The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part review

Sorry with this being 3 months late, and not posting a rankdown of the 2018 animated films. Just didn’t have inspiration or urge for the last several months, but it’s all better now.

My opinion right after watching the movie

My opinion after watching the movie is that……. it’s boring and tired. I mean, I was not the biggest fan of the first one, and predicted how tiring/old this franchise was going to get (and in a quick manner), so nothing about this film (or its performance) shocked me. Nothing really bad or horrible, but I found it almost impossible to get some engagement in it.

Production

Shortly after “The Lego Movie” was released, it was confirmed that there would be a sequel, with most of the cast returning, and the writers already being assigned. It was initially supposed to be released on 2017, but several delays took place, director changes were made, and the script was rewritten, since they wanted to incorporate more songs due to the success of the musically-inclined “Frozen” and “Moana“.  There was some trouble about how to capture the perspective and point of view of the film, since the universe is based on the imagination of a child, so they focused on both the boy and girl’s perspectives.

Story

We start the movie with some monster attacking the Lego city, and then skip 5 years to see that everyone/everything in life is miserable in post-apocalyptic Bricksburg. Emmett (Chris Pratt) has some horrid vision of “Armamageddon” taking place in the near future. As some more action takes place, I soon realize hat whatever novelty tat existed in the first film was not in this film, and everything just felt painfully derivative. General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) sneaks in, and demands that Bricksburg’s greatest leaders to be taken with them, causing Batman (WIll Arnett), Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), and a few others to be taken with them. In the real world, the little girl takes the little boys toys to her room.

It becomes clear to me what the plot of the movie is, and once again, it’s about how not tough Emmett is. In this case, it’s about how he is still too optimistic and has not adapted with the times, but it’s just way too tiring for me to care.

So of course he goes to save her (where the people captured end up in some sickeningly sweet world), and he ends up bumping into tough guy Rex Dangervest (Chris Pratt), after being saved from crashing into an asteroid. From what is established about this relationship, he wants to learn how to be tough like Rex, while the latter wants to have a brother he’s never had, and……… I instantly know where this story is going to go. So the two men make it to the same world Lucy is, and speaking of her, it is slowly being revealed that she is not as tough and rebellious as she appears. This comes due to her dying her hair black, and enjoying pop music.

Apparently the queen of this sweet…… Systar System named Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish) just wanted to co-exist with the world that our main characters come from, just like in the real world, the girl just wanted to coexist and play with her brother and his toys. Ultimately, Lucy ends up learning the real truth about the Systar System (which results in her coming to truth with her true self), and Emmett is still convinced that she is brainwashed, and a liar.

Emmett still has this ultimate belief that destroying this world will cause everyone to view him as tough. I admit that the message of perceived toughness, whether it was to protect their hurt and feelings, or to prove something is a really interesting one that they captured, especially with their two worlds.

Emmett soon realizes that there is something not right with Rex after they make it in the real bedroom, and Lucy is trapped under the dryer. Ultimately, Rex’s backstory involves him being left under a dryer, the mother (who is Armamageddon) forcing her children to put their toys in a shelter, while everyone forgot about him. Of course he got angry, and got revenge, which caused him to go to the past (he is Emmett in the future), and wanted to pay back everyone. The entire world is being turned upside down as the children put their toys away, and things end up being right (both worlds coexisting together; children playing together), but Rex ends up getting some sort of redemption before he disappears.

After getting through this movie, it isn’t as bad as I thought it was, and I think this movie is a good way to end The Lego Movie franchise. It was nice to see that some characters got some character development, and the tie to the human world was very strong. The jokes were definitely a lot more hit-or-miss, and it was a lot more predictable than I thought (especially with the villain), but nothing horrible about it. Hopefully Warner Bros can get their other movies going, so relying solely on this franchise won’t backfire too much.

Characters

Regarding the characters, there is not a whole lot for me to say. Some of the minor characters were way too insignificant for me to care about, or they were just mildly amusing-at-best. It was nice for Lucy to actually have a nice arc instead of just being painfully generic like the first film (though it was somewhat like Vanellope, but just a bit more developed). Emmett was a bit more interesting to me this time around, wit wanting to be tough, and comparing himself to Rex, who is a future version of himself. Rex pulls off his role fine enough, but it was clear to me from the beginning that he was the villain, and it came off as relatively underwhelming to me.

Animation

The animation is relatively nice, though I don’t think there was really much of an improvement from previous Lego movies. Not saying that’s a bad thing, since they are good with the special effects, textures, and all of the details they put in. My point is that it remained great, though there wasn’t much evolution.

Music

Musically, there is nothing really memorable about it, or at least not in a good way. A lot of the songs were really annoying, and felt like it didn’t have much purpose. The song with the queen singing to Batman (and vice versa) is utterly pointless and grating, some of the other songs also don’t do anything.

Reception at Release

As of June 6th 2019, it has made $106 million domestically, and $85 million in other territories, adding up to a worldwide gross of $191 million. It has received relatively positive reviews, though most claim that while it isn’t as fun, or interesting as the first film, it’s still a good enough, and lovable movie. It seems pretty clear that the interest within the franchise has decreased exponentially, and the future of it is unknown.

Score

Story: 6.5/10

Characters: 6/10

Animation: 9/10

Music: 4/10

25.5/40 = 64%

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