In 2014 The Lego Movie came out of no-where and wowed audiences, not only with it’s beautiful animation but with a sharply written and heartfelt script from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller that made it one of the year’s funniest films.
It raked it in at the box office and a sequel was all but inevitable, and five years later we pick up where the first film left and re-join the awesome characters from the original but does lightning strike twice?
In short, no, almost all of the magic of the first film is lost here, what little story there is doesn’t feel cohesive and instead we seem to be expected to laugh at a series of lazy pop culture references that have zero relevance to the story, seeing a Lego version of John McClane might be cool but the cameos are thrown around with no subtlety at all, the original wasn’t shy with them either but they didn’t feel cheap or jarring in the way that they do here.
Its like everything that the original got right, this gets wrong, the music isn’t catchy and the jokes don’t often land. The twist of the first film with Lord Business being the kids’ father anchored the story well and an otherwise light-hearted adventure became a surprisingly poignant film, the filmmakers try a similar trick here but it just doesn’t work anywhere near as well. The live action scenes feel half-hearted and a tacked on after thought rather than being integral to the story.
The cast try their best and Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks are once again likeable and this time round are joined by the always watchable Tiffany Haddish but even their combined charisma can’t make this lacklustre script any livelier.
The visuals at least stand up and once again the film looks fantastic, the Mad Max-esque post-apocalyptic setting is fun and certainly lends itself well to being toyed with by Lego. The magical feel of the CG animation hasn’t lost its charm either, there are once again times when you’ll struggle to believe you are not watching actual Lego bricks animated by stop motion.
But that’s as far as the positives go, if you were cynical about the original then all your worst fears will come true here, this feels about as lazy and cash grabbing as a sequel can get.
Everything is not Awesome.
Author: Paul, Bath store
