Jumanji: The Next Level is packed with action and jokes, with plenty to keep even the child
with the shortest attention span happy.
There's also plenty of stuff to keep older viewers engaged... and asking questions.
These are some of things that only adult moviegoers will notice in Jumanji: The Next Level but
beware: there are spoilers ahead!
It's hard not to wonder who Jumanji: The Next Level thinks its audience is.
The film's marketed as a family film.
After all, its central protagonists are teenagers and the action revolves around a video game
with lots of jokes and action sequences to fill out the running time.
There's a romantic subplot involving Martha and Spencer, two warring friends resolve their
differences, and every character learns a little about themselves.
Yes, like its predecessor, there's a little something for everybody in Jumanji: The Next
Level — a little too much.
Kid viewers may marvel at the dazzling array of treats on offer, but adults may be puzzled
as to who, exactly, this movie is for.
It's a kids' movie, but the kids in it are college-age, so then they're actually adults.
Coming to terms with aging is a major theme — Danny DeVito's Eddie learns that growing
old isn't a burden but rather "a gift" and he goes back into the workforce after 15 years
of fuming over his business partner selling his restaurant.
That's not exactly something kids can relate to, but then, older adult viewers who would
get all that probably don't care too much about the inner workings of video games.
It takes a while for Jumanji: The Next Level to get going, which is to say to get the young
quartet of friends into the video game world and into the skins of their movie star avatars.
The long first act of the movie catches up the audience on what Bethany, Spencer, Fridge,
and Martha have been up to since last they were seen in Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.
In short, they've all graduated high school and moved away Martha is in college, Fridge
is too, Bethany does charity work, and Spencer works a dreary job in a Manhattan pharmacy.
They all reconnect when they come home for the holidays, or at least they try to.
You still talking to your friends?"
"It's complicated.
When we first got together, we were different people."
Spencer doesn't show up for a scheduled brunch, and the other three realize he's been increasingly
out of touch in recent months.
This is a pattern older viewers know all too well: One naturally grows apart from their
tight circle of high school and hometown friends.
Kid viewers may not quite understand or believe that they won't be best friends forever with
their childhood BFFs, but Jumanji: The Next Level makes it clear why that happens: These
four people, who live in different parts of the country following different paths, don't
have very much in common with each other.
On the surface, it's a movie about video games and celebrity impersonations, but Jumanji:
The Next Level surprisingly — and effectively — explores a number of psychological truths,
most of which kids just wouldn't understand because they simply haven't lived long enough
to relate.
Spencer is full-on depressed — he feels like his life is going nowhere and because
of that, is too ashamed to see his more successful friends.
It's a mindset that already led him to split with his girlfriend, Martha.
Many people have this type of existential crisis after high school, the sense of not
knowing what to do or where to go next and feeling like a failure because of it.
Particularly astute audience members may think that Spencer feels he "peaked" already — after
all, he's likely never going to have a life experience that comes close to matching living
inside of a deadly video game.
Rory McCann joins the world of Jumanji with his role as the terrifying villain of Jumanji:
The Next Level, a power-mad, aptly-named warrior-king named Jurgen the Brutal.
McCann is most recognizable to audiences — and primarily to the adults in the audience for
his work on Game of Thrones as the equally intimidating Sandor Clegane, a.k.a.
"The Hound."
"You don't seem to understand the situation."
"I understand that if any more words come pouring out of your c--- mouth, I'm going
to have to eat every f------ chicken in this room."
Jurgen the Brutal ultimately isn't all that far removed from the Hound, as Jumanji: The
Next Level includes a few clever references to McCann's late, great HBO series.
Early in the film, Jurgen is flanked by a pair of massive, bloodthirsty hyenas.
They're very shaggy, and not instantly recognizable as that particular wild animal; they actually
look more like big dogs, or, in Thrones parlance, direwolves.
Dressed in furs and sulking around a castle half the time, Jurgen sometimes looks like
he's cosplaying as Jon Snow, but then the film gives a shout-out to his old Game of
Thrones character.
Jurgen battles to the death with Dr. Smolder Bravestone on an airship.
At one point, Bravestone jumps onto Jurgen, sending them both falling.
That's just like the way the Hound jumped onto his brother, the Mountain, during their
epic battle that resulted in both of their deaths.
Jumanji: The Next Level is dark and full of terrors.
From video games to quality television, kids have a variety of entertainment options at
their disposal, but at the end of the day, most all of them are going to wind up watching
the same movie, a true classic fervently beloved by all the children of the world in the year
2019: Lawrence of Arabia, the 1962 historical epic about British military leader T.E. Lawrence
that won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Yeah, no, we're totally kidding — kids today aren't into Lawrence of Arabia, nor were kids
into the movie when it was first released.
However, it's an indelible classic of film, and at least two of its elements became cultural
touchstones: cinematographer Freddie Young's sweeping, beautiful shots of desert landscapes,
and Maurice Jarre's regal, rousing score.
Jumanji: The Next Level features many desert scenes, providing the opportunity for a visual
reference to Lawrence of Arabia in the form of an extra-wide shot.
More mature filmgoers will likely understand these allusions, especially since the Jumanji
score emphasizes it with musical motifs that hint at the Lawrence score.
There are very few kids on Earth who would smile and chuckle at these highbrow references.
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