Non-Spoiler Movie Review: Lego Movie 2

The Lego Movie 2 is directed by Mike Mitchell, and it has the voice talents of Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, and Will Farrell.

Five years have passed since the events of the first movie and the citizens of Bricksburg face a dangerous new threat when LEGO DUPLO invaders from outer space start to wreck everything in their path. The battle to defeat the enemy and restore harmony to the LEGO universe takes Emmet, Lucy, Batman and the rest of their friends to faraway, unexplored worlds that test their courage and creativity.

The first Lego movie was excellent. I mean, how do you make a movie about Lego? They did it and it was a huge success. The Lego Batman movie was incredible, and I’ve got my fingers crossed that a sequel gets made because it would be criminal if that wasn’t to happen.

When this was announced, I was interested in what direction it would go after the introduction of the Lego Duplo range at the end of the first one. Lego Movie 2 isn’t on par with the first movie, no where near as good as Lego Batman, but it’s better than the average kids’ movie that you see nowadays.

This movie plays off the concept from the first one where it’s all revealed that the entire movie has been about a child playing with his Lego toys. LM2 does that a lot. I like that they do it because what else can they do except embrace this idea since the novelty was worn off a bit. It has that same feel as it did in the beginning of Toy Story with Andy playing with his toys.

The biggest difference between this and its predecessor is that this one felt more geared towards kids. It has a few jokes that the adults would get (I was the only person in the cinema who got the Radiohead joke) and a few pop-culture references, and I dig that.

 

The animation is as smooth as ever, and I really enjoyed the set designs. Apocalypseburg looks great. It has that dystopian, Mad—Max feel about it. The cast is once again great with Will Arnett’s Batman being the show stealer and Chris Pratt pulls off double duty as the happy go lucky Emmett and the macho tough guy Rex.

 

My only real issue I have is the plot itself. The first movie had a clear plot and knew where it wanted to go and at what point. This film had really no idea where they wanted to go with anything in this film. This cause lots of issues in the movie because they didn’t have a straight forward plot that everybody could easily follow. I’m going to try and not spoil it but in the first movie there was a great plot twist that caught everybody off guard but this film the tried to do that and caused more issues in the plot. It made no sense and could have easily been taken out of the film and it would be a bit better.

The message in this film is a good one but it’s forced down your throat so much that you don’t really care about it. They also pretty much say it and spell it out throughout the entire movie. The pacing in this film is way too fast to help understand anything that’s happening in the film.

I thought this was fine for a kids’ movie. It’s somewhat entertaining with jokes that would satisfy both young and old. It’s a fun movie, if you’ve liked the past Lego films you will find some enjoyment from this one

 

Rating: *** ½ (Aye, it’s canny)