Jumanji: The Next Level Proves To Be Just As Fun And Exciting As Its Predecessor

       The 2019 Christmas movie season has arrived and once again presents audiences with two unique choices of family-friendly oriented films doing battle at the box office. In a match up that closely mirrors that of December 2017, Disney puts Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker against the newest installment of the Jumanji franchise titled Jumanji: The Next Level. If one were to predict that Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle would be such a surprisingly fresh yet distant sequel to the 1995 cult classic, that not only works as being a perfect reboot for the franchise but became a box office juggernaut, that amazingly held its own against Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, most would think that person was crazy. Very few predicted that the Jumanji franchise would be rebooted in a way that feels fresh, exciting, and has essentially become a family-oriented event to see on the big screen during the holiday season. The second Jumanji film ended up being a tremendous success grossing $404 million domestically on a budget of $962 million, making the greenlighting of a sequel to Welcome To The Jungle inevitable. Now exactly two years after the release of that film, Sony delivers a follow-up to their smash hit, which carries exactly the same style and formula that made the reboot/sequel largely successful. Jumanji: The Next Level not only entertains but proves to be just as much over-the-top fun as its predecessor, with its main cast being given more free reign this time as the second movie got the re-establishing of the Jumanji world out of the way with the new characters while giving the concept a makeover. The Jumanji franchise is one of the rare instances of a series getting bigger and better as it goes.

      The plot for Jumanji: The Next Level picks up where Welcome To The Jungle left off with the crew finding themselves being brought back together when one of the members re-activates the game and goes back in, alone. The rest of the crew have no choice but to re-enter the game to save their friend, through new landscapes and challenges arrive, which reveal they may not have the necessary skills to survive this round. With The Next Level, the filmmakers stay very close to the previous film in terms of following its story and characters, giving audiences more with the main Avatars in the game, as they're the real stars of the show. What made Welcome To The Jungle work so well with audiences, was that it took the concept of the first film and reinvented it with a new slate of characters, upgrading from a board game to a video game system, making it fit right in line with today's generation. The filmmakers behind that film knew their best shot at making a successful reboot to the series, was to distance itself from the first movie but maintain its spirit while paying homage to the work created by original films director Joe Johnston and  Robin Williams. The New Level feels like a sequel that carefully takes notes in regards to what worked in the previous film, and expands on the new universe as well as its characters. The new film manages to deliver all the same ingredients that made audiences love Welcome To The Jungle, while still managing to be fresh, surprising, funny, and exciting. What both movies accomplish so well, is giving audiences the feeling that they're going on an adventure with characters they care about both in and outside of the Jumanji world. The New Level could've easily succumbed to sequel fatigue, but manages to successfully avoid falling into that category due to it managing to make both the franchises concept, as well as the story itself feel fresh.

      One of the key elements that makes both the previous and current film work is the strong charisma of the films main cast, all of whom give energetic performances that are both funny and creative. In the roles of the Avatar's in the Jumanji world, Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black all shine and bring the same energy and charisma they showcased in the previous film onto the new one. Out of the four, the two who deliver the most impressive performances are Johnson and Hart, who end up playing their roles based on the personalities of Danny Devito and Danny Glover's characters in the film. The latter two prove to be a welcome addition to an already strong cast while doubling the fun. As far as the new additions to the cast goes, Danny Devito shines and delivers a strong performance as Eddie, Spencer's cranky and well-meaning grandfather with Danny Glover being a welcomed addition to the star-studded cast as Eddie's estranged friend Milo Walker. Awkwafina delivers a notable performance as Spencer's Avatar (And later Eddie's) Ming Fleetfoot. In addition to the returning cast members, Alex Wolff, Morgan Turner, Madison Iseman, and Ser'Darius Blain all reprise their roles from the previous film as the young misfit group of High School friends, that once again find themselves returning to the world of Jumanji to save their friend Spencer. Much like their Avatar counterparts, the young cast still possess strong chemistry, making the audience happy to see them reunite once again. With the returning Avatar cast, Dwayne Johnson gets his most challenging task yet with him both successfully and hilariously imitating Danny Devito's persona along with Kevin Hart portraying an older Danny Glover. Both actors get interesting twists involving their character switches and surprise audiences with their performances, while having a blast doing doing so. Jack Black steals the show once again playing the Avatar for both Fridge's character and later Bethany's, with the latter being completely hilarious. Nick Spencer delivers a notable performance as Seaplane. As a whole, the star-studded cast delivers and ends up becoming one of the films strongest assets in regards to it being as much fun as it ultimately turns out to be.

      In terms of directing, Jake Kasdan who helmed Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, returns to the directing chair once again and brings the world of Jumanji to life. With The Next Level, he gives audiences exactly what he promised with the first movie, which is solid fun and popcorn entertainment with a charming cast. Here, he succeeds in setting up the Jumanji world once again as the playground for the A-list class to dominate the screen with impressive cinematography and visual effects accompanying them. Kasdan as a director, succeeds in creating a world that serves as perfect escapism making it fun, exciting, thrilling, and unpredictable. With the films pacing, Kasdan keeps the film moving with enough action, that audiences will barely notice the film is close to carrying a running time of two hours. With the films art-set decoration, Kasdan continues the world building of the previous Jumanji film by showing audiences more locations inside the game, including ones that involve snow. One of the more commendable traits of Kasdan's directing with the new film, is the fact that despite dishing up all the elements that made the previous film work, he still found ways to make the sequel feel fresh and creative despite the film repeating the same scenario essentially. By adding newer characters and switching up the performances with the Avatar characters, Kasdan adds twists and turns to keep the audience invested in the story.

      The films scriptwriting by Jake Kasdan, Jeff Pinkner, and Scott Rosenberg is strong, though feels at times like its going to extreme lengths to outdo its predecessor. For the most part, the writing team including director Kasdan create a wildly satisfying ride, which feels like an adventure paying homage to other classic films in the genre such as Indiana Jones, and even Jurassic Park. The writing team behind The Next Level do a solid job of keeping the audience invested in both the reality characters, as well as the ones in the game. The action set pieces are both well-staged and played out, with the sequel placing more emphasis on the world building of the Jumanji universe. In regards to the human aspect of the plot, the heart of the story lies within the relationship between Devito and Glover's characters as a pair of friends, who experienced a major falling out, but are brought together again and ultimately patch up their differences through the experience of playing Jumanji. Despite that subplot effectively weaving itself into the story, others feel a bit tacked on and forced as plot devices to get the group back into the game such as the subplot involving Spencer diving back into the game because of his split from Martha, with it being revealed that Spencer has kept remnants of the game after supposedly destroying it in the previous film. Whereas the breakup feels believable given that the main characters are teenagers brought together through their experiences from the previous film, it seems a bit contrived and unrealistic that Spencer would be so crushed by his split that he would willingly throw himself back into the game, especially after the previous films experience. The films humor still lands strong, particularly in the moments where the personalities swap with the Avatars with Johnson and Hart's characters playing their older counterparts. Despite moments where the writing can feel a tad shaky in terms of setting up the structural foundation of the story, the script manages to pull through and deliver a strong sequel which builds upon the established characters and universe introduced in the previous film.

     Whereas Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle largely thrived on the audience not knowing what to expect prior to its release as it dealt with being compared to the Robin Williams classic, it succeeded in meeting the expectations placed upon it in regards to being a faithful sequel/reboot that not only honored its previous films legacy, but moves the franchise forward in a different direction that's both effective and feels new. While Welcome To The Jungle wasn't a great film, it worked as being terrific fun for the whole family wishing to see a family-friendly adventure on the big screen during the 2017 holiday season. That film had an appealing cast of comedic talents, all of whom appeared to be having a blast playing their roles much like what's shown in The Next Level along with filmmakers, who felt passionate about continuing the franchise but giving the brand a new style of fun and thrills. Jumanji: The Next Level continues to build upon the world established with the previous film, as well as treating its characters with great care. The film feels like it has a little something for everyone in it with both the story and humor appealing to all demographics, even older audiences this round. Is the new film perfect? No, the writing has moments where it feels uninspired or cliched in regards to moving the story from point A to point B, but they still manage to be serviceable in terms of leading both the characters as well as the audience back into the world of Jumanji. If one is looking for a fun adventure film to watch this holiday season at the Cinema, then the world of Jumanji is worth venturing back into with The Next Level. It's a sequel that effectively works in further expanding its universe, while making audiences want to return in a few years for a third (And hopefully final) installment, that'll find a way to not just wrap up the rebooted franchise but also tie in with the 1995 Robin Williams classic. For the studio and fans of the series, Jumanji: The Next Level is a film that lives up to its promise to entertain and delivers everything that audiences love about the series, while leaving them wanting more.

Final Verdict: For Jumanji fans and those looking for a fun action-adventure, The Next Level will please and entertain audiences this holiday season.