Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) - Review

After Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle proved that the filmmakers involved in the new Jumanji sequel could make a movie that far surpassed most people’s expectations, and after it made a substantial profit at the box office, Jumanji: The Next Level was quickly in production. Like most immediate sequels to a good thing, it made mountains of money and was a slight dip in overall quality. Is it a substantial enough dip to make you apprehensive of the inevitable sequel?

Pros

Still has some well-written joke material to play off new character dynamics
Action is about as fun as the last movie
Change in scenery allows for the world to be not restricted to just a jungle every time
Awkwafina’s impression of Danny Devito

Cons

Some of the writing retreads old ground; goes back to the well a little too much
Rules of the world get broken a bit too much or just seem to be crafted out for the sake of convenience
Body-switching mechanic is a bit odd and forced
Justification for going back into the game is somewhat weak
Villain is still pretty bland, but at least serves as a threat to Dr. Bravestone

Plot & Thoughts

A year (or so) after the events of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the kids have all graduated from high school to go do their own things. With the holidays on the way, Spencer (Alex Wolff), Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), Bethany (Madison Iseman), and Martha (Morgan Turner) are all meeting up together in their hometown. Spencer is a bit distraught and insecure, however, having tried a long-distance relationship with Martha and finding himself not being the man he wanted to be upon moving to New York. Before they meet up, Spencer heads down to the basement of his mom’s house where he had stored the Jumanji game console that was smashed up at the end of the previous film. As you might expect, he disappears.

The remaining friends head to his house to look for him and meet his grumpy grandfather, Eddie (Danny Devito), and Eddie’s former friend and business partner Milo (Danny Glover). Upon discovering the game console and assuming that Spencer went back to Jumanji, they decide to go in after him. However, something goes wrong along the way. Martha arrives in her usual avatar of Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), but Fridge is now inside Dr. Oberon (Jack Black), Milo is Mouse (Kevin Hart), and Eddie is Dr. Bravestone (Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson); somehow, Bethany got left behind. Not only are the characters different, but the game’s scenario has changed and the abilities of the characters have updated as well, making sure that any Jumanji veterans would not have a big advantage. After a significant amount of time being spent catching up Eddie and Milo on the situation, who only really seem to fully understand the situation in the last 15 minutes of the movie, they set out in search of Spencer.

As with other comedy sequels like Ghostbusters 2, Wayne’s World 2, or The Hangover 2, Jumanji: The Next Level benefits greatly from its predecessor’s existence. A lot of the humor in the first couple acts of the movie is built off the previous film’s gags and how things have changed since then. This is not inherently a bad thing, as the movie is still funny and it can be entertaining watching Dwayne Johnson do a grumpy Boston accent and Jack Black behave like a young African-American male. Even Kevin Hart gets to actually do more of a character this time by acting like a charming, slow-talking, slow-thinking Danny Glover, which is more than he got to do last time. It’s an interesting way to keep the character dynamics fresh and funny. It’s not like they could have just done the same situation, since the novelty of the original jokes, like a teenage girl in Jack Black, had more or less run its course.

All that being said, the primary gag of the first hour is how clueless Eddie and Milo are in comparison to Martha and Fridge and it does start to get old after a while. When you’ve already watched the “character growth” of the original team take place and still have two of those characters present, it feels like Milo and Eddie end up holding back the plot and the humor by the end. I think that even the writers seemed to notice this because they introduce a body-swapping mechanic to fix that by the end so that the character dynamics you loved in the previous film are restored and some new jokes to build off the original team can be introduced. It feels like a forced mechanic to cover up the fact that only half of the team actually grew or changed over the course of the film, and even Spencer’s re-introduced neurosis is very quickly and casually resolved, despite the fact that he’s the whole reason they’re in the game. Nonetheless, when Eddie gets the new body of the young thief, Ming (Awkwafina), I couldn’t help but forgive it because her Danny Devito impression is pretty damn funny.

The main antagonist of the film is similar to before in his over-the-top portrayal and is actually even less prominent throughout the whole movie. I can’t tell if it’s because of the fact that the heroes actually had to steal the MacGuffin from him, or if it’s because he doesn’t spend much time on screen, but I’d call it a slight improvement. He’s prominent, but he also doesn’t feel as useless as the previous villain. The action is about as exciting as before and the animals seem anatomically less correct than before, but it doesn’t negatively impact the fun. The pacing is a bit slower and the detours the team takes are a little more all over the place, for better or worse. There are more locales, so it’s not just a jungle, but the ‘quest’ they’re on is a lot less detailed and not as tightly written. If you care about that stuff, you might be disappointed, but it shouldn’t ruin your experience.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

Jumanji: The Next Level is a decent sequel to the new series of Jumanji movies. It’s not as tightly woven of a package as its predecessor. It goes back to some of the jokes from both the previous film and its own script a few too many times, but it still manages to be funny and entertaining. It’s still a movie that’s easy to recommend if you’re curious to see where the next Jumanji adventure goes, but I have to admit that I’m a little skeptical if a third one of these films is going to reach the same level of quality.

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