3.5 stars. Rated PG-13, for fantasy peril, mild suggestive content, and fleeting profanity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.13.19
This sequel definitely fulfills its mandate: It’s fun, fast-paced and exciting.
Not exactly suspenseful — it’s hard to imagine anything really bad happening to these characters — but nonetheless laden with plenty of Perils of Pauline-style danger.
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| Having (mostly) survived an attack by a herd of killer ostriches, our heroes — from left, Mouse Finbar (Kevin Hart), Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), Dr. Shelly Oberon (Jack Black) and Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan) — contemplate how best to proceed to their dangerous game's next level. |
Jumanji: The Next Level isn’t as fresh as its 2017 predecessor, although writer/director Jake Kasdan — with co-scripter Jeff Pinkner — have made some clever refinements. At just north of two hours, the pacing flags a bit; Kasdan should have let editors Steve Edwards, Mark Helfrich and Tara Timpone tighten things up a bit. (Why else have three editors?)
A few years have passed since small-town New Hampshire teens Spencer (Alex Wolff), Martha (Morgan Turner), Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain) and Bethany (Madison Iseman) “became” fictitious video game avatars in a dangerously haunted old console edition of Jumanji. They survived that adventure — as depicted in the previous film — and have moved on to separate college lives.
Spencer, alas, feels unfulfilled. Juggling classes and a part-time job have worn him down; his long-distance relationship with Martha also has crumbled. Returning to Brantford for a reunion with his three friends leaves him uneasy: a feeling intensified when he discovers that his Grandpa Eddie (Danny DeVito) has become a semi-permanent houseguest, while recovering from hip surgery.
The fact is, Spencer suffers from a syndrome all too familiar to those who’ve survived harrowing, life-or-death experiences; he misses the opportunity to be heroic. He misses the rush.
When Spencer fails to show up for the long-awaited get-together, his friends go looking for him. By coincidence, they find Grandpa Eddie reluctantly hosting a long-estranged friend: Milo (Danny Glover), with whom he once shared a thriving local restaurant business. Martha, Fridge and Bethany are barely inside the door when they hear the characteristic rumbling drums that signal Jumanji-style peril.
Tracing the sound to the basement, they’re shocked to find the malevolent game console … which they all assumed had been destroyed. Worse yet, there’s every indication that it has been re-activated. With Spencer nowhere to be found, the conclusion is inescapable.
He must’ve gone back “into” the game, which means he’s in mortal danger. In a gesture of that’s-what-friends-are-for selflessness, the three link arms, embrace the console and are enveloped in the anticipated whoosh of green light.
But they overlooked one detail: This adventure demands four participants. A surprised Bethany, left behind in Spencer’s basement, rushes upstairs and discovers that Milo and Grandpa Eddie have vanished instead.
While, within the game...
Grandpa Eddie has been dumped into the body of hunky, heroic Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson), while Milo now resides within the diminutive frame of zoologist/linguist Mouse Finbar (Kevin Hart). Martha once again has been granted the lithe, acrobatic and bodacious bod of bad-ass bombshell Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), but poor Fridge — in a startling shift — now is unhappily housed within the portly frame of cartographer Dr. Shelly Oberon (Jack Black).
This franchise’s primary delight, as before, comes from watching these actors channel each other. Johnson hilariously mimics DeVito’s cranky, crusty old coot; Hart similarly impersonates Glover’s unhurried, aggravatingly mild Milo. Black, in turn, is constantly near tears as the frustrated Fridge — proudly buff, in the real world — laments having been dumped into this podgy, old-guy body.
But it gets worse. As out-of-touch senior citizens, Milo and Grandpa Eddie know nothing of avatars or the heightened-reality perils of video game adventures. They keep expecting to wake from a dream, or to somehow hail a cab — despite being stuck in the desert expanse of the game’s first level — back to Brantford.
Frantic explanations by Martha/Ruby and Fridge/Oberon don’t help much; Milo and Grandpa Eddie lack the cultural awareness to make sense of the terminology. On top of which, the latter frequently succumbs to the “senior moments” of forgetting something he’s just heard.
Needless to say, the game doesn’t allow for the “down time” required to bring newbies up to speed. In very short order, a few characters lose one of their three “game lives,” still clueless about the real-world consequences, should they perish twice more.
The resulting confusion, bickering and squabbling is quite amusing, particularly when it continues amid the perils of massive killer snakes, ostriches, hyenas and simians. And it’s important to note that while this story pokes gentle, exasperated fun at how Grandpa Eddie and Milo can’t figure out how to come to the party, this frustration — by Martha/Ruby and Fridge/Oberon — never blossoms into ridicule or cruelty.
Rest assured; the story eventually gives both ol’ duffers an opportunity to shine (while, not coincidentally, working out the issues that prompted their real-world estrangement).
The game goal this time involves confronting Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann), who has stolen the legendary Falcon Jewel — a gem that ensures the fertility of Jumanji — and hidden it from the sun, causing the land to fall into drought and desolation. The imposing McCann may be recognized as the equally terrifying Hound, from Game of Thrones, although it’s hard to tell amid the thick fur outfits costume designer Louise Mingenbach employs for Jurgen the Brutal’s polar fortress.
And what of Spencer? Since our four familiar avatars are all accounted for, where did he wind up?
Answering that question is almost too much of a spoiler, but those paying attention to the cast list likely will come to the correct conclusion, upon spotting Awkwafina’s name. She pops up midway through these harrowing events, as a cunning pick-pocket, cat burglar and safe-cracker … with familiar real-world pollen allergies.
Nick Jonas also returns, as Jefferson “Seaplane” McDonough, the dashing pilot whose assistance proved so vital during the group’s previous adventure. And while Bethany eventually finds her way into the game as well, revealing precisely how really is a spoiler too many.
The challenges lean more toward the physical this time around, with less for the “smart” characters — Finbar and Oberon — to puzzle out. That’s unfortunate, as it reinforces this sequel’s greater reliance on momentum over game logic.
Even so, personality overcomes such shortcomings. Johnson and Gillan have the most fun with their various identities, particularly when a later game hiccup permits swapping. Johnson playfully riffs the smoldering charisma of so many of his other real-world performances, while Gillan enthusiastically displays the giddiness of an average young woman inhabiting such a capably physical (and smokin’ hot) body.
Awkwafina is a hoot, as always, while channeling the insecure Spencer.
Composer Henry Jackman sneaks a few cute references into his soundtrack, most notably echoes of Maurice Jarre’s music for Lawrence of Arabia, during the desert sequences.
This sophomore Jumanji escapade is guaranteed to entertain folks seeking popcorn thrills during the holiday season. And if the post-end credits teaser is any indication, we’ll soon get a third entry.
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