Jumanji: The Next Level — Film Review

Where in The World is The Second Act?

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Credited cast:

Karen Gillan … Martha

Dwayne Johnson … Eddie/Spencer

Madison Iseman … Young Bethany

Jack Black … Bethany / Fridge

Ashley Scott … Ashley

Danny DeVito … Eddie

Colin Hanks … Young Alex

Awkwafina … Ming

Kevin Hart … Milo / Fridge

Nick Jonas … Alex

Alex Wolff … Young Spencer

Rhys Darby … Nigel

Dania Ramirez … Flame

Danny Glover … Milo

Ser’Darius Blain … Young Fridge

Well, the holiday movie season is upon us. The studios are slowly rolling out their respective tent-pole movies with baited anticipation of visions of bountiful box-office revenue. I would say, not so fast. One of those highly anticipated holiday films that have been released is Jumanji: The Next Level. It is the followup to Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, a re-imagining to the original Jumanji that came out on December 15, 1995, and starred the late great Robin Williams. Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle was a fun movie and a financial success that made in the USA: $404,540,171 on a reported $90,000,000 budget. With those types of numbers, a sequel would eventually come to fruition and it has. So how does the sequel fare?

It’s an aggravatingly slow burn that redeems itself in the third act. As the film opens up, we find that Spencer is working at some retail store as a stock clerk who is lost in his own dark and gloomy future. He has isolated himself from his friends and home life is just as dreary as we are introduced to a new character, Eddie, played by Danny DeVito, as Spencer’s bitter and curmudgeonly grandfather. Eddie is sullen and angry at the world but we don’t understand why at this point. We assume that he has to live with his daughter because he is old and has to have someone watch over him. But soon we are being introduced to another new character to the sequel and that person is Milo, played by Danny Glover, Eddie’s former restaurant partner in earlier times. Milo has one blaring character feature or, depending on your point of view, character flaw, and that is, as Jerry Seinfeld once described, he’s a slow talker, an annoying slow talker at that.

But let’s get back to Spencer. He is despondent and has retreated to his basement to relive a glory day moment from his past. That past was playing the game, Jumanji, the now destroyed game console resting on his table. In the meantime, Spencer’s friends are concerned that nobody has stayed in contact with Spencer and they come to his home to see him. They meet Eddie, the curmudgeon, as Martha goes upstairs to find Spencer to no success. As they are waiting, they here a familiar sound emanating from the basement. They soon discover that Spencer has reentered the Jumanji game. So, in order to make the sequel work, it is decided that they must go back into the game as well to rescue Spencer. But this time instead of the old team being drawn into the game, Bethany is left behind and in her stead, Milo and Eddie are sucked up.

So now in this alternate universe, we find the originals in the form of Karen Gillan, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Dwayne Johnson. Martha is in Karen’s body but Fridge is in Jack’s body, Eddie is in Dwayne’s body and Milo is in Keven’s body. So that is the switch up. You would think that with two seasoned actors and veterans who’ve done comedy and timing exceptionally well that you’d think that this would be a slam dunk, but you would be wrong. The trailer for this film did sell the fact that Milo/Kevin did showcase some comedic moments but Eddie/Dwayne and Milo/Kevin just bog down this portion of the film. Milo and Eddie’s constant bickering is a distraction. Eddie/Dwayne is stubborn and a bit arrogant and doesn’t listen to anyone. Milo/Kevin is such a slow talker that when he describes what an animal is, by the time he gets to the most critical point, he places everyone in danger. Plus, he’s constantly repeating himself as if he’s suffering from dementia. Much later on after the Milo/Eddie bickering dissipates, we find that in a moment of sincerity that Milo has an illness and is facing death which is why he walks back into Milo’s life after 15 years.

In the midst of all of this, Martha/Karen and Fridge/Jack discover a pool of water that switches their personalities into the other's body. This discovery will become critical later down the line but at that moment, Fridge/Jack is in Martha/Karen’s body and he messes up and is returned back to his body. They do find Spencer only this time he’s in a woman’s body and we are introduced to a new character played by Awkwafina. In the meantime, Bethany is in the real world trying to get back to Jumanji. Flipping back and forth from the game to the real world was interesting. She finds herself at the home of Alex who was in the game for a long time. With his help, he and Bethany return to the game but her avatar is a horse while Alex returns as Nick Jonas. Now all of the players are in the game.

What was frustrating about the second act was the relationship between Eddie and Milo. Eddie’s stubborn and headstrong attitude and Milo’s slow-talking not only worked on the viewers' nerves but the characters as well as they voiced their complaint. Now I don’t know if the director was brave or clever for this disruption to go on for that long because you could see that the film was being pulled down with this constant battle. Just as you were about to give up on this film, Fridge and Martha find a body of water with the same properties as the water that switched their personalities. Soon Bethany, Milo, Spencer, Eddie, and Fridge enter the water and Spencer, Fridge and Bethany are in their respective bodies from the game and Milo is the horse and Eddie is Awkwafina.

Spencer/Dwayne has his confidence back, Fridge/Kevin has his acerbic wit and comedic timing again, Bethany/Jack is back in form as well. The third act has been reprieved for the better and the energy level rises up tenfold. On the one hand, you could commend Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson for effectively channeling Danny Glover and Danny DeVito’s essence that made them so annoying and then totally reversing those elements to their former selves.

Now the team is back to a more cohesive unit with everyone being in their respective avatars. At this point, it becomes a by the numbers action sequence but it is a good by the numbers action sequence that you’ve sat through for two hours. They vanquish the bad guy and they save Jumanji once again. As everyone gets ready to return to the real world, Milo opts to stay behind and live out his life as a horse. Eddie comes to the realization that Milo made the right decision to sell the restaurant and that their friendship had been more than just on the surface. Spencer realizes that isolating himself wasn’t beneficial to his self-esteem or to the benefit of others. Bethany’s unrequited feelings for Alex were muted as she was underage in the first Jumanji and he was much older plus he has a young daughter when she showed up at his door. Now that she’s legal, this wasn’t addressed at all and no wife was seen at Alex’s home. So I guess this bit of a subplot just was ignored.

As we tie up things in a somewhat neat little bow, the team is at Eddie and Milo’s old restaurant now called Nora. They are sitting at the table chatting up about things in general. Eddie comes in for the first time in years and finally meets the new owner played by a refreshing Bebe Neuwirth who looks fantastic. 

Meanwhile, Mom is at home with a repairman to fix something in the basement and the guy notices the game console. He begins to mess with the unit and as the scene cuts away, we’re back at the restaurant where a Jumanji ostrich runs by. All of a sudden, a full herd of ostriches run by while the gang is heading out. Is this a sign for a three-quell?

I can’t fully say that this was a bad film. The challenge is sitting through the moment where Kevin and Dwayne are Milo and Eddie. You do feel the film is being pulled down but the director is taking a chance knowing that these scenes are diminishing the energy of the film. Perhaps he may have allowed it to go on too long but the moment it’s over and the pacing returns to a comfortable normalization. Is it worth watching? Yes. Is it funny? Yes, in some parts. Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Dwayne Johnson do have their funny moments that are spaced out perhaps in greater distances than we would like but it’s there. So take the kids, it’s a good family movie.