Reviews are a wild art, and I write in a range of forms to try and entertain.
Spoilery recounts? Hilarious reviews? Serious literary analysis? One female film reviewer who likes action and her thoughts on a range of films.
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Hilarious fun times where actors really get to, well, act.
This will be funnier if you have recently seen Jumanji (2): Welcome to the Jungle, but it is not essential viewing. They re-explain the basics of what is happening pretty clearly... people are sucked into a dangerous video game adventure and have to deal with their new bodies, powers and save Jumanji from, well, whatever. It's a different baddy this time... the game has levelled up.
The biggest strength here is the big name actors; Karen Gillan, Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Jack Black and Kevin Hart. They're still physically representing the avatars/characters inside the game. But this time the humans who get sucked into them are different.... Last film The Rock is an awkward teenage boy, this time he's a grandpa. There are also some additional players and some switchy, switcheroos in game - and that definitely kept it interesting.
When I say interesting, I mean it was quite entertaining to realise how flexible our brains are at dealing with the premise. It felt a lot like one of those dreams most people have from time to time... "I had this dream last night and my Uncle Bob was in it, but he wasn't his usual six-foot beardy guy, he was this 18 year old surfer dude. But it was still Uncle Bob, know what I mean?" And we all do. It's happened to all of us in a dream at some stage.
And this film is the same - it gender bends, it inter-racials, inter-stereotypes, it gets a bit inter-species, it jumps the characters in and out of bodies with little ado but much hilarious repercussion. Everyone I saw it with came out saying that it was actress Awkwafina who absolutely nailed it as game character Ming, inhabited by... well... let's just say she nails it.
It is rollicking fun and I laughed a lot. It also blindsided me with a character farewell that brought tears to my eyes, which was not something I was expecting from this film. I felt a bit weird about it. It has lots of excellent set ups that pay off later throughout the film, which felt super tidy.
This is a super-fun but pure popcorn film... I loved watching it, but I doubt I will ever need to see it again.
J* gives it 4 stars.
PS. What number is this one? Like many franchisey things, this could be a bit complicated:
1. Jumanji (1995) - the boardgame classic with Robin Williams.
1.5? Zathura: A Space Adventure (2005) - a spacey version of the boardgame concept, marketted as a sequel, or at least in the Jumanji universe.
2. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) - the first with The Rock and the boardgame has evolved into a computer game.
3. Jumanji: The Next Level (2019) - this film.
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