramatic actor, though he is best known as the Chaos Agent thanks to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. His thinking about aging in The Next Level is on the rise and a bit more effective if he can pass it on himself.
The play aspect of Jumanji recaptures a portion of this lost ground with a clear shooting action as animals and villains chase the hero and become the true treasure to friends who make (or restore) them on their way. The story behind the level they clear is quite banal: a warlord (Rory McCann) stole a magical jewel from a village, resulting in the death of their crops. It’s the human drama that fascinates the franchise – the reconciliations between Eddie and Milo and between Spencer and his friends – along with the cooperative / MMORPG-like satisfaction of doing a job with your friends.
Most importantly, The Next Level is successful as a hook. Welcome to the jungle did not need a follow-up, but The Next Level actually increases the stakes and blames reboots by appealing to his material thoughtfully. It makes the return to the jungle exciting and above all makes it easy to imagine that we could return again.
Jumanji: The Next Level will be released on December 13th.
