Jumanji: The Next Level Review

A few years back we were all horrified and highly skeptical at this idea of a "Jumanji" remake. I mean, how dare they ruin our childhood by desecrating another one of our beloved classics, right? Well, in hindsight, "Jumanji" might be more of a nostalgia-heavy adventure boosted heavily by the great Robin Williams. And I think the world was more offended at the idea of rebooting a Robin Williams film so close after his death. However, slowly the world started coming to terms with the idea that maybe this isn't such a bad idea after all. People see Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black in a movie together that is actually a "Jumanji" sequel rather than a "Jumanji" remake and curiosity instills. Then trailers come out and full confusion sets in as this movie we thought we were going to hate actually looks really good. And, well, yeah. Sony ended up with the last laugh as the movie actually ended up being really good. Then the world quickly went from angry to forgiving, which resulted in an extremely leggy box office run for "Welcome to the Jungle," eclipsing $400 million domestically and becoming one of Sony's highest grossing films. Two years later, the negative buzz is nowhere to be seen as we're now all excited for another trip to Jumanji.

I think the thing that made "Welcome to the Jungle" so effective is that it ended up being a reboot that justified its existence. Now I still use the term reboot even though it was a sequel because reboot is a more broad term that signifies a new start to an established universe. A reboot can come in the form of an all-out remake where the new version takes place in a completely different universe or it can be a continuation of a franchise that had previously ran into a dead end or had "finished." Both "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" can be considered reboots even though both were continuations of an established franchise because both were new starts. Thus the same principles apply when it comes to this discussion of the necessity of reboots or remakes. In which case, "Welcome to the Jungle" was much more than just a recreation of something beloved. It used the same idea, but updated it for a modern audience, while also taking it in a completely different direction. Thus it stood side by side as an excellent companion piece rather than being a subpar recreation. There were also a lot of strokes of genius along the way that showed us all that we really do need more "Jumanji." There's a vast world here that deserves to be explored.

The biggest stroke of genius was turning the board game Jumanji 90's style retro video game console. It wasn't just kids playing a board game only to realize the board comes to life. Instead, our group of awkward and very different teens are the ones who get sucked into the video game that they have to beat rather than the board game coming to life around them. In doing this, they get transformed into various video game avatars, which in this case just happen Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan. All four of those have the time of their lives acting as these teenagers throughout the movie, with Jack Black as the teenage girl completely stealing the show. Now I don't meant to sit here and re-review "Welcome to the Jungle," but said points here are important because Sony realized that they discovered something special here, so they decided to go the route of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Now in some instances this could be a big flaw. You don't necessarily want them to do the exact same thing again. You'd rather see something different. But "The Next Level" is not one of those instances. Because sometimes in life you'd rather just have a second slice of pizza instead of having a 10-course meal where every dish is vastly different. 

This works to the advantage of "The Next Level" because "Welcome to the Jungle" has become one of those movies that is the perfect for a movie night. In fact, I've been to a lot of gatherings where it was advertised that they were having a movie night and said movie turned out to be "Welcome to the Jungle." Even though I didn't necessarily praise it to the high heavens when it was released as it didn't make my top 10 best movies of the year, I was thoroughly entertained. It's one of those movies where the rewatchability factor is really high. You don't need to spend a lot of time doing an in-depth analysis of every major facet of the movie. You just kick back, relax, shove some popcorn in your face if you're that type of person, and enjoy. Which is why there wasn't that much pressure in making this sequel. They didn't need to make a masterpiece. They just needed to give us a second helping of our favorite dish. In which case, an interesting comparison might be to the Fast & Furious franchise. That's a franchise where all of the recent movies are just a blast. They don't take themselves seriously. Everyone on board is just out to have a good time. Thus when I go into another movie into that franchise, I'm not focused about being super critical about everything.

On that note, for the most part there's really not a lot to say about "The Next Level," which is why I've spent a long portion of this review not really saying a whole lot about the movie itself. I think the principles I'm trying to get across will mostly suffice in this case. It's not like I'm trying to avoid spoilers here or anything. It's just that this movie is a pretty straight forward. If you want me to discuss specifics here, the unique thing that this movie does to separate itself a bit from the first movie is that it switches around the avatars. The game goes all berserk and sucks everyone in again without them really having much time to think. This being after Spencer already got sucked in, so Fridge, Bethany and Martha are just going to find him, but they aren't even given time to choose their avatars, which causes them to all get switched around. That's where this movie has a lot of fun. Everyone, or almost everyone, I suppose, gets the chance to be someone else as they wander through Jumanji, which I think the cast has a lot of fun with, especially Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart this time around as they get to do impersonations of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover, who play Spencer's grandfather and his grandfather's friend who happened to be visiting. 

I will say that this is a bit of a curious choice to bring Danny DeVito and Danny Glover in, then have the whole plot revolve around them, simply because this is a movie that has a four-quadrant appeal and I'm not sure the two Dannys have the same drawing power as the other cast members. I imagine they had a wide selection of potential cast members to bring on as I don't know who would say no to starring alongside Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black in a new "Jumanji" movie. But yet out of all of the options, they decided to bring on two older actors who are probably mostly unknowns to the younger audience, kids and teens alike. Thus most of this movie's humor is targeted specifically towards the adult audiences. Although being that I am one of those adults that saw this movie, I found it extremely hilarious. Kevin Hart is especially the star of this show with his Danny Glover impression, which had me cracking up the whole film. But Dwayne Johnson is also a star, playing off Kevin Hart as both of them are having fun being these two old men. Now I do suppose that, even though the younger audience might be left in the dark, I think they might still be amused at the idea of Johnson and Hart playing old men.

The drawback of going so hard on the shtick with Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart in this movie is that it did sideline the other characters a bit. Jack Black playing a teenage girl in "Welcome to the Jungle" was one of those career-defining performances. In "The Next Level," he certainly shows his versatility by being Fridge instead, but it's just not as memorable. And Karen Gillan isn't even given the option of being someone else. Now she was excellent in the first movie, but given that Spencer's grandpa is in the avatar of Dwayne Johnson instead of Spencer, the interplay there is missing. Thus the unfortunate result is there's less of a balance among the cast. Now there are other things that happen later in this movie, which include Awkwafina joining the cast, Nick Jonas returning, and a horse being a big part of the plot. But given that the final trailers revealed way more than they should, I'm going to stay silent when it comes to all of that in case you are one of those people who doesn't vulture over trailers like I do. There's certain things that SHOULD'VE remained a surprise, which would've made for a great reveal, but since Sony is Sony, they feel the need to advertising reveals in their trailers so that people will go see their movie. I find that quite frustrating.

In short, there is more to talk about, but I'm going to stay silent. Nevertheless, fun is had. The screenwriters had a blast with certain things and I think all of the actors enjoying rolling with the punches. The final word I will say here is that because Sony played it super safe in following nearly the exact same formula as "Welcome to the Jungle," it does make this movie slightly less memorable. Yes, it's a second serving of your favorite dish and it is immensely enjoyable in that aspect. But the second slice of pizza isn't always as good as the first slice, if you know what I mean. It might be the same exact pizza with the same ingredients, but there's a psychological aspect to that where the first serving just ends up being more of a memorable experience. And in terms of the screenwriters, even though they had a lot of fun with the characters themselves and the actors all did a great job, there could've been slightly more of an emphasis on the plot of the movie itself. No, they didn't have to do something drastically different. They could've kept the same formula as "Welcome to the Jungle." But I walked out remembering individual sequences and the performances from the actors, but not much more. But still, this was still an entertaining sequel that pleased me, so I'm giving it an 8/10.