Jumanji: The Next Level

2017’s belated Jumanji sequel, Welcome to the Jungle, came out of nowhere and was an unexpected joy.  This threequel has the weight of expectation on it, and yet still somehow manages to be as heart-warming, adventurous, uplifting and funny, mixing plenty of new ideas with what we loved from the earlier films.

Premise:  Two years after they escaped from the Jumanji videogame, Spencer, Martha, Fridge and Bethany have now left high school and are leading new lives scattered across the world.  But a reunion back in their hometown for the Christmas holidays stirs up some difficult emotions for Spencer, just as his grandpa Eddie comes to visit.

Review:

The 2017 sequel Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle worked so well partly because it brought a fresh new spin to the 1995 original Jumanji, by focusing on having the real-world characters (Spencer, Fridge, Martha and Bethany) inhabit the bodies of the game’s avatars, “Smolder Bravestone” (Dwayne Johnson), “Mouse Finbar” (Kevin Hart), “Ruby Roundhouse” (Karen Gillan) and “Sheldon Oberon” (Jack Black).  The Next Level takes that concept and runs with it, by using the plot device of the broken game (the kids smashed it with a bowling ball at the end of the last film) to mix up which real-world characters inhabit which avatars this time around.

I don’t want to go into too much detail about who’s in whose body, but suffice to say that there’s an awful lot of humour to be minded from this concept.  What I will say (as it’s all over the trailers and is central to the very premise of the film) is that the addition of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover to the real-world cast was an inspired decision.  Not only are they great in the real-world scenes, where DeVito plays Spencer’s grumpy
grandpa Eddie, who’s been angry at his old business partner Milo (Glover) for the last 15 years, but they also get sucked into the game, allowing Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart to really have some fun.

“…‘The Next Level’ really leans into the comedy elements…”

Super-confident Dwayne Johnson was a blast playing nervy teenager Spencer in the last film, but this time it’s grandpa Eddie who’s in the “Smolder Bravestone” avatar, giving Johnson an excuse to really ham it up as the crotchety – and perpetually confused – grandfather.  Equally, Kevin Hart was great as the frustrated and hot-headed Fridge last time, but this time the “Mouse Finbar” avatar is inhabited by grandpa Eddie’s friend Milo, which gives Hart the opportunity to play a good-natured 75-year-old who endlessly rambles and seems completely unable to ever get to a point.  Perhaps even more so than Welcome to the Jungle, The Next Level really leans into the comedy elements, and although Johnson’s and Hart’s performances are a little over the top, they are hilarious to watch.

Because Johnson and Hart are playing the comedy beats even more than last time, it arguably falls on Karen Gillan to lead the film in terms of its plot.  Martha is the only character who returns to the same avatar as last time, and so becomes the group’s default leader in many ways.  Karen Gillan is, of course, more than up to the task, and although she does have to carry a lot of the film’s exposition, she still has plenty of comedic moments of her own, while never losing sight of the uncertain and insecure girl under the warrior woman’s exterior.

“…more about the real-world characters’ emotional journeys than the avatar’s travels through the game…”

Jack Black returns and once again utterly convinces as the real-world character inhabiting his avatar, and new addition Awkwafina is equally impressive as a new mysterious character within the game.  While I don’t want to go into too much detail (as half the fun is not knowing which characters end up where), the entire cast do a fantastic job of playing their “characters within a character”.  Rhys Darby is also back as the ever-enthusiastic NPC Nigel Billingsley, and Game of Throne’s Rory McCann plays the new villain, Jurgen the Brutal.  If I was feeling particularly harsh, I’d say that the villain and mission in The Next Level don’t have as much going on as in Welcome to the Jungle – but in truth, that’s actually the point.  The teens think playing the game a second time will be easy – but the game generates a new villain/mission by obviously recycling the specifications from the last one, so we once again have a villain with a personal connection to Bravestone’s past stealing a (different) magical gem which threatens the land of Jumanji (again).  The lack of creativity in the new mission is actually part of the joke.

Just like in the last film, the real “plot” is more about the real-world characters’ emotional journeys, rather than the avatar’s travels through the game.  The title The Next Level has several meanings – obviously, it superficially refers to the next level of the game, but it’s also more about the real-world characters moving on to the next level in their personal lives – leaving home, going to college and travelling the world – and the emotions and insecurities that those changes stir up.  Eddie and Milo also have their own emotional baggage to work through, and their perspectives from characters comparatively at the other end of their life’s journeys add a real sense of poignancy to the film.

“…a joyous, fun, heart-warming, exciting, funny and uplifting pieces of escapist, family-friendly fun…”

I should also mention the location shooting in this film, as the mission takes the gang from the jungles of the last film, to several new locations, including a vast dessert expanse and a snowy mountain-top fortress.  While I’m sure there was plenty of CGI used in this film, the practical location shooting gives everything a sense of physicality that would have been missing on a green-screen soundstage, and the natural vistas are truly impressive.

Is The Next Level objectively perfect?  Not really.  Is it likely to win any Oscars?  Probably not.  But taken for what it is, it’s one of the most joyous, fun, heart-warming, exciting, funny and uplifting pieces of escapist, family-friendly fun that I’ve seen all year, and what more could you ask for this Christmas holiday season?