Jumanji: The Next Level review – Dwayne Johnson ups his comedy game
The old gang re-enter the video game fantasy world for more body-swap hijinks and Indiana Jones-ish adventures, and Johnson levels-up his comedy stylings
Jumanji is back, activating the time-honoured sequel device of bringing in character actors from the older grandparent generation. It is showing every sign of becoming a very solid family-movie franchise, cheerfully drawing once more on the traditions of Indiana Jones and the body-swap movies of yesteryear. And there is once again a really nice quadrophonic chemistry between its four stars: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan and Jack Black (joined by more big names this time around), and the odd-couple comedy bonding of Hart and Johnson. (A noticeable flaw is that Black does not get much of a chance to demonstrate his comedy chops.)
In the previous instalment of the franchise, four high-school kids, Bethany (Madison Iseman), Spence (Alex Wolff), Martha (Morgan Turner) and Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain), were catapulted into the VR world of the Jumanji video game, occupying avatars on a mission to rescue someone trapped inside its colossal invented landscape. And Spence got to exist inside the body of alpha-male explorer Dr Smoulder Bravestone, amusingly played by Dwayne Johnson – an experience that allowed him to escape his wimpy-nerdishness, value himself for who he is, and learn that it’s what inside that counts.