Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)

I’d like to think I’ve been pretty lucky with sequels in recent years.  Many have been good.  It really hasn’t been since Home Alone that a sequel basically repeated itself so blatantly.

I’m not really sure what I was expecting with Jumanji:  The Next Level.  When Welcome to the Jungle was made, it made the leap from board game to video game and even had new characters.  The Next Level has Fridge, Bethany, Martha and Spencer back that same video game.  The only new additions are Grandpa Eddie and his former business partner, Milo.

Even if you haven’t seen Welcome to the Jungle, you can see many of the jokes coming, at least from the coming attractions.  Eddie and Milo get to play to the elderly stereotypes.  They don’t really understand how a video game works.  They are happy that they can move without stiffness.  Other than that, they mostly serve to rehash the rules for new viewers.

Here’s my issue, though.  Even with Zathura, it was a new board game and a new setting with new characters.  From Jumanji to Welcome to the Jungle was the same thing.  Newness all around.  This seems like what Home Alone 2 was to Home Alone, in that it’s a thinly veiled rehash of the previous movie.  The Next Level didn’t really do much to contribute to the franchise.

Granted, I’m not sure where you can go with it.  Virtual Reality might seem too literal.  Even the Internet might not be different enough.  At best, one might hope for some hints as to where the games came from, but it’s hard to do so without giving away too much.

I think people that have seen the previous installment will be disappointed with this one.  I’m not saying that there shouldn’t be a Jumanji: Welcome to the Next Sequel.  I’m just suggesting that, if there is, the writers might want to take a hard look at what the script is doing with the material.  It’s an interesting premise, but it’s getting difficult to really work with it from here on out.

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Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)

Sequels tend to be a mixed bag.  Jumanji is more so.  It had this other movie named Zathura: A Space Adventure, which wasn’t really a sequel and not quite a knockoff.  (Both Zathura and Jumanji were based on books with Zathura’s book being more of a true sequel, apparently.)  Apparently, someone decided to make a sequel to Jumanji which is only marginally more of a sequel in that it uses a few names from the original film.

The story centers around four high-school students:  Spencer, Fridge, Bethany and Martha.  One day, they all find themselves in detention where they discover a video-game console.  This is no ordinary console.  It’s a special no-name console that has a cartridge which was actually the Jumanji board game that remade itself.  It was actually found by another kid, Alex Vreeke.  He’s trapped in the game much like Alan Parrish was in the original movie.

When the four kids find the console, they each chose a character.  Fridge takes “Moose” Finbar.  Bethany takes Professor Shelly Oberon.  Spencer gets Smolder Bravestone.  Martha becomes Ruby Roundstone.  This mainly serves as a way for each kid to see what life’s like the other way around.  The muscular Fridge is now played by Kevin Hart whereas the nerdy Spencer is now played by Dwayne Johnson.  The shy, less-than-attractive Martha is now played by Karen Gillan whereas the attractive, self-absorbed Bethany is now played by Jack Black.

Each character also has certain attributes.  Smolder is known for his smoldering good looks and strength.  Ruby is good at dance fighting.  Each player has three lives, which is usually used to comic effect.  The game itself has all sorts of dangerous obstacles to overcome. Along the way, the characters eventually meet up with Alex, who has been stuck on one area for a while.  And when I say a while, I mean 20 years.  (He’s living in a tree house that Alan Parish built.)

The movie, like the video game, seems like an update for a more modern audience.  There are in-jokes, like the character selection and attributes.  It’s almost as if it’s a remake rather than a sequel.  (There’s only a tenuous connection to the original.)

I will say that this installment seems to be more levelheaded.  The first Jumanji was a wild ride and seemed to exist just for the thrills.  This movie has a little more character development, although most of that is cliché.  Everyone comes to understand the others a little better.  As with the original movie, everything is set straight again.  The major difference is that this time, everyone in the game remembers what happened.

It’s rare that I admit that a sequel is an actual improvement over the original, but in this case, it’s not saying much.  The first movie didn’t really set the bar too high in many regards.  To say that cliché is an improvement should tell you something.

I’m kind of wondering if the next installment will explain how the game came to be.  I’m not sure if I really want that, though.  I don’t think it would really be necessary.  It doesn’t matter who or what created the game.  Knowing that such a sadistic thing exists is enough.

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UglyDolls (2019)

I’m in a difficult position.  I like animated features, but not all of them.  I also realize that school will be letting out soon, which means that the theaters for animated features will soon be full of small, noisy children.  Do I se an animated film just to see an animated film?  I regret to inform you that in the case of UglyDolls, the answer was yes.  I had seen the coming attractions.  I knew that it was going to be about being true to yourself.  I also knew that the best part of it would probably be the music.  I went to see it anyway.

The movie is about several dolls who live in Uglyville.  Specifically, they’re the rejects from an unnamed doll factory.  All they know is this nice little seaside village where they’re all happy being who they are.  Many of the characters are either named for what they are or some defining feature.  The leader, Ox, has one good eye and one exed out eye.  (O  X)

Moxy is one of the residents of Uglyville.  She desperately wants to be adopted by a human, so that she can feel a child’s love.  Alas, most of her fellow residents realize that this is not possible.  Ox set up Uglyville expressly for this purpose. (The alternative was being shredded and recycled.)  She leads a few of her fellow dolls through the pipe that brings in new UglyDolls to find the Institute of Perfection.

The Institute is where the dolls are supposed to go.  They’re all models and have some great career like scientist or architect.  Once they go through training to avoid imperfections, they’ll be sent to live with a child.  Moxy realizes that this is her chance to get what she’s always dreamed of.  Standing in her way is Lou, the doll who trains the other dolls in preparation for The Gauntlet, the final test to see if a doll is ready to go to The Real World.

There’s nothing really unpredictable about the movie.  You know moxie is going to have her heart broken by the truth only to come back and get what she wants.  This is so close to the template for other similar movies, it wouldn’t take much to make into a satire.  There’s the defeated hero who makes a comeback.  There’s a big secret that gets revealed about a main character.  There’s even one perfect character that’s revealed to have an imperfection.  In the end, everyone is happy.

If you’re an adult going to see the movie, it’s probably going to be as a chaperone for a young child.  It’s going to be entertaining, but not memorable.  The movie is definitely geared towards children.  I wasn’t aware of this, but the movie is based on a series of dolls.  The dolls were first released almost 20 years ago.  I’m not sure why the movie was released so late relative to the toys’ release.  Even considering that the movie spent several years in development, it’s still a long time.

The good news is that it’s going to be fairly safe for children.  There’s maybe one or two scenes where there’s some sort of mortal danger, but even that’s not too scary.  Adults will be entertained mostly by the music.  It was the one aspect that was most memorable for me.  If you’ve seen the coming attractions, you know that says something.

IMDb page