The problem with “Jumanji: The Next Level” is that it doesn’t seem to know how to make the most of all these great ideas. But when killer ostriches are attacking and only Milo knows what to do (because, again, his character is a zoologist), waiting patiently for him to get to the point is a brilliant and suspenseful comedic exercise.
It’s a lot like watching Hart act in slow-motion, which means it’s relatively close to what anyone else would consider normal. The fast-talking comedian is being inhabited by an actor whose trademark is calm and measured delivery.
Johnson tries to capture DeVito’s signature line delivery but, for some reason, he adds a pronounced lisp, and spends most of the movie sounding more like Mike Tyson than the star of “Taxi” and “Batman Returns.”Īlso Read: Watch Dwayne Johnson and Danny DeVito Crash a Wedding in Mexico and Serenade the Bride In practice, the delicate art of impersonating Danny DeVito proves beyond Johnson’s acting abilities. The idea of a movie starring Dwayne Johnson as Danny DeVito, who recaptures his lost youth within the body of a godlike action hero, is absolutely delightful on paper.
It took a long time to organically explain the rules of video games and avatars in the original “Jumanji,” and those rules need to be explained once again to Eddie and Milo, but the sequel is free to take everything the audience learned and screw around with it, with amusing but sometimes mixed results. The real treat of “Jumanji: The Next Level” is watching Kasdan, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Pinkner and Scott Rosenberg, start messing with the mechanics. Our heroes might not be playing exactly the same game, but they’re still playing a straightforward follow-up where everything is pretty much identical, albeit bigger.
The plot of the game this time is a familiar rigmarole about finding a precious stone, defeating a powerful villain named Jurgen the Brutal (Rory McCann, “Game of Thrones”), and enduring a wide variety of action-packed set pieces involving deadly animals, hanging rope bridges and dune buggies. The console was broken, the game is different, and with exception of Martha, who still occupies the body of action hero Ruby Roundhouse (Karen Gillan), nobody is in the same body as last time.įridge has wound up in map expert Professor Oberon (Jack Black), while Grandpa Eddie and his estranged friend Milo (Danny Glover) - who have no idea what’s going on, or even how video games work - are now stuck instead Smolder Bravestone (Dwayne Johnson) and zoologist Mouse Finbar (Kevin Hart).Īlso Read: Fall Box Office Preview: Can 'Star Wars,' 'Frozen' and 'Jumanji' Sequels Boost Sluggish 2019 Totals? He fires up the supernatural “Jumanji” game and disappears, forcing his friends Bethany (Madison Iseman), Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain) and Martha (Morgan Turner) to jump in after him and save the day. Spencer is retreating inward already, but then his grandfather Eddie (Danny DeVito), who is recovering from hip surgery, advises him to make the most of his youth because “getting old sucks,” and that clinches it. “The Next Level” begins with Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff) avoiding his friends, who used their experience in the first “Jumanji” to grow up and lead happier lives.
Watch Video: 'Jumanji: The Next Level' First Trailer Sees Dwayne Johnson Return to the Jungle Kasdan’s sequel, “Jumanji: The Next Level” adds an all-new question to the franchise, and it’s surprisingly bleak: What happens after you come back from that empowering fantasy world and return to a humdrum life filled with all your old depressions and anxieties? “The Next Level” posits that life might have been hard before, but it can be borderline unlivable if you know there’s a better one waiting for you in a battered old console game in your mother’s basement. The film was a smart, exciting blockbuster that used video-game mechanics to tell an uplifting power fantasy.Īfter all, “Jumanji” asked, what are most video games if not a transportive experience, in which the player takes on powers and abilities beyond their own? And if that experience was literal, instead of merely simulated, how incredible would that be? Jake Kasdan’s action-comedy “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” was an unexpected smash in 2016, and with good cause.