CERT: PG | DIRECTOR: MIKE MITCHELL | SCREENPLAY: PHIL LORD, CHRIS MILLER | STARRING: CHRIS PRATT, ELIZABETH BANKS, WILL ARNETT | RELEASE DATE: JUNE 3RD
It’s been five years since The Lego Movie made its way onto cinema screens surprising and delighting audiences, but has too much time passed between it and The Lego Movie Part 2: The Second One? Is everything still awesome?
Picking up directly at the end of the first movie, we’re back with Emmet (Pratt), Lucy/Wildstyle (Banks), Batman (Arnett), and the rest of the gang as Duplo invaders attack the city of Bricksburgh. Fast forward five years and the city (renamed Apocalypsburgh) is now in ruins; a Lego rendered Mad Max style post-apocalypse. After the Duplo invaders from space kidnap Lucy and the others, Emmet heads off to rescue them.
The Lego Movie was a wonderful surprise. What sounded like a bad idea of peak capitalism turned out to be a hilarious, entertaining, hugely fun, intelligent and actually quite moving animation filled with energy, laughs and heart, shepherded by Lord and Miller, the comic geniuses behind Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and 21 Jump Street. Out of the directors chairs and just on writing and producing duties, their imagination is still felt, but directorial replacement Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After) struggles to capture the same magic. But then it’s lost the element of surprise. Yes, The Lego Movie 2 doesn’t meet the heights of the original, but that doesn’t mean it’s still not fun.
Its joke rate isn’t quite as high but it still packs in more laughs than most comedies, and the visual energy is still vibrant, conjuring great scenes from the assorted Lego pieces. It zips along at a fair pace, with colour, action scenes and set pieces coming thick and fast. And it doesn’t forget the heart. Where the first one explored parental love, this one looks towards siblings, and nicely handles the visual switches between planes of imagination, while leaving us with a good message by the end of all the brick-based silliness.
The Blu-ray disc gets a nice wealth of extras. As well as outtakes and deleted moments, a behind the scenes feature and promotional spots, a Christmas themed short which is barely anything more than promotional material, and biggest of all, an interactive version of the movie featuring sing-along, trivia, games and more. However, the DVD fares much worse, with just a making-of feature to boast of.
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part finds it hard to move out of the shadow of its predecessor, but it’s still an enjoyable, imaginative and funny ride. Fun, but you probably won’t be holding out for the next one, especially if it’s another five years.
