Realising that Disney/Lucasfilm have pretty much got the adventure-cinema market sewn up this December, Sony/Columbia have decided to drop their own franchise entry startlingly close to its release date. Jumanji: The Next Level opens properly a week before Episode IX, but can it compete?
THIRD Well, kinda. While it’s technically the third Jumanji film, this is very much the second chapter of 2017’s soft-reboot, and tonally it’s on the same page. In fact narratively, it’s barely even on the next page.
After a setup sequence which takes far too long considering how perfunctory it all turns out to be, our heroes (Morgan Turner, Madison Iseman, Ser’Darius Blain) are transported once again to the simulated otherworld of Jumanji in a bid to find their missing friend (Alex Wolff), adopting the in-game personas of Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Dwayne Johnson. Additional cast-members in the real world come from Danny DeVito and Danny Glover, while extra star-billing avatars arrive in the forms of Awkwafina and Rory McCann. Nick Jonas and Rhys Darby return in roles they could have probably filmed in a single day.
LIONHEART And it’s all good fun, with a self-aware script buoying up the rollicking adventure and stunning visuals*1. The problem is that we’ve already done this, and The Next Level always feels like a remix of Welcome To The Jungle without really bringing any new content. The body-swap motif from last time is replayed and there’s extra mileage here in exploring that further, but ultimately this is a device to get the most out of the in-game cast, and it feels like padding. The central adventure itself is a linear affair, with its story-admin often coming off as cumbersome.
BREEZER Sequel-movies have always been saddled with this burden of course, and sequel-games even more so. It stands to reason that this project would suffer. Any gamer will be hard-pushed to break the programming of their surroundings, and the law of diminishing returns is the most unforgiving of all. 2017’s entry had pleasant surprise as its super-weapon; this follow-up isn’t playing with the same armoury. So perhaps it’s unavoidable (if not intentional), but even coasting along on effortless charm The Next Level feels disposable at best.
But enough of my moaning.Jumanji: The Next Levelis good-spirited, undemanding fun. And any movie which can have me consistently enjoying performances from Jack Black and Kevin Hart must be doing a lot of things right…
What’s more, combine it with the Wilhelm Scream in the pre-movie McDonald's advert, the one in the Amazon Fire TV spot and Cineworld's new 2020-promo, and that's pretty good for an evening out. And given the scream-stats for 2019, it's about damned time.
Level 2: Jack Black is in this, and he was in that Gulliver's Travels along with Jonathan 'Jebel' Aris.
*1 The 3D version of this movie is Very Much In 3D All Of The Time, which feels a little overblown in the first act before the action begins, but is still a sweet touch for a format which the industry has all but dropped in 2019... [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Midway Cert: 12A / 138 mins / Dir. Roland Emmerich / Trailer
"War", as George O'Dowd once sang, "is stupid". Not to let this lie, he further opined"and people are stupid". Now, a mere thirty five years later, Roland Emmerich has refined, combined and underlined those points with merciless efficiency in his new offering, Midway.
If you've ever wonder what the grubby-end of a brutal and complicated global conflict would look like when filtered through the brain which brought us twoIndependence Daymovies and White House Down, you're in luck. Although if you have ever wondered that, you already know exactly what it would be like before you sit down. God help up all.
PEARL Ostensibly telling the True Story™ of the eponymous 1942 battle which turned the tide for the Allies after the Pearl Harbour attack, Midway is exactly what you'd expect from a movie whose gritty, blue-collar, All-American reluctant hero is literally named Dick Best*1. And that accolade works both for and against the film, depending on your pre-existing view of these things. This is a war movie, and it looks, acts and smells like a war movie. The smell, in fact, is palpable.
Credit where it's due, the many adrenaline-fuelled aerial combat scenes in Midway are absolutely outstanding, although they're coincidentally the ones where the cast do the least amount of talking. The film's script - laughably mechanical, its delivery often moreso - appears to have been assembled using the most textbook lines from the corniest war flicks by a team of 15yr old Call Of Duty enthusiasts, one of whom has an older brother "in the army". To think that this is in any way a serious tribute to those who died during the Second World War rather than an emotionally clichéd, thinly-veiled disaster epic would be to walk straight into the trap of its mid-November release date.
HOWARD The whole thing appears to be anchored to enough historical fact to prevent it being a complete waste of time, but what a way to manhandle the truth. That said, I couldn't hate Midway because it is what it is and that's a Roland Emmerich movie. But it's very clearly - and very cynically - aimed at a particular type of audience, and in that regard I must concede that it succeeds fairly well*2. But rest assured, this is far closer to the flag-waving of Battleship than the reflection of They Shall Not Grow Old.
Approach with extreme caution.
Banging a tin tray on your head for just over two hours.
For the combat scenes, yes.
Everything there is to love about this movie is on a big screen, so no.
It is not.
That's incredibly likely.
Inexplicably not.
Level 1: Tobias Beckett is in this.
I mean let's not get excited, Tobias Beckett was in Venom...
*1 And let me stop you right there. Yes, thanks to the helpful caption-cards acting as the film's inevitable coda, I know that "Richard 'Dick' Best" is the actual pilot's actual name. I can also clearly envision Roland Emmerich sitting in a room learning that nugget of information and yelling "Lads! Lads! This film is fucking writing ITSELF!!!".
Dick Best.
Dick. Best.
The fact that it's true somehow makes it much, much worse. It's perhaps notable that the gentleman's wikipedia page makes one solitary mention of his informal nickname. Which is to say that the film could have just called him Rick or Richard, but didn't. There is so much testosterone in this movie that our cinema gave it a half-time intermission so it could go out for a shave. Adding insult to injury is that Best is played by Ed Skrein, an over-acting live-action cartoon of a performer who at least has finally found his natural habitat under Emmerich's auspices.
*2 Yes, I'm aware that this sounds incredibly snobby, but in my defence I am an incredible snob... [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
Before I get stuck into Jake Kasdan's latest effort, I should point out that I actually haven't seen 1995's Jumanji. No agenda behind that, I just didn't catch it at the time and it hasn't crossed my path in the intervening years. My increasingly-usual manic schedule for December means I haven't had time to slot the film in for cramming.
So it was partly this 'not knowing exactly what to expect' which subdued my excitement for Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle. I say partly, it was also that the more I saw the trailer, the worse the prospect became. Although I enjoy Dwayne Johnson as a comic actor, his overall record is far from exemplary. And while I actually quite liked his recent double-act with Kevin Hart, the thought of reuniting the two for similar bouts of shrieking did not sit well with me. Elsewhere we have Jack Black, who other than a solid turn in Goosebumps is also on a downward trajectory in my eyes, and Karen Gillan - a great performer who appears to be being held back by an agent who accepts every undemanding job which lands on the desk.
I have already gone on record as saying I was not looking forward to this.
I am now on record to say that I am delighted to have been proved wrong.
So, when four disparate teenagers (Alex Wolff, Ser'Darius Blain, Morgan Turner and Madison Iseman) come across an old mid-90s console (complete with a cartridge of an unknown adventure-title) while cleaning a store-room in detention, they're magically zapped into the game where they inhabit the bodies and in-game skills attributes of the playable characters (Johnson, Hart, Gillan and Black). In order to win their freedom, the gang have to work as a team, learning the structure of the game as well as their own limitations and untapped potential. Plus it's set in the jungle and there's an artefact to recover, necessitating the actual adventure setpieces. So sort of The Breakfast Club meets Tron meets Indiana Jones.
And against all my expectations, it's great.
Don't get me wrong, you're not going to find the meaning of life, the cure for cancer or the basis of an enduring cinematic franchise in Welcome To The Jungle's 119 minutes. But in terms of a fantastically fun, funny family-friendly yet sassy adventure movie for the holiday season, this movie delivers on its own terms. That's all I ask.
Yet at the same time, the new iteration of Jumanji is by no means a perfect nor revolutionary movie, but it's at least aware of its flaws. And while that knowledge doesn't always forgive those flaws, you can be sure that the 1) linear nature of the ongoing story, 2) convenience of the game-to-film mechanics, 3) overtly sermonising themes and 4) ridiculousness of Karen Gillan's outfit are all issues which have been considered thoroughly by the writing team. The movie just then deemed them fit for use anyway. Welcome To The Jungle absolutely should not work, which perhaps ironically is its greatest strength*1.
The central cast have natural chemistry, and since theirs are essentially body-swap roles, they're each doing twice the work they would normally. As this is A Studio Comedy™, my worry was that they'd each be playing themselves (Mr. Black especially) and leaving behind the story's 'real-world' personas for the main drag of the movie, but Jake Kasdan's direction and a careful script don't allow this to happen*2.
But most importantly, I laughed loudly and consistently throughout Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (as did the rest of the audience). On that front alone, this is already better than most comedies this year. And while the overriding message may be slightly trite, the film still has more dedication to its own characters than most comedies, too. It's just a shame that it'll reach nowhere near the audience it deserves because Sony Pictures' general-release window pits it against Star Wars*3...
Well Jumanji obviously, but any lighthearted action-adventure like Indiana Jones, Romancing The Stone, Willow.
In between watching The Last Jedi several times, sure.
It does.
As a group-effort, it's certainly one that other writers, directors and producers will try to replicate.
Nope.
Not that I heard.
Ridiculous.
Level 2: Missi Pyle is in this, and she was in 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory along with Garrick 'Biggs' Hagon and Sir Christopher 'Dooku' Lee.
And an interesting (…) duo of GFFA trivia for you: the first Jumanji was directed by Joe Johnston, the guy who basically designed Boba Fett. This second movie is directed by Jake Kasdan, son of Empire/Jedi/Force Awakens/Solo screenwriter, Lawrence Kasdan.
*1 And trust me, as much as I'm defending the film, Karen Gillan's hotpants/crop-top outfit here is not irony. It's just a thing they noticed could be problematic, referenced in the script, then carried on using it as if that absolves them of the exploitation. The same arguably goes for Jack Black's entire performance, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't find it funny all the same. [ BACK ]
*2 There are four screenwriters here, mind, which is never usually a sign of anything coherent. And although I haven't watched the original Jumanji, I can still see the glaring hat-tips in the new movie's script when it's being referenced. But generally speaking, the "standalone sequel" Welcome To The Jungle works well enough on its own terms to not have to rely on these moments. [ BACK ]
*3 It's not even as if this is a cunningly scheduled 'alternative' flick (cf. Sisters, In The Heart Of The Sea and a two hour melodrama about mops) it's basically playing to the same demographic. And given the opportunity, would you rather watch a shrieking Kevin Hart, or Star Wars? [ BACK ]
DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.
