‘The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part’ (PG)
Cue the peppy music: Everything is awesome again in “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part,” the hotly anticipated sequel to the 2014 (building) block-buster. Like the original, the film is driven by a smart script, snappy dialogue and dazzling visual effects, all of which are anchored by a poignant human story that most every viewers will be able to relate to, whether you’re a kid or adult.
Set five years after the events after the original film – which, as it turns out was a LEGO battle going on in the imagination of a young boy named Finn (Jadon Sand) and a disagreement he has in real-life with his Dad (Will Farrell) for playing with the adult’s massive LEGO collection – “The Second Part” finds Finn fighting with another enemy in the family: his younger sister, Bianca (Brooklynn Prince).
AUDIO: Tim reviews “The Lego Movie 2” with Tom Barnard on “The KQ Morning Show” (segment begins at 4 minute mark).
Finn and Bianca are naturally fighting constantly as brothers and sisters do, and their battlefield is once again the LEGO setting in the family basement, where Bianca’s LEGO Friends and DUPLO collection invades Finn’s space of traditional LEGO bricks. The already aggravated situation comes to a head, though, when Bianca’s characters kidnap Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Batman (Will Arnett), Unikitty (Allison Brie) and company, and they’ve blasted off to the girl’s imaginative menagerie of characters and settings in space, where the captives strangely find themselves adapting to their new settings with relative ease. Meanwhile, Emmett has formed a new bond with the smart and resourceful Rex Dangervest (Pratt) in an effort to save his friends, but Rex isn’t all who he seems.
The key to the success of “The Second Part” is that screenwriters (and original co-directors) Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, along with director Mike Mitchell completely changes the setting from the first film’s massive LEGO metropolis to first a desolate setting reminiscent of the apocalyptic wasteland of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and before blasting off into outer space. Changing up the setting was essential in avoiding any sort of repetitiveness from the first film, even though the fun personalities of Emmett, Lucy and the hilarious Batman all remain, and are joined by the likes of new characters like Queen Waterva Wa’Nibi (Tiffany Haddish).
There are familiarities, naturally, like pop culture references (Pratt’s own “Jurassic World” films get a nod with dinosaur characters), and like the first film, “The Second Part” is punctuated with timeless real-life lessons — lessons that are just as relatable and sweet as the moment of bonding between father and son that wrapped up the first “LEGO Movie.”
While fans are bound to debate which “LEGO Movie” is better, there’s no question that the computer animation is just as impressive if not better than the original. That’s because like the first film, the characters come to life in static-like motion reminiscent of stop-motion animation, one of the most under-appreciated art forms in the movie business. Maintaining that style is clearly important to Lord, Miller and Mitchell, though, which is likely why they hired “Robot Chicken” alum Trisha Gum as their animation director to keep the film’s raw but impressive animation sensibilities in place. For the third “LEGO Movie” in a row – “The LEGO Batman Movie” was released in-between — the characters and the vistas are visually stunning. In fact, calling “The Second Part” awesome is almost an understatement.
Lammometer: 8 (out of 10)
Tim Lammers reviews movies weekly for The KQ92 Morning Show,” “KARE 11 News at 11” (NBC), WCCO Radio, WJON-AM, KLZZ-FM, “The Tom Barnard Podcast” and “The BS Show” with Bob Sansevere.
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