Movie Info
Movie Name: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Studio: Warner Animation Group
Genre(s): Comedy/Animated/Family
Release Date(s): February 8, 2019
MPAA Rating: PG
We’re off to see the Armamageddon
Everything’s not awesome… With the alien invasion destroying Bricksburg, the people of Bricksburg find themselves living in a dangerous, post-apocalyptic world. When an alien attack has General Mayhem kidnapping Batman, Lucy, Benny, MetalBeard, and Unikitty from Apocalypseburg for a potential arranged marriage to Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi, Emmet sets out on an adventure to rescue them…and finds himself teamed with a roguish adventurer named Rex Dangervest to adventure beyond the Stairgate!
Directed by Mike Mitchell, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is a family action-adventure comedy. The movie is a follow-up to The Lego Movie from 2014, but follows The Lego Batman Movie (2017) and The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017). The movie was met with positive reviews but underperformed at the box office.
The Lego Movie was a nice surprise and the Lego Batman Movie was a great follow-up (especially for comic book lovers). The Lego Ninjago Movie showed the weakness of the Lego franchise, and this movie helped rebound from it…though it wasn’t as good as the first movie or the Batman movie.
It’s time to leave the basement
The charm of the first film was the surprisingly smart story. The movie (on paper) was very dismissible since it was just based off a toy, but it was surprisingly clever. This movie continues the story and continues to do some fun stuff playing with different Legos and superhero tropes, but the story loses a lot of the magic from the first film simply because the first film was such a surprise.
The cast remains solid Chris Pratt has a dual role as Emmet and Rex (who makes fun of some of his other film roles), Elizabeth Banks returns as Wyldstyle who might not be as “Wyld” as she wishes she was. Will Arnett makes some fun references to his own adventure in The Lego Batman Movie and Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Stephanie Beatriz, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Colbie Smudlers, Ralph Fiennes, Bruce Willis (in a fun cameo), Sheryl Swoopes, Ben Schwartz, Will Forte, Gary Payton, and Jason Momoa (playing Aquaman again) appear in supporting roles. Tiffany Haddish is added as the “big baddy” Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi. Maya Rudolph and Will Ferrell appear as the parents of Finn (Jadon Sand) and Bianca (Brooklyn Prince).
Love…exciting and new
Another aspect that made the first film a success was the unique combination of “real life Legos” and computer animated Legos in a real-life world. The Lego aspect allow for fun and unusual crossovers like The Wizard of Oz meeting superheroes and characters like Velma from Scooby-Doo hanging out with talking bananas (aka Banarnar). I particularly like the visuals of Lego Friends and Duplo characters interacting with Lego Mini-Figures (and moving differently).
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part isn’t bad, but it feels slightly tired. I can’t say that the movie is getting long in the tooth since it continues to do new things, but it feels like the first film was lightning in a bottle and can’t be recaptured. With the less than stellar response from viewers, it will be interesting to see where the Lego franchise will go from here.
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