directed by Mike Mitchell
written by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Five years ago, Warner Brothers released The Lego Movie and rode on a wave of goodwill stemming from worldwide love of the popular Lego brick toys, as well as a surprisingly well-written, well-directed and even well voice-acted film by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller to global success at the box office. What I had basically expected to be an extended toy commercial turned out to be a charming story about imagination, and a touching relationship between a father and his son.
The follow-up, while it no longer benefits from the element of surprise that made the impact of the first film that much more meaningful, still benefits from much the same charm, even though there is the inevitable repetitiveness of a sequel.
Following the events of "Taco Tuesday" in the first film, the sprawling Lego City of Bricksburg has been hit by one catastrophic alien invasion after another, and five years later, that once bustling metropolis is gone, having been replaced by the bleak and desolate Apocalypseburg, which, as the name suggests, is basically a Mad-Max-inspired, wasted landscape. It is here that Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt), Wildstyle (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Unikitty (Alison Brie), Benny (Charlie Day), Metalbeard (Nick Offerman) and all of the rest of the characters from the first movie now live, and while most of the citizens of this post apocalyptic world are immersed in it, Emmett remains irrepressibly joyful as always. When, following another alien attack, a mysterious outsider named General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) arrives and kidnaps Wildstyle, Batman, Unikitty, Benny, and Metalbeard and takes them to the mysterious Systar System, ruled by the even more mysterious Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi (Tiffany Haddish), Emmet takes it on himself to follow them in his rocket house. Along the way, Emmet meets the rugged Rex Dangervest (Chris Pratt) a space explorer with a vague past who may either be the key to helping Emmet save his friends...or to helping him destroy the entire Systar System.
While this movie is definitely not one of those "better than the original" sequels, the good news is that it retains much of the charm of the first film, even though it no longer benefits from the element of surprise the way that film did. The new characters introduced, while primarily an excuse to sell new Lego sets, are charming in their own way, like Haddish as the Queen and Beatriz as General Mayhem who who may or may not be bad guys, and Pratt's new character Rex, who may or may not be a hero, but it's the old characters like Wildstyle and Emmet who continue to carry the show.
Of course, as it the first film, the theme is still about family, with this film tackling the often contentious relationship between siblings in a manner that is sweet, if sometimes a bit simplistic. It's gratifying that, even as they sell toys, the filmmakers at least make an effort to tell a story.
I was still a bit put off by the shoehorning in of DC Superheroes into the movie, who are basically just a blatant effort by Warner Brother to create visibility for their Intellectual Property by putting them into a story to which they are basically irrelevant, but at least Will Arnett was funny again.
This sequel, which was actually foreshadowed at the end of the first film, works pretty well as a narrative, and notably, it all ties up quite neatly in the end, so given this, and its so-so box office results, maybe it's time to wrap up this particular narrative and see what other stories the Lego "Cinematic Universe" can offer.
8/10
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