Review: Jumanji 2 Is a Complicated Laugh

Had you told me 5 years ago that I would be at the turn of a new decade, sitting in a press screening in joyful anticipation of a sequel to a semi-reboot like the childhood-classic Jumanji, I’d be sure you are no Doctor Manhattan. It is true that I loved the Dwayne Johnson-led reboot of the 1995 Robin Williams family film, having taken its spin at the concept by making a modern sequel where teens are pulled into an Atari-style video game rather than an anachronistic board game. Simple adventure ensued, as did the laughs, some minimal teen romance, but mostly the laughs. So with Jumanji 2 hitting theaters around the same time of year (I watched the first with my pre-teen nephews on our annual Christmas outing to the movies), I was full of nostalgia — both for 1995 but also for 2017’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. What came was a simple adventure, along with the laughs, some minimal teen romance, and… a pang of discomfort it took a while to place.

Where Jumanji: The Next Level succeeds is, perhaps counterintuitively, its unoriginality. There’s little in the second film that isn’t found in the first, which was a $400 million domestic success. Minor details lead the group of friends to find their way back into the video game of Jumanji, needing to survive the adventure and beat the game to return safely to their lives. And just like it worked in the first, it worked in the second for simple reason: it’s easy family fun with built-in action from needing to survive the story …