So Jumanji: The Next Level is out and I saw it… by which I think I mean I saw it a couple years ago too. So this is a direct sequel with the same enjoyable cast doing the same reasonably enjoyable things again. Fun cast, reasonably fun stuff. Again. I’d honestly like to say it’s almost as good but not quite… but that’s not really true. It’s kind of the same level of fun… which is to say: moderately fun.
So the new movie starts with the original set of kids off to college. They are all happy except for the nerdy kid who is feeling cold and alone in NYC. So he comes home for Christmas and starts feeling like he’d rather by the Dwayne Johnson character again… just like he was in the original movie. When his friends find out he’s gone back into the game, they follow him. But the game is broken and they can’t control which avatars they take over… or indeed whether or not Danny DeVito and Danny Glover get sucked into the game too.
And the DeVito and Glover thing is one of the few new and (semi) original ideas in the film. The Rock stretches his acting muscles to emulate Danny DeVito and Kevin Hart impersonates Glover (which is a better performance but it’s been so long since Glover has been in movies, it loses some of its punch, I think). The movie also takes some time to mix up the actors/characters throughout the flick for a dose of originality (or at least difference from the last flick).
And… well… I’d like them to make the next movie Jumanji: Welcome to Zathura… we’d at least get something more original than more jungle/desert action adventure. This isn’t a bad movie at all… but it hardly does much to justify itself. Might as well watch the first movie. But that also means it doesn’t face plant. It’s a perfectly good sequel to a perfectly good action comedy.
Score: 80