Film review: Jumanji: The Next Level

Welcome to another film review, this week I am reviewing Jumanji: The Next Level which is the direct sequel to Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle and the fourth film in the Jumanji franchise (the other two being Jumanji is 1981 and Zathura: A Space Adventure in 2005). Directed by Jake Kasdan and starring Dwayne Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, Nick Jonas, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Ser'Darius Blain, and Madison Iseman reprising their roles from the previous film, while Awkwafina, Rory McCann, Danny Glover, and Danny DeVito also join the cast. The film was released in December last year and finished as the tenth best selling film of 2019, pretty impressive considering the top 10 also contained Avengers: Endgame (the highest grossing film ever), Toy Story 4, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker and Frozen 2 which were all highly anticipated.

Before I go further I will say that there will be spoilers, so if you intend to watch the film and don't like spoilers wait to see the film first.

The film begins three years on from the Jumanji adventure of Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff), Anthony "Fridge" Johnson (Ser'Darius Blain), Martha Kaply (Morgan Turner), and Bethany Walker (Madison Iseman), they all lead different lives but plan a reunion of which Spencer is apprehensive of, thinking he has a dull life, and decides to return to Jumanji where he had a purpose. The three friends go looking for Spencer and after meeting his grandfather Eddie (Danny DeVito), who is recovering from hip surgery, and his old friend Milo Walker (Danny Glover), they discover he went back into the game and decide to do so. However the game malfunctions taking Martha, Fridge, Eddie and Milo but leaving Bethany behind, leading her to contact fellow Jumanji alumnus Alex Vreeke (Colin Hanks) for help. In the game Martha again becomes Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), Fridge this time becomes Professor Sheldon Oberon (Jack Black), Eddie becomes Dr Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson) previously Spencer's character and Milo becomes Franklin 'Mouse' Finbar (Kevin Hart) previously Fridge's character. It is revealed that their mission this time is to return the Falcon's Heart Jewel to the sun from brutal warlord Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann).

They are dropped in a desert and after finding out about some new strengths and weaknesses they reunite with Spencer who's character is now Ming Fleetfoot (Awkwafina). Along the way they must retrieve the Jumanji berry, which they find above a glowing green pool which allows character switching. Eddie and Milo continue to argue throughout and, after a heart to heart where the two reconcile, Milo reveals he is terminally ill. The group survive another attack and find Alex as his character Jefferson McDonough (Nick Jonas) and Bethany as black horse Cyclone. They continue their journey and find another pool of glowing green and some change characters to overcome a few issues, Spencer, Fridge and Bethany again become Bravestone, Mouse and Sheldon respectively while Eddie becomes Ming and Milo becomes Cyclone. Soon after Eddie and Milo are captured by Jurgen's men and taken to his fortress, the others follow and split up to free their companions and complete their mission. The group fight with Jurgen and his men, Spencer discovers Jurgen's weakness is the Jumanji berry and uses it to incapacitate him long enough to get the Falcon's Heart Jewel back and send Jurgen over a cliff to his death. They return the necklace and while everyone else leaves Milo chooses to stay and protect Jumanji. 

Now out of the game the four friends meet for their brunch at Eddie's old restaurant, where he convinces the owner, Nora, to hire him as a manger.

I will start by saying I love the original Jumanji, it is easily one of my favourite films of all time, so when I discovered that a sequel was being made I was beyond excited, especially as the premise was brilliant. When I saw Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle I loved it almost as much as the original and truly love the characters, finding out there was another film got me very excited. Jumanji: The Next Level is absolutely incredible and possibly equal to the original in terms of how much I love it, making this a very popular series with me and also my wife.

The concept of the people playing the game actually entering and becoming the characters is something I like most about the film, especially with the introduction of two older characters who don't understand video games so struggle with their characters in the game. I love the fact they continued with the same main characters of the previous film, meaning that I already liked them and knew what they were like, this made it even funnier when they went into the game and were different characters meaning they had to adjust to different qualities. The story line of the games was great as well being fairly different to the previous film, with the addition of them having to teach Eddie and Milo about video games they also had to work out a whole new mission making it more of a challenge for Martha and Fridge (who funnily enough are my favourite characters). With the story line being different the characters had some different strengths and weaknesses which I found really interesting especially as it added another comedy element with Sheldon's weakness being the desert where most of the game takes place, Ruby gaining nun-chuck skills super cool right and Mouse being able to talk to animals, very helpful when a horse joins the group. I found the aspect of character switching really interesting, mainly from the acting point of view as it gave those actors involved a chance to show off their variety of acting skills in one film, I was particularly impressed with Awkwafina and Kevin Hart in this situation as they had more challenging shifts of player but pulled them off perfectly, Awkwafina even went to the point of hunching slightly to pull off being Eddie even better, this whole concept was pure genius.

I also really enjoyed that the film continued what the others have done with bringing the characters real issues into the game making the story grounded in the fact that these are real people in the game, this made the characters even more relatable and human. We had the continuation of the relationship situation between Martha and Spencer which resolved in them sorting their issues and being stronger than before, Eddie and Milo continuing the argument they were having out of the game and resolving becoming friends again, plus several characters overcoming insecurities they have about themselves. 

Overall I really enjoyed this film and can see myself re-watching the series repeatedly, I am also super excited for the next film to continue the story, hopefully it will match up to the rest.

My rating for Jumanji: The Next Level is 9.5/10

For comparison my ratings for the other films are:

Jumanji 9.5/10

Zathura: A Space Adventure 7.5/10

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle 9/10