“Jumanji: The Next Level”
Box office hit with “The Rock” celebrates free TV premiere
The four avatars from “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” are back.
© Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
One of the biggest cinema successes of 2019 celebrates its free TV premiere on March 12: “Jumanji: The Next Level” with Dwayne Johnson and Jack Black.
It’s almost 30 years since Robin Williams (1951-2014), who left us much too early, got lost in the board game “Jumanji” (1995). The new edition “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (49) is not nearly as many years old, but it was an amazing five years ago. Now, more precisely on March 12th from 8:15 p.m. on Sat.1, the sequel to the box office hit, “The Next Level”, can also be seen on free TV for the first time. With a slightly different line-up and yet with a significantly different sign.
Back involuntarily – that’s what it’s all about
Two years have passed since the nerve-racking adventure of the four high school students in the video game “Jumanji”. While the majority is happy to have escaped safely, the shy Spencer (Alex Wolff, 24) longs for his strong avatar Dr. Smolder Bravestone (Johnson) back. He therefore repairs the destroyed video game console on his own and is promptly sucked back into the dangerous game.
Spencer’s friends quickly get wind of his negligent action and start the rescue operation. But something goes wrong here too: While the puzzled Bethany (Madison Iseman, 25) stays behind alone, in addition to Martha (Morgan Turner, 22) and Fridge (Ser’Darius Blain, 35), two seniors accidentally become avatars – Spencer’s grandpa Eddie ( Danny DeVito, 77) and his former business partner Milo (Danny Glover, 75). And they’re definitely both too old for that shit!
Old principle, new packaging
With the trick of converting the board game of yore into a virtual reality, the fantasy film from 1995 could be transported to the here and now. Such a drastic paradigm shift was no longer obvious for “Jumanji: The Next Level” (2019). The makers of the cast had an innovative idea for this. Even if the same four avatars as in the predecessor (ie Johnson, Karen Gillan, Kevin Hart and Jack Black) play the actual main roles, these are in turn “controlled” by other characters.
And it’s very entertaining when “The Rock” suddenly has to act like it has Danny DeVito in it – same game with Kevin Hart and Danny Glover. The success at the box office proved this approach right. It is true that “Next Level” did not bring in such an incredible 960 million US dollars at the international box office. With almost exactly 800 million US dollars, the sequel had to do anything but hide.
And so it’s not surprising that the makers have already made positive comments about another part. “Collider” quoted producer Hiram Garcia as saying in August 2021: “That’s already in the works! We’re focused on delivering the best version of this story.” Precisely for this reason, however, he cannot say when the time will come.