Jumanji: The Next Level – Review

Jumanji: The Next Level

Directed by: Jake Kasdan

Runtime: 123 minutes

I never had any interest in watching Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle back when it was released two years ago. My only experience with the franchise was seeing the classic 1995 film several times on TV growing up. There was also a cartoon series that aired at some point, I think? I might have just imagined that⁠—I was going to fact check this but I prefer to keep the aura of mystery alive. Though I have the distinct memory of one of the characters getting bitten by an insect and having a poisonous venom visibly travel up the veins in his arm and into his heart, instantly killing him. Children’s television at its finest.

Like the general populace, I went into Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle with zero expectations. Those expectations were blown away as I found myself in fits of whimsical laughter in the cinema. It was simple, unapologetic fun and it knew what it was. Now Jumanji: The Next Level stampedes in to bring another family fun adventure, ready for the holidays. But now that there’s an expectation to live up to, can Jumanji: The Next Level actually meet it?

The film starts three years (I did not know that; this is what it said on Wikipedia. I thought it was like a year later max. It felt like a year. It should’ve been a year) after the events of the first movie. Our main cast of teens have all moved on in life, but are planning a reunion back in their home town for the holidays. Spencer, however, is a bit apprehensive about seeing everyone as he put his relationship with Martha “on hold” due to his own insecurities. Spencer’s grandpa (Danny DeVito) is visiting for the holidays as well. So that’s cool. To get over his insecurities and make himself feel good again, Spencer decides to go back into Jumanji in order to feel the confidence he had when playing as Dr. Bravestone. His friends get worried when he doesn’t show up to their reunion. They go to house and realise he went back into the game, so they go into Jumanji once again to save him. Except for some reason this time, the game is incredibly selective about who gets to play. Because despite having people in the room right next to the game, Spencer’s grandpa gets pulled in along with his friend as well. Now the two oldies are in Jumanji with the youngblood. Hilarity ensues, because old people don’t understand video games.

This setup is very contrived and much like the first film, the scenes with the teenagers in the real world are the weakest parts of the film. Having Danny DeVito and Danny Glover here in this opening does make it a bit more palatable. But I still don’t care about these characters, and the acting certainly doesn’t help this. They’re only used as a vehicle to get to the real meat of the movie when they enter Jumanji and the adventure begins a proper, and we meet our actual main cast.

What made Welcome to the Jungle so entertaining was the fact that you could see how much fun the cast were having, and how that energy fed into their performances. This is still very clear to see in The Next Level. Kevin Hart is the most consistently funny out of the group, and he also manages to bring a few moments of sincerity and sadness to his characters. Jack Black gets to be a bit of a group leader to help progress the plot, which is a nice change of pace from the first movie. Awkwafina is great in her debut to the franchise; she’s able to hold her own comedically with titans like Black and Hart. Unfortunately Dwayne Johnson is pretty annoying to watch when he’s portraying Spencer’s grandpa. It feels like he’s repeating a joke that’s funny for a few minutes. But then he does it for half of the movie. It gets old quick. It seemed like it was a character he wasn’t particularly comfortable playing. Finally Karen Gillan doesn’t really get to do anything different in the film this time around, which is a shame.

Despite the criticisms I’ve mentioned, I was still laughing and enjoying myself when watching Jumanji: The Next Level. I just feel like this film starts to reveal the cracks in the formula that these films are using. There’s also notably obvious drop in quality when it comes to its special effects, particularly with the segments involving animals. So with all that in mind, I’m just not sure how long this franchise can last before it becomes stale and mediocre. Because it’s already starting to head in that direction. Regardless Jumanji: The Next Level is still a fun time, and there’s definitely worse things you can see this holiday season.