If anyone ever told me in 2012 that there would be a successful 2013 animated film that centers on the Lego Construction Toy brand, I would’ve rudely laughed in their faces and would’ve said that I disagree that such a concept would succeed due to most adaptations of toys being absolute box-office poison. Oh, how naïve I would’ve been, especially since these rare films like Ghostbusters, Up, Inside Out, Toy Story 1-3, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and Batman (1989), exist today. That being said, after the surprise hit of The Lego Movie, I was anticipating the sequel since the first film ended with a cliffhanger of Duplo toys attacking Bricksburg after just being saved by Emmett Brickowski and his group of Master Builders. After seeing in 2013 that the sequel would take years to develop, mainly because Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were originally going to work on Solo: A Star Wars Story, I knew I would just have to move on and be excited for the sequel when it was announced. Five years went by and I finally saw the announcement of The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part and was somewhat excited but not as much as I hoped. A few days ago, as of this blog’s publish date, I was going on my daily business when I saw that Cinemark was having a special Saturday promotion, they were going to show an early screening of The LEGO Movie 2 and I was really lucky to get a ticket at the last minute. After seeing the film, I had a smile on my face as I was entertained from beginning to end and was mostly satisfied with the sequel.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is the direct sequel to the acclaimed Lego Movie that helped launch Chris Pratt into a star and made me appreciate Lego toys for inspiring artists with great imaginations. The sequel starts right where the first film left off. Emmett Brickowski (Chris Pratt) and his team of Master Builders have just saved Bricksburg from being Kraggled, meaning that they were saved from being krazy glued permanently by a real-world father (Will Ferrell) after he is convinced by his son, Finn (Jadon Sand) to share his entire Lego set due to realizing his son’s extensive imagination with the Lego sets. The father shares his Lego set under the condition that they let his toddler daughter play with the set too, and that ends up causing an invasion of Lego Duplos onto Bricksburg. Emmett tries to reason with the Duplos and even builds them a heart to symbolize their friendship, but the Duplo’s eat the heart, attack the city, and cause devastation to Bricksburg. Five years later, the citizens of Bricksburg have reorganized into Apocalypseburg and have become Mad Max-like warriors in order to defend themselves from another impending attack by the Duplo aliens. After all the destruction, the only person that hasn’t changed whatsoever is Emmett, who always sees things on the positive side and has no desire for sadness, and he still goes about his daily life with his girlfriend Wyldstyle/Lucy (Elizabeth Banks). One day, another invasion occurs, but this time the Duplo aliens have evolved into more girly-like Lego toys and they are led by General Sweet Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz), who has come to take Bricksburg’s leader to the Systar System and meet with their leader, Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi (Tiffany Haddish). After a brief fight between five of the master builders: Batman (Will Arnett), Benny the Astronaut (Charlie Day), Princess Unikitty (Alison Brie), Metalbeard (Nick Offerman), and Wyldstyle, they are kidnapped by General Mayhem and taken to the Systar System on the other side of the Upstairs Universe. Emmett decides to go after his friends and uses a built spaceship to travel the Systar system. Along the way, Emmett runs into trouble and is saved by adventurer/archeologist/cowboy/raptor trainer, Rex Dangervest (Also voiced by Chris Pratt). Emmett decides to work with Rex to save the master builders from Queen Watevra Wa-Nabi and stop her plans to take over the Master Builder’s Planet before it is too late.
Okay, right out of the gate, this plot sounds like it has a case of sequelitis, meaning it just does the same thing as established in the first movie and nothing else, and in some ways, yeah it was somewhat more of the same, but it has really clever ideas and has a pretty good character arc for Emmett. What I really like about the film is how they focused on the struggling relationship between the real-world Finn and his little sister Bianca and how both of their imaginations end up creating a conflict between the Master Builders and the Duplo Invaders and in the end, it becomes a heartfelt development between the siblings. Like I said before, Emmett has an interesting development, particularly when he teams up with Rex Dangervest, and I can’t get too much into their friendship as it is a potential spoiler for the ending. I will say that Rex Dangervest is an interesting character and has some pretty funny jokes, particularly that he is a Raptor Trainer and has a huge ship that is run by Raptors. I am a sucker for films that make fun of themselves and there is plenty of jokes that pokes fun at the first film as well as certain parts of the film industry in general. I also love the animation once again in this film, after The Lego Movie 1 & 2, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I want to see more films that use CGI to replicate Stop Motion Animation as it leads into a world of possibilities. I liked how they expand on the universe and change from Live Action to animation in a heartbeat, not to mention that they follow the physics of the real world to some extent.
I did have a few issues with the sequel, mainly the side characters Wyldstyle, Unikitty, Benny the Astronaut, Metalbeard, and Batman. While they are in the film for quite a bit, they are mostly there just for jokes and not as much character development, well maybe except Wyldstyle as you learn a little bit more on who she really is. I felt that it wasn’t as funny as the first film, but it still had some laugh out loud moments that kept me entertained. There are quite a few musical numbers in this film and while I’m glad they make fun of it in the film, I felt they were sometimes a little unnecessary. I also felt that the ending was a little bit tacky and resolved itself fairly quick with the villain not being as threatening as Lord Business (Will Ferrell). In the first movie, the song “Everything is Awesome” was introduced and was ingrained into my brain for a while. In this sequel, they try to top “Everything is Awesome” with a song that is literally called “This Song’s Gonna Get Stuck Inside Your Head” and while it’s not as memorable, it still is really catchy and really metaphorical for this universe.
Sure, I had problems, but I still really enjoyed the film, it still has its comedic charm and uses it’s CGI stop-motion to full effect. It has the magic of the first film, has really good metaphorical character development, and was pretty good sequel that gives me Back to the Future Part II-vibes. The kids will still like this one, and the adults will most likely be entertained as well, it has problems like every other film sequel, but it still continues the series in a clever way. Overall, I was pleased with what I saw and recommend to anyone for this year.
8.5 out of 10
Sequelitis…I like that phrase:). Sounds like it’s worth seeing.
I definitely want to see both films now!