This film is a 12A, was released on December 11th 2019, and this review will contain NO SPOILERS
After having a rough time in the real world, Spencer heads back into the world of Jumanji to relive the time as Doctor Bravestone. His friends come in after him along with two old men, one of which is Spencer's grandfather. Now, they all have to get out of the game again and get through new challenges. I'm not huge on the original Jumanji, it's fine but nothing great. I really enjoyed Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2017, I thought it was a really funny and thoroughly enjoyable adventure with some of my favourite actors. So, I was excited for another round of hopefully the same fun.
Unsurprisingly, this film was really funny. The best part of the original was seeing all these big-name actors like Dwayne Johnson and Jack Black act in ways that are different to how we usually see them. Here, it's cranked up to another level. With the old men, Dwayne Johnson is now impersonating Danny Devito, and Kevin Hart is Danny Glover. Neither have a clue what a video game is nor what is happening, and it's great to see these two actors be such different characters, with Johnson once again discovering the joys of being a big, tough guy and Hart speaking slowly and calmly as opposed to his usual, fast-paced blabbering. The other actors such as Jack Black, Karen Gillan and Awkwafina were really good as well, but those two landed the most laughs for me. The movie also delivers on enjoyable and engaging action, with set pieces such as dune buggies being chased by a stampede of ostriches, twisting bridges being swarmed by baboons, and a final battle that's a lot of fun too. The score also helped to make these scenes more exciting, being more than just a typical action movie score. The film also has some thought put into the story. It's not groundbreaking, but it does show that there is more competency to this film than one may have expected.
The main issue with the film is that it is far too predictable. It follows a very similar layout to Welcome to the Jungle, hitting many similar story beats almost to the same level as something like Back to the Future 2. This caused the film to suffer as there isn't much tension while you're watching, you can mostly guess the outcomes. It also recycles a lot of its jokes from before, with many punchlines also being easy to guess. Luckily, the new jokes keep these from having to great of an effect. Additionally, it's not the most amazing film in the world, it's very much just solid and entertaining stuff as opposed to something that leaves you thinking or reaches you emotionally. Still, that's not a huge dealbreaker for me.
Well, I'm glad to say that I enjoyed this just as much as before. Some really fun, new jokes that alter the images of many great actors along with some well executed action elements make this a jolly good time at the cinema. As a holiday movie, there's plenty for the whole family so I'd highly recommend if you're up for some easy, solid entertainment. I may even revisit this again in the future.
I'm going to give Jumanji: The Next Level a 7.5/10
Ok, this isn't the only movie I'm seeing this weekend - as a little movie called Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is awaiting me at the Empire in Leicester Square on Sunday! With all the mixed responses, I cannot wait! Along with my review, I'll also be giving my in-depth thoughts on the rest of Star Wars as a whole, as I am a big fan and haven't discussed it greatly. Moving forward, there's much I look forward to such as Jojo Rabbit and 1917.
No comments:
Post a Comment