The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

I got roped into seeing this with my friend and our kids, and I went in with a bad attitude prepared to hate it. I think I actually liked it more than the kids!! It's really funny, well written for the kids to enjoy but also a lot of adult jokes in there with a great cast. Really recommend.

Personally, I didn't go see this movie with very high expectations. Because, whilst the first Lego Movie could work with the fact that the audience wasn't aware of the origins of the movie's story (this origin being a child's imagination), this movie had to work with an audience aware of this origin. The movie accepts this and integrates scene's with real actors in the movie. This, luckily, isn't done to an extend where it would be annoying and distracting from the story being portrayed with Lego bricks. It does, however, try to replace the reveal of the first movie, with another reveal. Sadly, this reveal isn't even close to being on the same level as the reveal of the first movie. It turns out to be a bit cliché, which I felt a bit disappointed about. Once again, the filmmakers have some great references to other franchises. These references make for some great laughs. The jokes in this movie are simple and not too hard to understand, but aren't childish. This makes the movie a fun ride for child, teenager and adult. As a standalone movie, I feel it lacks world- and character-building. The movie throws characters at you, without (re-)explaining their origins to you. I feel like you are expected to have seen the first movie, because of this. This movie overall does a really good job for people looking for a fun ride. It is far from a bad movie, but there were some possibility's for it to be a better one.

I was sceptical that a sequel to The LEGO Movie could be pulled off, given that movie's twists and turns in the final act. But Lord & Miller's script pulls it off again. It doesn't have the same surprise, but it retains the heart and love of the product that makes it go beyond a "toy commercial" in to a true heartwarming, entertaining, and most of all, funny movie with a great theme embedded in it. It doesn't quite reach the heights of the predecessor, but it comes so very, very close. It'll be hard not to find something or someone to love in this movie.

I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what it is, but this film is severely lacking in something the first one mastered.

Let's start with the easy stuff. There are way too many references and bad puns. Some reviewers would call these references "jokes the adults can understand", and while that is true, they aren't funny. They're just kind of there. They are references that exist for you to say "I get that". There is no "ha" preceding that. Yes, the original also had references and bad puns, but they were used well and there weren't nearly as many.

The first LEGO movie was very self aware, but it had a soul that really seemed to care about what it was saying. The second LEGO movie was so self aware that it was very difficult to take seriously.

There was an obvious message about how growing up should be about learning to work with different people, but it kind of fell flat beneath the veil of "play with others even if you don't like how they play". It honestly made me a little angry. Maybe it wasn't intentional, but the film seemed to suggest that traditionally masculine things are incapable of being used in an imaginative way. I couldn't help but feel a pinch of modern social politics biting for my throat.

The first film felt very apolitical, and I believe that's fitting for a film about a franchise of toys that cradled our imaginations before we cared about politics. This film certainly didn't "ruin my childhood" by any means, but it was a disappointment.

The first Lego movie was surprisingly good, despite its bizarre premise.

This sequel, while not as great as the first film, managed to be a fun follow-up.

Mike Mitchell directed plenty of bad movies in the past ( Such as Deuce Bigalow, Sky High and the third part of Alvin and the Chipmunks) but this is (for me, at least) the best thing he had ever done.

Shame the movie wasn't very succesful, since these Lego movies were charming and fun. In terms of quality it was much better and not as dissapointing as "Ralph Breaks the Internet".