admin
Tinashe Kusema
Film Review
ROBIN Williams, God rest his soul, must be turning in his grave at the mere sight of what Columbia Pictures is doing to his beloved 1995 cult classic “Jumanji”.
From a business standpoint, I totally understand the rationale behind turning this 1995 hit into a modern franchise and how the buddie pairing of The Rock and Kevin Hart guarantees seats in the movie house.
But I am certain Williams would never have endorsed this!
We are two films into what looks like a growing franchise, but nowhere near justifying why Columbia Pictures picked this particular movie, first to make a reboot, and now turning it into a full-fledged franchise.
“Jumanji: The Next Level” is a sequel. Much like its 2017 predecessor, it follows the lives of four high school kids — Spencer Gilpin (Alex Wolff), Martha (Morgan Turner), Bethany (Madison Iseman) and Fridge (SerDarius Blain), who get transported into a video game.
They have to bond and fight their way out using nothing but their smarts, ingenuity and four avatars played by Hart, Johnson, Jack Black and Karen Gillian.
The sequel picks up way after the kids have graduated from high school, but one of the kids, Gilpin, decides to return to the game after life in the real world gets a tad bit too hard for him.
The rest of the gang — alongside new players in Eddie (Danny DeVito) and Milo (Danny Glover) — go in after him and launch a risky rescue mission. Now, I have a gripe with this movie in general and the entire franchise. Chief among my grievances is how this franchise clearly is a two-man show.
It has been largely the elephant in the room for much of Johnson’s movie career and something neither his hordes fans nor movie critics have the guts to say. The Rock is not a good actor.
Yes, the 47-year-old is a money machine at the box office, he has a huge interactive social media presence and people, myself included, love the guy — but he simply cannot act. Much like his best friend Kevin Hart, most of his roles are one-dimensional, generic and really stoic at times.
The fact that they have made this franchise into a two-man show with Hart and Johnson taking up much of the film’s dialogue, best action scenes and overall screen presence, is tragic.
It does not help much that Jack Black, and not Johnson and Hart, is the clear star of the film. Black steals the show with limited time on the screen. He did so as the woman in a man’s body during the first film, and literally picks up from where he left off in the first movie. This time he is supposedly a black man in a white man’s body.
Black is the only funny thing about the movie, with most of the humour from the other cast members ranging from pedestrian to outright lame. Anti-climactic does not even begin to describe the entire movie plot and third act, as their supposedly final square up between our hero Dr Bravestone and Jugen “The Brutal” (Rory McCann) simply does not happen.
For the more observant amongst you, the name Rory McCann should ring a bell. Best known as The Hound in “Game of Thrones”, McCann is another example of wasted talent in the movie.
What is the point of having such big names like McCann, Danny Devito, Danny Glover, Massi Fulan, and yes, even Nick Jonas, Awkwafina and Colin Hanks, if they bring nothing to the table except act as sideshows to Hart and Johnson?
Do not get me wrong, it is not all doom and gloom. I have pleasant things to say about the movie.
Aside from Black’s face-saving performance, the movie is one or two tweaks away from being not only a bankable outing but a watchable one too. First, limit Hart and Johnson’s screen time and material, and shine some light on some of the movie characters and video game avatars. Also, for God’s sake, write a proper plot for the movie, and introduce some form of stakes for the movie characters. Last but not least — go back into the lab and come up with a proper protagonist for our heroes.
Online Reporter