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Written 9/26/20
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Buy it... if you have a soft spot for Henry Jackman and team's
music for the previous entry in the franchise, this sequel offering more
memorable exotic flair and cheeky villain's material.
Avoid it... if you are still waiting for these Jumanji
scores to shed their over-reliance upon Alan Silvestri and other sources
of inspiration, their originality still suspect.
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| Jackman |
Jumanji: The Next Level: (Henry Jackman/Various)
Will there be any limit to the number of times audiences want to watch a
group of people getting sucked into the Jumanji game to face wild
animals and mysterious villains? Apparently not, as the 2019 film
Jumanji: The Next Level, the fourth of the franchise and the
immediate successor to Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, can
attest. With a greater production role for lead actor Dwayne Johnson,
the Jake Kasdan movie raking in an estimated quarter billion dollars of
net profit and ensured yet another franchise entry to come. The same
youths from the 2017 movie return, and they are joined by old
curmudgeons played by Danny Glover and Danny DeVito, whose side
storyline manages to reel in Bebe Neuwirth to reprise her role from the
original 1995 movie. The players of the game have to battle a new
villain for their mission in Jumanji: The Next Level, this time
switching avatars more regularly in their pursuit of a magic neckless
that ultimately leads to an improbable airship battle. There is more
sappy sentimentality in this film than the prior one, diminishing but
not replacing that story's emphasis on teenage interpersonal angst.
After Henry Jackman and his assistants replaced James Newton Howard on
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the lead composer returns with
new collaborators: Jeff Morrow, Anthony Willis, and Kazuma Jinnouchi.
The previous score dropped James Horner's approach for the 1995 original
and went overboard in its emulation of Alan Silvestri's style. For the
most part, it was a solid but unremarkable adventure work, its narrative
well stated but its themes anonymous and mixing unimpressive in parts.
In the case of Jumanji: The Next Level, the composers stray even
further down the Silvestri path, more clearly taking inspiration from
the three Night at the Museum scores, and Night at the Museum:
Secret of the Tomb with its David Arnold Stargate connections
in particular due to the desert setting of this sequel. The general
formula is the same, the orchestra joined by occasional choir and the
core set of themes pretty omnipresent. Whereas the ethnic interludes of
the prior work were minor blips, they come to define the middle portions
of this entry, their extension from Stargate to Maurice Jarre's
Lawrence of Arabia in "A Whole New World," "The Oasis," "We Need
Camels," and "Ancient Feud" coming close to parody territory. In the
end, the result is about the same: a workmanlike score with a decent
narrative but few truly exemplary features to occupy your memory.
The two main themes from
Jumanji: Welcome to the
Jungle return for Jackman and his crew,
Jumanji: The Next
Level revealing them to be more connected in structure than the
previous score exposed via their spotting and execution. Sharing opening
bars, the fanfare and friendship themes are put to frequent use here,
especially the latter idea as it addresses the deeper character set. The
fanfare still heralds some of the action highlights, though listeners
will be disappointed that "The Jumanji Suite" is identical to the same
track in the previous score. This theme influences the ethnic "The
Oasis" and "A Flame From the Past," dissolves into sneakiness in
"Captured," takes a more decisive action stance in "Bravestone to the
Rescue," and returns to flute-happy suite form in "Beyond the Clouds,"
this time with choral accompaniment. The friendship theme receives the
same contemporary styling in "Hanging Out" and "Home at Last" (a "Back
to School" reprise) and translates into the melodramatic character theme
within the game, introduced again in the middle of "The Reluctant
Adventurers," opening "Who's Who?" and "The Quest Begins," and shifting
to action mode in "Flightless Fury" and "Attack of the Mandrills." The
tentative and tender renditions of the idea accompany the reconciliation
in "Olive Branch," switch to nice solo brass at the end of "Beyond the
Clouds," emulate the previous score's "An Older Friend" swell in "A Fond
Farewell," and closes out the score in "Home at Last" as it segues back
to the acoustic guitar version. The rowdy Bravestone rhythmic motif
peeks through in "New Powers" but is otherwise absent. In "Bravestone to
the Rescue," Gustav Holst replaces Silvestri as the driving motivator.
Several suspense undulations do return from the predecessor, though, as
do the rambunctious solo drums announcing the arrival in the game. The
obvious and best new element in this work is the fresh villain's theme
introduced fully in "The Tale of Jurgen the Brutal" that utilizes the
sound effect of a screaming woman as a motific calling card. After
ominous shades in "A Flame from the Past," the humorous screaming
returns in "An Unexpected Friend," "Cliffhanger," "Multiplayer," "Chaos
at the Palace," and "Bravestone to the Rescue." Mysterious in
"Captured," the theme makes a defiant stand in "The Battle of the
Zeppelin." Overall, the music for
Jumanji: The Next Level is on
par with Jackman and crew's prior outing, striving for Silvestri action
and Andrew Lockington fantasy but not quite achieving either. The cheeky
exoticism for the desert and scream-worthy villain's theme do elevate it
enough to earn a higher rating, though the choir still seems undermixed
when applied. A solid compilation of highlights from both scores is
definitely merited.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
Bias Check:
For Henry Jackman reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 2.8
(in 25 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 2.79
(in 7,749 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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