This is not the next instalment of 'The Best of the Decade,' but I saw a film yesterday and I wanted to talk about it. Warning: there will be spoilers.
At around 8pm last night, my friends and I emerged from a screening of Jumanji: The Next Level at our local cinema, and I - with my big film brain - had to go and ruin it for everyone. "It was okay, but it seemed obvious to me that the villain character should have turned out to be Spencer," I said. I then proceeded to explain my theory to the group, who fell silent for minutes afterwards. Sorry guys.
Allow me to explain. This sequel to the well-received 2017 Jumanji reboot kicks off a couple of years or so after the conclusion of the first film, in which the four kids emerged from the game having learnt new truths about themselves and vanquished some of their demons. They are now firm friends and arrange to meet for brunch after some time apart, but Spencer (formerly super-confident beefcake Dr Bravestone) is having doubts. Worried that he cannot continue to be the person he wants his girlfriend Martha (killer of men Ruby Roundhouse) to think he is. With this in mind, he attempts to repair the broken game and re-enter Jumanji to recapture that Bravestone magic. The others realise what he has done and follow him in, eventually finding him (and themselves) in a new story campaign, and the wrong bodies. Overall, the story introduces a lot of new world-building elements and interesting mechanics, but fails to fully utilise them in order to create new challenges for the characters. The story plays out very much like the first film, with any new inconveniences being very quickly swept under the rug by new 'abilities' that the avatars find themselves with. With all this in mind, I'd like to take you through just a few changes that would (hopefully) make better use of the tools the narrative already provides in order to reach a more satisfying conclusion.
First of all, I would not have Spencer repair the original game from the previous film. Instead, this story would take place within 'Jumanji 2' and incorporate some elements of a video game sequel structure into its narrative. We know the game has supernatural properties and can change its form, so this would not only be more in line with the previous films in the franchise, but also offer an explanation as to where the new characters, abilities and mechanics in the game came from. This small change would provide some much more solid foundations to build the rest of the narrative on top of.
The rest of the story would play out mostly unchanged from the moment the gang enter the game to the moment they first encounter the villain (however, I may just have Bethany play as Seaplane. The idea of her being stuck outside of the game is interesting, but is ultimately a loose thread that only further complicates the story. She could also assist with the escape from the ostriches at the beginning by constructing a new type of vehicle). Upon encountering the villain at the oasis, a fight would ensue. He would square up to Fridge, who would push him away by the chest and bring up his 'menu.' The stats on his list would not match the appearance of the villain before him, but Fridge would quickly realise that the fact that he has stats mean that he is a playable character and link what is displayed to Spencer. Spencer would then retaliate and defeat the entire group, costing them all a life and putting them back down in the desert. When the gang meet back up with Spencer in the final act, they would learn that he found himself back in the game but did not find himself in the body of Bravestone. Instead, he found himself in a character that was much more like him in the real world, and in an attempt to recapture that Bravestone-ness, he went back to the Panther statue and stole the jewel, taking the power for himself. However, as the in-game years went by, his hubris grew and be became a cruel tyrant at the head of an empire. At this point, he is so far past the Spencer that they knew that the old friends barely recognise one another. This idea would also help greatly in fleshing out the villain's character and his role within the story, because as you may have noticed, I can't even remember his name.
The key to the conclusion of this story is another underused mechanic from the original version of the film: the ability to swap characters. Shortly after their first confrontation with the villain, Martha and Fridge come across a pool of green glowing water, and upon entering it they find themselves playing as each other's avatars. Beyond the gag of seeing Fridge as Ruby Roundhouse and seeing the characters use this later to swap back into their avatars from the previous film, it is never used again. In my version, upon discovering the properties of the liquid, Martha and Fridge would bottle some of it up for further use. Eventually, they would come across a puzzle that would require them to use several different avatars at once. The nature of the challenge isn't particularly important, but it would allow them to discover a wide selection of brand new avatars within Jumanji 2 and master this new mechanic before a final battle with Spencer, in which Martha would combat him by switching between avatars frantically to use many different abilities. This would strengthen the idea that Spencer is valued not as a super-confident leader, but as an equal member of their team, and Martha would eventually talk him round into returning the jewel to free Jumanji once more.
Overall, I didn't not enjoy Jumanji: The Next Level, but once this idea had entered my head it was all I could think about. There was a lot to enjoy about this film (especially the dynamic of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart as the two 'older' characters that get stuck in the game with the gang) but I believe these changes would strengthen the overall narrative arc. This has been quite a rough overview of my story alterations, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what's been spinning around in my head. I'm very excited for the next one though; the tease at the end of this film looked very promising.
That's it for my mad ramblings folks - I'll be bringing you the next instalment of 'The Best of the Decade' later this week!
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