Jumanji: The Next Level Explained: What’s Up With the Ending?

Pros: A good acting ensemble, into which Danny DeVito, Danny Glover and Awkwafina fit perfectly; good jokes; good action episodes; several important and unexpected themes for such a film Cons: Somewhat derivative; not the most original script Jumanji: The Next Level / “Jumanji: The Next Level”

Adventure genre
Director Jake Kasdan
Cast: Dwayne Johnson (Smolder Bravestone), Danny DeVito (Eddie Gilpin), Jack Black (Professor Sheldon Oberon), Ser’Darius Blaine (Anthony “Fridge” Johnson), Kevin Hart (Franklin Finbar), Danny Glover (Milo Walker) , Karen Gillan (Ruby Roundhouse), Morgan Turner (Martha Capley), Nick Jonas (Jefferson McDonagh), Colin Hanks (Alex Vreek), Awkwafina (Min Fleetwood), Alex Wolff (Spencer Gilpin), Madison Iseman (Bethany Walker), etc. .
Студии Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures
Year of release 2019
IMDb website

So they did it a fourth time. As we noticed at the end of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the trap game was not destroyed at all and lies quietly in the basement of Spencer Gilpin’s house, waiting for new victims. Who would have thought that the same heroes who swore never to approach Jumanji in their lives would go into the game again, especially of their own free will. Only this time, Jumanji will take with it two new “players” – Eddie, Spencer’s eccentric grandfather (Danny DeVito) and his old friend Milo Walker (Danny Glover), with whom Eddie had a falling out many years ago. The old robbers, who confused all the cards for the youth by occupying the bodies of their usual avatars, brought to the film not only a new portion of humor aimed at an older audience, but also allowed the authors of the film to raise several important topics.

In terms of plot and theme, Jumanji: The Next Level follows not only the previous film in the series, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, but also the original 1995 film with Robin Williams. The heroes must go through a series of tests in order to understand fairly common truths – friends are known in trouble, mutual assistance solves most problems, it is important to be able to overcome your fears, etc. Over the past 24 years, these truths have not become less universal.

The participation of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover, very good comedic actors in their own right, allowed the authors to add to the film… the theme of the inevitability of death, which is quite unexpected in a teenage comedy. The characters of DeVito and Glover talk a lot about the years they have lived, repeating as a refrain the maxim that “old age is not joy,” and in the finale of the film they remind the audience of the frailty of each of us and the need to rejoice in every day we live. And I must say, these dialogues and this topic in general do not look alien in the entertaining Jumanji: The Next Level.

There is much less play on the specifics of video games and jokes understandable to gamers in the sequel, as well as references to the 80s that have been so popular lately. last century. More universal humor took their place. The timing of the action scenes hasn’t changed much, but they can’t be called particularly original. These are traditionally several episodes with dangerous animals, plus a couple of fights with NPC people, and only the final battle turned out to be truly massive.

And although Jumanji: The Next Level did not become a new level for the franchise, it is still a good action/comedy, in which the main attraction for viewers is the actors. It’s not without reason that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has been at the top of the list of the highest paid performers for many years now. He not only earns a lot for himself, but also for the companies that invest in films with his participation. You can joke about “The Rock”‘s acting talent all you want, but audiences are going to see his films, which means he’ll be filmed even more often.

For me personally, the appearance of DeVito and Glover in this film was much more significant. It’s nice that old people are still being filmed and that they can still bring the heat to the screen. Even if discussing such not the most fun topics. However, as shown by The Kominsky Method, the second season of which, by the way, was released at the end of November, even the most unpleasant things can be talked about with humor.