JUMANJI:  THE NEXT LEVEL – Rated PG-13 – 2 hrs. 3 mins. – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

JUMANJI:  THE NEXT LEVEL – Rated PG-13 – 2 hrs. 3 mins. – MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

DIRECTOR/WRITER: Jake Kasdan 

WRITERS:  Jeff Pinkner, Scott Rosenberg, Chris Van Allsburg

STARRING: Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, Karen Gillan, Alex Wolf, Danny DeVito, Danny Glover, Awkwafina, Nick Jonas, Morgan Turner and Madison Iseman 

Well, the gang may have left high school, and headed in their own separate ways, but the time has come for them all to head back to the place they love more than anywhere else…HOME!  And what better way to celebrate, than to head back into the Jumanji game, nope, wait a minute that’s not right, as only Spencer (Alex Wolf) feels the need to head back into the game, as he longs to relive his glory days as Eddie (Dwayne Johnson/Danny DeVito), and now, when his friends figure out that he’s gone back in, it seems they must all venture in to get him back, but surprisingly, the game has changed, and taken a few other players along for the ride this time too…

I give JUMANJI:  THE NEXT LEVEL a rating of WAIT AND CATCH THIS FILM ON DVD OR A STREAMING SERVICE!  Even though I was totally pumped to see Dwayne Johnson back with Kevin Hart, Jack Black and Karen Gillan this time around, the storyline for me, gets rather muddled in translation.  Maybe it’s because the adventure seems less exciting than the original.  Maybe it’s because the writers decided to mix up our players, taking away from its ambiance and familiarity.  Or maybe it’s just that this storyline, even though it has additional dimensions, doesn’t play out as well, even with the addition of Danny DeVito and Danny Glover along for the ride!  I mean, even the return of Nick Jonas for this next installment couldn’t save it from becoming a rather slow, and sometimes mundane transition to get us to the next installment, which happens to be the most exciting part of this film for me, as it totally seems as if we might be heading back to 1995’s JUMANJI, which may turn out to be the saving grace for this franchise, if that’s truly the intended storyline for the final installment ~ but, please also note that this is total speculation on my part of where we might be headed, from my own interpretation from the end of this film…but by the same standpoint, it sure would be super cool if that is where we are headed, even with the untimely passing of Robin Williams…