The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
Directed by: Mike Mitchell
Written by: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Starring: Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell, Jadon Sand, Brooklynn Prince
Voices by: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Tiffany Haddish, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Stephanie Beatriz, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, Ben Schwartz, Jason Momoa, Cobie Smulders, Ike Barinholtz, Ralph Fiennes, Will Forte, Bruce Willis, Gary Payton, Sheryl Swoopes,
Animation/Action/Adventure - 106 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 7 Feb 2019
Written by: Phil Lord & Christopher Miller
Starring: Maya Rudolph, Will Ferrell, Jadon Sand, Brooklynn Prince
Voices by: Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Tiffany Haddish, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Charlie Day, Stephanie Beatriz, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, Ben Schwartz, Jason Momoa, Cobie Smulders, Ike Barinholtz, Ralph Fiennes, Will Forte, Bruce Willis, Gary Payton, Sheryl Swoopes,
Animation/Action/Adventure - 106 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 7 Feb 2019
All is not lost when a sequel to a beloved original film fails to live up to the hype squad; it reminds you how special the first time around was and how it took you by genuine surprise. The first LEGO movie, before the LEGO Batman spin-off and LEGO Ninjago, blindsided me with its unexpected depth and poignancy; it made my Top 10 of 2014. The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part sports a likeable story and works through a conflict almost all of us can relate to; however, the magic is dimmer. The surprises are less than and the novelty is now bargain bin instead of eye-level on the most trafficked shelves. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller entrust their new LEGO installment, which checks all the boxes, but more by rote movement rather than cheeky creativity, to the mastermind behind Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, bargain bin indeed.
Bricksburg mirrors our own reality five years after the mini-heroes defeated President Business’s evil plan to glue the universe into immobile stasis. No longer singing “Everything Is Awesome” to welcome the new day, the residents of Mad Max-style Apocalypseburg are under siege from the evil DUPLO invaders who destroy any and all LEGO construction improvements in the now dust-blown, desert landscape. Life is hard. Nobody smiles – except for perpetual optimist and happy-go-lucky Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). Emmet constructs his white picket fence homestead in the wasteland because that’s who he is and also to impress Lucy aka Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks, The Happytime Murders). No amount of hodgepodge death vehicles or alien laser attacks will darken Emmet’s day.
Bricksburg mirrors our own reality five years after the mini-heroes defeated President Business’s evil plan to glue the universe into immobile stasis. No longer singing “Everything Is Awesome” to welcome the new day, the residents of Mad Max-style Apocalypseburg are under siege from the evil DUPLO invaders who destroy any and all LEGO construction improvements in the now dust-blown, desert landscape. Life is hard. Nobody smiles – except for perpetual optimist and happy-go-lucky Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom). Emmet constructs his white picket fence homestead in the wasteland because that’s who he is and also to impress Lucy aka Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks, The Happytime Murders). No amount of hodgepodge death vehicles or alien laser attacks will darken Emmet’s day.
Lucy has no room for idealism. “You’ve got to stop pretending everything is awesome,” she warns Emmet. Everyone from Batman (Will Arnett, Show Dogs) to guard cat Unikitty (Alison Brie, How to Be Single) settles into a funk and have all changed with the times – war is present and war will continue. Emmet, never one to change with the times, either cannot or will not succumb to the brooding. After a DUPLO soldier kidnaps the Apocalypseburg leaders, including Lucy and Batman, whisking them back to the Systar System, Emmet strikes off on a solo rescue mission confident his can-do attitude is all the supplies he needs.
The audience is in on the secret though. We learned a real-life family, with the largest basement devoted to LEGOs on Earth, propel the action based on what and how they play. This was the first LEGO Movie’s big reveal and the main reason it hit so hard hinting at non-kid friendly subjects such as theology and metaphysics. The new film begins with the secret, now open knowledge, showing us how sibling squabbles disrupts tranquility, and pushes the older brother to establish Apocalypseburg fortifying Emmet and company from his little sister’s purple and pink DUPLO invaders. The premise works – misunderstandings foment strife between two different worlds – but the gut punch is gone. We’ve seen the man behind the curtain and now we know too much.
Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish, Night School) plans the character kidnapping but assures the abductees it is for their benefit. Listen to the bubbly pop music in the Systar System and feel better. Perhaps if she marries LEGO Batman, the two worlds may unite and play together – exactly the type of concept a little sister would invent. Lucy resists the brainwashing while Emmet, racing to help, encounters a space swashbuckler called Rex Dangervest (also voiced by Pratt) who describes himself as a “galaxy defending archaeologist, cowboy, and raptor trainer.” Rex is a cross between Han Solo, Indiana Jones, and Pratt’s character from the Jurassic World films because he travels with a pack of velociraptors – just the sort of character a pre-teen boy would dream is the epitome of awesomeness.
New director Mike Mitchell maintains the characters’ pop culture hyper-awareness so they continue to average an amusing one-liner every 30 seconds. Also returning are the dividing lines between jokes for the kids and jokes for their parents – not too many children will understand why it is so funny a man named Bruce Willis is crawling around the duct work. The sequel also acknowledges the impact the franchise made on society with an updated version of everybody’s favorite chorus, “Everything Is Awesome” and even a new song song knowingly titled, “This song will get stuck in your head.” Where The LEGO Movie presented a true adventure tale with more than a spice of existentialism, the sequel trades it in for kitsch and a lower common denominator. It’s not wrong, but LEGO Batman would growl that is “less palatable.”
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