#jumanjithenextlevel

a VERY handsome Rory, at the premiere of Jumanji the next level.

Since my initial viewing, Jumanji: Welcome to The Jungle, has grown on me. I was looking forward to revisiting it to be adequately prepared for Jumanji: The Next Level but didn’t have the opportunity to. It’s probably a good thing that I didn’t. This sequel is fun. Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan are terrific playing teenagers (now college students) transported into a video game and given an arsenal of amazing (or sometimes dubiously useful) skills. The new characters introduced gives everyone a bit more to play with. In terms of plot, however, this is basically the same movie as the first.

Since their adventure inside Jumanji, Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), Martha (Morgan Turner), and Bethany (Madison Iseman) have become close friends with Spencer (Alex Wolff). When they discover he’s been sucked into the game once more, they jump in to rescue him. Unfortunately, the damaged game has shuffled their avatars around and accidentally brought in Spencer’s grandfather, Eddie (Danny DeVito) and his old friend Milo (Danny Glover) along too.

If you enjoyed the previous Jumanji, you’ll enjoy this one too. The jokes about the characters’ over-the-top skills and/or weaknesses, the avatars losing their lives in unexpected ways, the players interacting with the non-playable characters, the surprisingly deadly flora and fauna are all back. The picture makes great use of its video game setting with an impressive moving platform level crawling with mandrils, an exciting chase with a ravenous flock of ostriches, and legions of enemies for the overpowered Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Johnson) to pummel into dust. The villain is a non-character but that’s fine. It's about these people thrust into this world where, through these new skills they’ve received, they grow and mature. Since the gang is pretty well-adjusted, two septuagenarians are tossed in the mix. While Milo and Eddie's story may be predictable, they give the actors playing the avatars a lot to do. Last time, Jack Black stole the show. Now everyone gets to play someone who “doesn’t fit” their frame to great effect. Awkwafina as Ming Fleetfoot is particularly good and if the next film hinted at during the mid-credit scene comes to fruition, it’d be a mistake not to include her.

While generally, recapturing the charm of Welcome to the Jungle some of this feel contrived. Spencer returning to Jumanji is "ok", the "glitch pools" feel manufactured - though nonetheless effective. It's at its worst during the end when a big development not only comes out of nowhere but doesn’t feel like it belongs in an action-adventure jungle game at all. There had to be a better way to wrap things up.

Jumanji: The Next Level suffers from sequel-itus but its symptoms aren’t too bad. This adventure’s biggest flaw (along with underwhelming 3D) is the recycling of what worked before. It merely tweaks to the formula instead of innovating. It’s a good family movie with big laughs and excellent comedic performances as well. (3D Theatrical version on the big screen, December 15, 2019)