'Jumanji' sequel serves up comic stars and good-hearted fun
“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” — ★ ★ ½
More than two decades after Robin Williams conquered that pesky board game, “Jumanji” has been resurrected with more stars (Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart and Jack Black), a comedy director and a “modern” twist. The result, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle,” is a sweet, and generally entertaining body swap lark with some nice messages about being yourself.
Why it had to be “Jumanji” is a head-scratcher. Jake Kasdan's “Welcome to the Jungle” spends a fair amount of genuinely unnecessary time straining to justify how it is connected to the original “Jumanji” including a whole prologue establishing how it had evolved into a video game by 1996.
The conceit here is that when you're transported into the game, you are suddenly a character in the game, in body, voice and skill set but with your earthbound personality pretty much intact. This is how a group of mismatched teens sharing the same detention, including the nerdy, shy Spencer (Alex Wolff), the football player Fridge (Ser'Darius Blain), the superficial popular girl Bethany (Madison Iseman) and the too-smart for gym class Martha (Morgan Turner), transform into avatars played by Dwayne Johnson (Spencer), Kevin Hart (Fridge), Jack Black (Bethany) and Karen Gillan (Martha).
It's a role reversal for everyone — the nerdy girl is hot now (and scantily clad), the hot girl is a soft, middle-aged man, the skinny guy is The Rock and the big football player is now wimpy — and they all have to go through the stages of learning to accept their new bodies, talents and shortcomings.
There is of course a lot of easy comedy in these situations — Spencer admiring his new muscles and Bethany getting used to her new anatomy among them. And all the main actors/avatars are kind of great at imitating the facial expressions of their teenage counterparts, especially Johnson and Black.
There are some odd beats and choices around Gillan's Martha. But “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” probably doesn't warrant much scrutiny. Its surface pleasures are strong enough for a fun holiday afternoon at the movies.
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Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Alex Wolff
Directed by: Jake Kasdan
Other: A Sony Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for adventure action, sexual situations and language. 119 minutes