Jumanji: Welcome to The Jungle was the surprise of 2017, both critically and financially. Not to the point that it was not a renaissance of comedic proportions, but $900 million and a lot of laughs later the movie delivered a better-than expected action comedy. It also continued to solidify that Kevin Hart and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson might be this generation’s go to comedic team as they found a way to not tarnish the late great Robin Williams’ legacy. But there’s no way a sequel to an initially unwanted reboot that outperformed its expectations amongst massive skepticism could find a way to surprise audiences again, right? Maybe it’s time to stop doubting this rebooted franchise.
Jumanji: Welcome to The Jungle opens about a year after Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), Martha (Morgan Turner), Bethany (Madison Iseman) and Spencer’s (Alex Wolff) first adventure into the Jumanji video. All of the gang have grown into their own post high-school and are looking forward to returning home for Christmas break to catch each other up on how well they have been doing. All of them except Spencer. While Fridge is a college athlete, Bethany is vacationing in tropical locations, and Martha is meeting people who like her for the first time in her life, Spencer is at NYU feeling like he is missing something.
Spencer’s trip home is one despondent scene after another, including some untimely gloomy advice from his grandfather Eddie (Danny DeVito) after Spencer explains that he and Martha have broken up since graduating. Desperately wanting to relive the fearlessness of Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Johnson), he fixes the broken game console to return to Jumanji. The others go after him knowing he can’t do it alone, and from this first act the sequel makes an effort to give the real life characters more arc, depth and story than its predecessor. These arc-building scenes throughout the movie last a minute or so too long, but do well in creating more of a connection to the younger protagonists.
Yet, the movie really kicks into high-gear once we reenter Jumanji. Martha returns to her avatar Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), but the game glitches as they enter and Fridge’s avatar is now Professor Sheldon Oberon (Jack Black). Even worse, Eddie and his old pal Milo Walker (Danny Glover) are incidentally bulled into the game as Bravestone and Hart’s Mouse Finbar Avatar. Coming into the sequel, the worry was that it wouldn’t provide anything new. But once we see Johnson and Hart embody their inner DeVito
and Glover, the laughs come full and hard. Hart’s use of every old black man saying is gut-busting, and we see a comedic range we didn’t know Johnson had. The accent slips every once in a while, but he is so focused on bringing every inch of DeVito’s gigantic 4’10” personality into his large frame that he still pulls it off flawlessly.
The Rock and Hart clearly show why they are the franchises’ top billing for this franchise, but its Karen Gillan and Jack Black that make these reboots wholly enjoyable. The sequel feels more like their movie, as it focuses more on their characters trying convince the old timer they hadn’t died. Gillan is the the movie’s linchpin as she is the most grounded character amongst her larger-than-life co-stars. While all of them have varying mixtures of comedic timing and genuine heart, Black continues to be the standout. He shows a comedic genius as he is able to embody multiple personalities without delving into stereotypes. Joining the game crew again is Nick Jonas reprising Colin Hanks’ Alex, who was trapped in Jumanji for 20 years in Welcome to the Jungle, and Awkwafina as the avatar Ming, a crafty cat burglar. Together, this ensemble is able to bring something fresh embodying divergent personalities. Combined with a smart script that somehow found new ways to exploit video games’ ridiculousness and wide-eyed action set pieces, Jumanji: The Next Level cements this rebooted franchise as an unabashed success. Yea, there some apparent CGI and some lulls throughout. But who cares when you are having that much fun. Jumanji: The Next Level gets 8/10 Kevin Hart/Danny Glover “Is that Barbara’s Boy??”