The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part 2019

I was a big fan of the original Lego Movie. I loved Lego Batman even more so. This movie, however, just didn’t do it for me. It most certainly wasn’t bad, but I just found it to be more childish than the previous movie. Obviously it’s a kids movie, so childish is to be expected, but I just found the first movie to be childish yet extremely quirky and much more fun. This movie was not enjoyable for me at all throughout the entire first act. The movie does pick up towards the end, and it has a more emotional conclusion than the first movie did, so it is redeemed in that sense. But as a whole, this movie does not compare to the original. It is much more of a kids movie, and I’m sure that kids will love it. It’s certainly not bad, it’s just not as good, and that’s largely due to the different approach that this movie takes.

I don’t quite recall there being so much real world perspectives/interaction in the first movie. I know that there was certainly one or two scenes towards the end of the first movie, but in this one, the real world is focused on right through the whole movie. I haven’t seen the first movie in a while, so maybe I’m just remembering it wrongly, but I think that this shift in focus changed the tone of the movie as a whole, and honestly, it left me caring much less about any of the Lego characters. I much preferred the approach that Lego Batman took, where there wasn’t any real world perspective (from what I recall). It made me care much more about what was happening in that movie.

5.5/10. Rounded up to 6 for my Trakt rating.

[7.0/10] The Lego Movie 2 offers two good messages to its audience of kids of all ages. The first is that growing up and being more mature doesn't have to mean growing darker and grittier and setting aside the bright and fun. Both Emmet and Lucy face nigh-unstoppable doppelgangers that teach them the lesson in one way or another. And it tracks with Finn, the real life young man playing with these toys, learning the same as he grows older and, as the film winkingly signposts, deals with his subconscious fears of losing his imagination as he grows up.

The second is that what you perceive as someone invading your territory may just be them wanting to collaborate with you, spend time with you, and play with you. The movie features a would-be invasion from the “Sis-Tar System”, a thinly coded version of Finn’s little sister and her toys, which want to envelop Finn’s denizens of the newly-dubbed “Apocalypsburg” into a big royal wedding with sister Bianca’s playthings. It’s also aided by an unexpected romance between Watevra Wa'Nabi, the queen of little sister land and, well, Batman, that shows the unexpected synergy between two seemingly different approaches.

Both ideas are laudable. There’s some irony in a film that shares a corporate family tree with the recent D.C. movies emphasizing that darker and more brooding doesn't necessarily mean more mature, and that there’s fun to be had in the sparkly and whimsical. But it’s a good lesson for kids watching their favorite toys on the screen, and for the adult fans in the audience who might come for the irreverence but stick around for something a shade deeper. And the message of understanding the benefits of collaboration, of not perceiving different takes on the same thing as an affront, but rather an invitation, is a solid aesop for the movie to dispense as well. The Lego Movie 2’s heart is squarely in the right place, even if that heart may speak in a baby voice and eventually explode with rose-colored splendor.

But the movie is clunky and a little disjointed when trying to deliver those messages. The Lego Movie 2 is not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. It is broadly enjoyable, full of fun references for the grown-ups and silly gags for the kids, and an eminently pleasant way to spend ninety minutes at the theater.

At the same time though, it can’t quite recapture the magic of the first film, and feels more like a colorful theme park ride whose storytelling and genre riffs can’t quite keep up with its aesop ambition. It may simply be that burden of all sequels, where seeing our favorite brick figures build their way out of mayhem with a cast of familiar but comically-skewed faces is old hat by now. And with the past movie’s reveal that the battle between good and evil was a representation of Finn’s relationship with his dad, the jig is up, and the big brother/little sister theme feels a little more obvious this time around.

It’s not that there’s nothing new. The presence of Bianca and her duplo-turned-sparkle denizens/aliens make for a big new ingredient in the film’s milieu. Watevra is a particularly fun creation, shape-shifting and scheming in a way that shows visual panache. And the vague Mad Max and outer space riffs give Lord & Miller some amusing new sandboxes to play in.

Still, the film’s story which involves would-be hostages, alien abductions, time travel, and even our heroes seeming to move and function without Finn or Bianca’s intervention, gets too big, too muddled, and too mushy to invest in very deeply, or to support the broader messages The Lego Movie 2 wants to send. It’s all perfectly enjoyable on a scene-by-scene basis, if not necessarily overwhelming, but the whole is lesser than the sum of its bricks here.

The film is also a bit of a musical, but it’s songs are fairly forgettable until, oddly enough, the credits roll. There are enough reprises of “Everything Is Awesome” in different forms for it to feel nicely familiar. There are a couple of serenades from Watevra about how she’s not evil, and some reverse psychology for Batman, which are cute enough, but not especially memorable. The film’s catchiest charms come from the end credit song, a Lonely Island one-up called “Super Cool” and the self-fulfilling prophecy of a song that promise to get stuck inside your head. Again, none of the tunes in The Second Part are bad, but they can’t match the earworm excitement of the last movie’s toe-tapper.

Still, the film packs a murderer’s row of comic voice actors, with most of the same brood returning from the last installment, and the additions of Tiffany Haddish, Richard Ayoade, and Maya Rudolph bringing something new to the mix. That alone, and the irreverent side jokes the movie packs in (including a particularly unlucky banana), are enough to keep you smiling even when you’re not deeply engaged.

The Lego Movie 2 does offer a handful of twists which, like the last movie, laudably connect to the twin themes of the film. The Second Part tries the sequel trick of doing a double dose of what it’s predecessor did in that regard, and it’s not bad. The explanations don’t always track perfectly or organically with the characters and situations pre-twist, but it fits what the movie is going for, and the rougher edges of the plot can be explained by kid logic and imaginative flair.

That, any those famous yellow bricks, are what hold The Lego Movie 2 together. It’s not quite the shaggy-yet-clockwork storytelling of the film’s predecessor, but the movie offers enough tricks (some new, most old), to keep you entertained until the credits roll. Its intended lessons are good ones, and though not as revelatory or unexpected as the first time around, the Lego Movie franchise’s charms are still charming on a second dose.

initial impressions incoming

Just like the characters in the film repeatedly like to chant in gleeful unison: Everything is not awesome. Coming from someone who had a deep admiration for the first film way back five years ago, because of it's inventive storytelling, quotable dialogue, and surprisingly lovable brick characters, I was given the impression the follow up would match or come close to capturing that lightning in a bottle the first had. However, about fifty minutes in, I realized this film straight up barred in to awful realms. This film is now proof that having an inventive style doesn't mean anything if not for the characters. Oh sure, the presentation here is top notch, as is expected from Phil Lord and Chris Miller's other work, I'm looking at you Spider-Verse, but unless you can enrich my experience with some amazing action to fill that void, or characters that I can at least follow through the dreck, there won't be anything to chew on. The Lego Movie 2 suffers from extreme sequelitis, much in the same vein as Incredibles 2, where in order for a sequel to justify it's existence, characters have to take steps back in their development, arcs have to be completely disregarded that way the sequel can essentially remake it's predecessor to keep that tone and flavor audiences liked about the previous installment. This has only worked a handful of times on some films I find guilty pleasures, but rarely does this tactic pay off. It comes off like you're watching a shittier version of something you liked. Trust me, they try to redo that ingenious human connection that the first's twist gave us, but it's almost overdone to an annoying extent and doesn't have any of the impact the first had, where the LEGO story was revealed as one big parallel to the boy's real life relationship with his father. Doing that again, offers nothing new. Now that little kid has to overcome his sibling rivalry with his sister, as the two bicker over who should have control over the lego's, and at a few moments, you feel like it'll work, but just comes across stale and almost like a television continuation. This doesn't have the grand, epic scope of the first, instead opting for something more personal, that oddly, doesn't explore the characters it's attempting to deconstruct. It acts as a self reflection of Emmett and his relationship with himself, and in turn, affects his interactions with his sister. Something much more ambitious could've been done here, but it feels like half a script is missing and a ton of filler is thrown in instead, like the cringe inducing musical numbers. I wouldn't recommend checking this out, which is a shame, and my expectations weren't high.

I'm gonna be completely honest with you: it's getting late as I'm writing this review, so I'm gonna bullet-point my thoughts in no particular order:

• This movie is significantly weirder than the first one. Like, that "intermission" was certainly a thing that happened.

• This is the second time this year I've watched a movie and said, "Is that Richard Ayoade?!"

• It felt like it was trying to subvert my expectations by revealing that the Duplos weren't the bad guys all along (and that Rex was), but that felt kind of cheap. I know it's a kid's movie, and they will eat whatever you put in front of them, but the first movie was clever by taking the classic narrative of "The One" and spinning it on its head. This one doesn't seem to do much original stuff in terms of story. It feels same-y.

• That "bad guy" song for the Queen was actually a bop, and a good bait-and-switch (okay, I didn't see the twist coming, but I was getting suspicious halfway through).

• It took me way too long to realize her name was Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi because she can be "whatever I wanna be"... she can morph her body (which made for some pretty slick animation!) Also, Tiffany Haddish brought the best vocal performance in this whole movie!

• There was too much live action stuff! Using it sparingly as a Matrix-esque reveal in the first one was perfect, but they spend far too long holding the audience's hand in this one. I wish they had given us snippets of what was really going on IRL so that a second viewing would unlock more secrets instead of spelling it out for us. This was probably the weakest part of the film for me.

It's really difficult to judge this movie without comparing it to (or at least considering the massive success of) The LEGO Movie. All that considered, it's a neat movie for the kids with a bunch of jokes for adults, too. It's definitely not as strong as the first, but the animation is superb (as always), and it has a message that is pretty applicable for times like these: "Everything may not be awesome, but that doesn't mean it has to be bad."

Back to the world of small, plastic, animated building blocks, where imagination rules and the fourth wall is occasionally bumped, elbowed and/or run straight through like a freshly-wiped sliding glass door. I guess I'm in the minority here, but from my POV this played as a sequel that wasn't as fresh, nor as inspired, as the original.

In the first film, half the fun came from learning the rules of the world, admiring a string of wildly different settings and identifying the slew of cheeky, energetic celebrity cameos in a long parade of licensed characters. Every one of those elements is clamped down, if not outright eliminated, in the follow-up. It's funny, it's entertaining, there's a lot of winks for the parents and silly slapstick bits for the kids, but as a whole it's much more forced and cramped. Although we spend time exploring new galaxies, meeting alien queens and defending post-apocalyptic landscapes, the universe is smaller and far less diverse. The same voice actors reprise the same roles for the same cameos, but this time it's more of an obligation and less of a spontaneous surprise. "I know that guy!" becomes "I remember that guy."

I don't want to sound too harsh here, because the story does represent a logical continuation of simmering themes that were present in the original, and the music is once again a major highlight, but it's not a great sign when the film's most clever, imaginative scene takes place during the credits. Maybe a growing pain for the franchise; there's still plenty of fertile ground here, but it's going to take a little more effort to re-bottle that jolt of lightning.