The formula that made Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle work is
so brain-crappingly simple, it’s still bizarre to think that the numerous video
game-centric films to come before it hadn’t cracked it. It took one of the most
common and innocuous aspects of video gaming, the act of playing as a
pre-designed character, and used to deliver some of the best body-swap comedy
I’ve ever seen. I still can’t get over that it featured Jack Black acting like
a Valley Girl, a combination that should’ve soured me from the guy’s work
forevermore, and still managed to bring out the belly laughs. And with its
sequel, it doubles down on that same formula and manages to do even better.
More than anything else, this film serves as a showcase for
the kind of raw talent that’s required to make body-swap character acting work,
let alone to the multitudes found here. While Karen Gillan mostly stays as the
avatar for Martha, everyone else has been swapped around and we even get some
new faces, both in the game world and the real world.
I honestly didn’t know what to expect from Dwayne Johnson
doing a Danny Devito impression, but not only does it work surprisingly well, he
might end up being the low bar for the talent on offer. I never ever
thought I’d say this, but I honestly got more entertainment out of Kevin Hart.
No, really, the dude does a spot-on Danny Glover impression. And while Jack
Black is given another potentially-disastrous character as Fridge’s new avatar…
man, a black guy in the body of Jack Black has no reason to work as well as it
does here.
Now, that’s not to say that the comedy is flawless, as the
inclusion of Devito as Spencer’s granddad Eddie and Glover as his former
business partner Milo takes a bit of getting used to. Mostly, because they end
up stuck with ‘old people are weird’ jokes where they just keep repeating what
everyone else has said because they don’t understand that they’re suddenly in a
video game. Yes, I get how odd that statement is on its own, but the
realisation of that as comedy isn’t ideal. But beyond that, though, it is
really damn funny and it’s clear that everyone in the cast is having a lot of
fun as all these different variations on the player-controlled character
concept.
Speaking of which, the previous film’s game savvy has stuck
around as well, and it continues to serve as one of the better arguments for
video gaming as a social activity. It keeps up with the insider’s jokes, like
the limited scripts of the NPCs and the rather cobbled-together level structure
for the game itself (barbarian conqueror escaping in a giant zeppelin isn’t
something I was expecting to see this year, or really ever), and the
levels themselves combined with Henry Jackman’s thunderous drumming are very
engaging. The CGI is a bit iffy, but it’s not nearly as distracting as in… certain
other movies I’ve covered recently.
As for the social activity aspect, the film actually takes a
step back at the character growth that took place in the first film and,
primarily through Spencer, question just how much water that growth would hold.
I mean, once you’re experienced the world as a super-powered wrestler, going
back to your usual meek self is definitely going to take some adjustment. It’s
one of the better routes they could have taken to explain why any of
them would go back into the game after last time, and the real-world character
development turns out pretty damn good. Along with furthering the characters
from the original, the way that Eddie and Milo interact in the game brings a
nice older-generational tint to the initial conceit of escapism as a channel
for personal growth. Dwayne and Kevin’s pre-existing chemistry definitely helps
with that, admittedly.
Hot damn, this is a really damn fun movie. Keeping what made
Welcome To The Jungle work while adding just enough extra spice to keep things
interesting, this really needs to be used as Body Swap 101 because the way it
handles it, and the way that the actors are able to roll with the different
personalities and blocking styles, is genuinely brilliant. I may not be
entirely on board with every single joke here, and again it does take a little
while to warm up, but that’s really small potatoes compared to the tremendous
amount that it gets right. Oh, and the moment where the aforementioned
barbarian reveals what he did to the last guy that betrayed him really
illustrates how much better Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinker’s style of comedy
is suited to a film like this as opposed to Venom.
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