Time: 123 Minutes
Age Rating: PG – Violence & coarse language
Cast:
Dwayne Johnson as Dr. Xander “Smolder” Bravestone
Jack Black as Professor Sheldon “Shelly” Oberon
Kevin Hart as Franklin “Mouse” Finbar
Karen Gillan as Ruby Roundhouse
Nick Jonas as Jefferson “Seaplane” McDonough
Awkwafina as Ming Fleetfoot
Danny DeVito as Edward “Eddie” Gilpin
Danny Glover as Milo Walker
Director: Jake Kasdan

When Spencer goes missing, his group of friends return to Jumanji to travel unexplored territories and help him escape the world’s most dangerous game.

I was skeptical going into the semi-reboot of Jumanji starring Dwayne Johnson, but Welcome to the Jungle was far better than I was expecting it to be. From what I could tell, the follow up The Next Level looked to be more of the same and that’s what I got. Still, I quite enjoyed it again.

As predicted, The Next Level is much like its predecessor. It’s a little contrived that not only does it have the same plot of people being transported into a video game, but it includes the same four people. However, it does change up things just enough that it is consistently entertaining. This mostly comes down to how they switch around the avatars that the characters from the real world find themselves in. Otherwise, most of the movie is very familiar; the characters have to achieve something to escape the game while going up against a generic villain. It follows the same formula which works and still allows for some depth with the characters. The humour is decent, in fact it’s probably funnier than the first movie. Most of all though, The Next Level felt more assured than the first movie. It picks up with the familiar main characters and how they are following the events of the last movie, and with that the character relationships are deeper and there is some genuine emotional connection.

Much of the original actors return, with the younger actors in Alex Wolff, Ser’Darius Blain, Madison Iseman and Morgan Turner, and their respective video game avatars played by Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan. It also features the additions of Danny DeVito, Danny Glover and Awkwafina, and they all deliver in their roles. There is some body switching in the movie which was the wisest decision, since it allows the actors to play around with their performances. All of them pull it off, especially with the comedy. Jack Black as usual is a scene stealer, but Kevin Hart is especially funny (highlight is him doing a Danny Glover impression), and this is probably the funniest I’ve seen Awkwafina. The villain played by Rory McCann is pretty generic like Bobby Cannavale in the first movie, but even he seemed to leave more of an impression. McCann’s character doesn’t really feel much of a threat, even at the end when he is more prominent in the film.

The direction from Jake Kasdan is about the same as his work in the last movie. It is decent enough with entertaining, ridiculous and over the top action sequences; fittingly they look like they are from a video game.

Jumanji: The Next Level is about the same level as the previous movie, even if it’s a little too similar. It’s quite entertaining and once again benefits from the great and enjoyable cast. If you like the previous movie, you’ll likely enjoy this one too.