Who would’ve thought that five years ago The Lego Movie would’ve been an incredible animated movie not only for kids but everybody? Not me. Not only was the 2014 hit creative and smart in its own way, but it’s truly one of the coolest animated movies to ever come out. And who wasn’t in furious anger when it was snubbed out of an Oscar nomination that year? So, now that we are at a time where the genre is getting better each year, kids and adults can finally expect a follow-up in the form of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part in hopes to exceed high hopes.
This film picks up right where the first ended when the Lego Duplos invaded Bricksburg and the city is now turned into a Mad Max-type post-apocalyptic world where everything isn’t awesome. But that doesn’t stop Emmet Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt) from being happy and enjoying life. Doesn’t seem great when an alien from another planet comes down and kidnaps Emmet’s friends, so he must go out onto the galaxy to save his friends and the day.
This is not only following up on the first film but with the two spin-offs of The Lego Batman Movie (great) and The Lego Ninjago Movie (forgettable). I was personally looking forward to what this sequel would bring in-store and hoping it was gonna bring the same amount of fun from before. Though the fear of this not living up to high expectations were on my mind even before walking in. Even if it wasn’t as great, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part still remands more clever than before.
Everything is coming at you real quick where it doesn’t need to get the audience to recap what happened previously. The story does the direction that one would expect from this, and if you don’t mind anything being ridiculous, have fun. Because we see the adventures of Emmet in a rescue mission and then meets up with Rex Dangervest (also voiced by Pratt), the galaxy-defending archaeologist, cowboy and raptor trainer (combination of the characters Pratt played) who helps him out and the situation with Wyldstyle/Lucy (voiced by Elizabeth Banks) and just wants Emmet to be more of a man.
The animation is visually amazing where it just seems impossible how they can create a world made out of colorful pieces of blocks. Still recapturing the computer animation to make it feel like actual Lego figures are moving is hard to believe. Since this is a world made out of Legos, it doesn’t take me a while to adjust myself into the world since we’ve been exposed to it three movies before this.
Once again, the voice cast just delivers great stuff for their animated counterparts. Returning are Pratt, Banks, Will Arnett as Batman, Alison Brie as Princess Unikitty, Nick Offerman as MetalBeard, and Charlie Day as Benny providing the casual amusement. Then you got a couple of newcomers like Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as the voice of General Mayhem and Tiffany Haddish as the voice of the shapeshifting Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi.
Though original directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller aren’t returning to direct the follow-up since Mike Mitchell (Trolls) directed it, they still wrote up the screenplay and it just proves that Lord and Miller are the best comedy writers working in Hollywood today. There are a lot of moments in here that are gut-busting hilarious to the point of actually knowing the references and jokes that little kids won’t get but the adults will understand completely. I still believe the first had me laughing a lot, but the number of times I laughed in here was about the same.
If you already love its predecessor, chances are you’re gonna have a blast with this. I mean, there’s a song in here that’s gonna get stuck inside your head entitled “Catchy Song”, this film’s version of “Everything is Awesome”, what’s not to possibly expect?
As for problems to why I didn’t think this wasn’t as fresh as the original is that this didn’t have anything that was surprising in the way this world is presented. Because of that, the story wasn’t as impactful like before. Some of the jokes weren’t getting to me, and the two musical numbers, though catchy, made the movie feel a bit unneeded.
At its core, it’s still able to bring together a satisfying message just like from before, and it catches me off guard every time. This does feature some live-action scenes just like in the first movie where it’s all in the mind of the young kid from before and his little sister. Not to say it has the same effect, but you see what it’s trying to push forward. And you know a kids movie is good when it has a message to gain across before it ends.
Walked out of Lego Movie 2 feeling gleeful and I’m glad it was made. Never was it at a point where it felt like a sugar rush and just waiting for everything to slow down. It wasn’t nearly as perfect as the original, as to be expected, but it’s here to be entertaining; if that doesn’t say awesome, then what does?
Grade: B+
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