The next instalment of Jumanji is here, all the original cast from the previous film is back. The Next Level takes place a few years after the first film (Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, 2017). The members of the original team have split up and are living very different lives. Fridge played by Ser'Darius is a college American football star, while Bethany played by Madison Iseman is enjoying her gap year as she builds houses for the needy in tropical paradise. Also, Martha played by Morgan Turner is enjoying life in college as she finally believes she has found a place where she belongs. However, Spencer played by Alex Wolff is attending college in New York while also working as a supermarket attendant whilst feeling down and more insecure than ever. He also thinks he isn’t good enough to be Martha's boyfriend anymore either. Spencer comes home for the holidays and he decides to fix the Jumanji console (which was destroyed in the last film) but gets sucked in. Fridge, Bethany and Martha try to go back into the game to rescue their friend, however something goes wrong and Bethany ends up being left behind. Yet Spencer's grandfather Eddie played by Danny DeVito and his friend Milo, played by Danny Glover are sucked in instead.
Martha manages to retain her Ruby Roundhouse avatar played by Karen Gillen. Fridge is now the cartographer Shelly, played by Jack Black. Milo is now Mouse, played by Kevin Hart while Eddie is now Dr Bravestone, played by Dwayne Johnson. Although to make their situation worst, the game is not the same that they completed last time.
It is enjoyable to watch the four avatars channelling the personalities of their players. This is to the credit of the outstanding performances from all the cast but especially; Gillen, Black, Hart and Johnson. It is hilarious to watch Hart and Johnson channelling their old man side. However, after a while it gets quite frustrating when the old men still don’t understand what has happened to them as they don’t understand video games. Gillen takes on a strong leader position in this film and it is great to watch this character have more confidence than she did in the last film. We get to see how versatile all the cast are, due to them all playing at some point a character that you wouldn’t expect them to be able to do. For example, Jack Black is outstanding as playing the manly and strong Fridge character but also is amazing when he has to become Bethany once again. There is an unexpected moment when Gillen and Black swap characters and we get to see Gillen get her teeth into playing the complete opposite of Martha, which is Fridge. She is amazing, along with all the cast as their performances are faultless. Nick Jonas also reprises his role and is still as entertaining as ever.
There is a lot of body swapping in this film, with the addition of Awkafina playing the avatar Ming, she takes on the characters of Spencer and his grandfather, Eddie. Her performance as Eddie is more satisfying than when she must be Spencer. Her performance as Eddie is more enjoyable and humorous to watch, while as Spencer is falls a bit late and is a bit annoying to watch as she doesn’t add anything to the scenes when she is Eddie.
With that being said, this film isn’t all laughs there are some really touching moments to be enjoyed too. We go on a journey with Eddie and Milo and we see why they were arguing and then we see the team they claim to be. It is bittersweet to watch these two characters especially as the goodbye is sad to watch as they just got their friendship back but now it’s going to be over for good. Another emotional moment but isn’t as sad is we see the relationship between Martha and Spencer, there is so much love there yet Spencer due to insecurities doesn’t feel good enough. Johnson and Gillen do a great job in portraying this, there chemistry on screen is fantastic and you want to watch them.
The Next Level is very similar in plot compared to the first film and some of the big action sequences feel like they have been copied from the first film thus they aren’t as entertaining to watch as we feel like we have seen it before. With any film there is a bad guy and, in this film, it is Jurgen The Brutal played by Rory McCann. We don’t have much screen time with this character and we don’t learn much about him. It feels as if he is there just so there is a reason for the avatars to fight.
Jumanji: The Next Level is very enjoyable to watch and quite funny. However, it doesn’t feel like the next level in the video game as this film is very similar to the first film but with a few minor changes to keep it interesting. The cast are amazing and their performances are faultless. The Next Level is entertaining to watch and isn’t a bad addition to the Jumanji franchise.
