TAS Reviews: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Despite my love for the first LEGO Movie, my expectations for it's predecessor were lukewarm at best. I wasn't sure if they could catch lighting in a bottle twice, and without Phil Lord and Chris Miller in the directorial chairs, I feared the sequel would be a pale imitation of the first Lego Movie: all the self-referential humour, all the running gags and all the visuals, but none of the depth, heart and cleverness that elevated the first movie from an entertaining but empty movie, into an excellent one. Because regardless of how endearing you might find the LEGO brand of humour, it's the mixture of the humour and the heart that made the first movie work so well. To my surprise, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part not only doubles down on the self-referential humour, running gag and visuals, it also tells a story with enough heart and depth to rival the original.
Toward the end of the first LEGO movie, it is revealed that the LEGO characters are, as a matter of fact, being played and controlled by a little kid in his bedroom. Whilst an amusing reveal at the time, I feared this would detract from my immersion and investment in The LEGO Movie 2's story and characters: "if these are just toys being controlled by a kid whose dad is Will Ferrell, why should I give a damn?!" Instead of letting this detract from the film, or worst, using that aspect as a gimmick, writers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, and director Mike Mitchell, instead double down on it, bringing in the sister of the child character to play as well, and using it as an opportunity to tell a compelling, heartfelt story about the importance of embracing emotions instead of secluding them, and the perils of telling others, or being told to, "put on a tough act." I love how the narrative occurring in the LEGO universe paralleled the real-life events in the movie with the brother and sister.
Being told to "toughen up" or "to just put on a smile and pretend everything is ok" is a universal experience we can all relate to, and The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part tells a universal story with a profound message of the importance of embracing our emotions, and how neglecting them can misguide us, and even lead us to greater peril at times. Thematically, it isn't unlike a Marvel movie that dropped this week - both films explore protagonists who are told to suppress their emotions - but I thought The LEGO Movie 2 had a much better exploration of these themes. I was impressed by how thorough it was, and how ingrained this theme is into every corner of the movie's story.
Your enjoyment of the humour in this movie will depend largely on your enjoyment of the LEGO brand of humour. You know what type of humour to expect, and it's exactly what you get. I didn't "laugh" at anything, and although I chuckled a few times, I've accepted I'm not the target audience of this humour, and it's unlikely that any of these movies will have me rolling on the floor laughing. The good thing about this movie is that it doesn't NEED to have you on the floor laughing, though.
The humour here is used as a storytelling device, to highlight the absurdity of the things people tell you to do to cover your emotions, and to contributes to the overall likeable tone. That said, even though nothing here had my stomach aching with laughter, Lord and Miller expectedly pepper a great deal of clever writing throughout, and there is one fantastic running gag involving a particular actor.
This movie also succeeds in large part due it's succesful story. As much as Into The Spider-Verse is praised for being a incredible animation movie, and I enjoyed that movie, I honestly found this movie had a superior, more interesting, varied story with a great deal of personality, a satisfying pace that keeps things moving fast, but not too fast, and a series of well-placed twists and reveals, all of which are earned, justified, and help the movie tell the story and explore the themes it needed to.
The Lego Movie 2 has an ensemble of characters, and I was delighted by how adequately each was explored and expanded. Emmett and Wyldstyle in particular, voiced to perfection once again by Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks, are given greater depth and development, enriching our love for these characters and their interpersonal relationships. Even Batman gets a storyline. The film introduces a series of new characters, such as Rex, Tiffany Haddish's Queen Watevra and General Sweet Mayhem. I was impressed by how each of these characters, even those who initially appear to be surface level, revealed a greater level of depth underneath, with each character helping expand the movie's themes in unexpected ways.
One thing I love about the LEGO format is how it can be used to stylishly enhance the movie with visual comedy, eccentricities and quirks. For instance, there is a scene where a character is being broody, and another is being everything but broody. When the camera pans to the latter character talking, the movie has it's colorful colour palette, and when it cuts to the broody character talking, the movie becomes monochromatic. This is just one demonstration of how stylish this movie is, and how the LEGO format and wide colour range in this movie is used effectively as a storytelling device.
I mentioned earlier that the movie leans into the twist of the first movie, which is that these characters are toys being controlled by a human being, but I'm really confused about the logic of this universe, and whether these characters are normal toys completely lacking in sentience, or if they're Toy Story-like toys with their own sentience who are able to move and talk on their own. The movie blurs the line quite a bit, and I would've loved to get a solid, consistent explanation.
Conclusion
I went into this movie cautiously excited. I was expecting to have a good time, but I wasn't expecting the movie to be anywhere near is good as the first one. Well, I can honestly say that although The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part doesn't top the first movie's quality by a wide margin, it does come damn close. I'll need to rewatch the first movie, but this is more or less as good as the first one, if not for the surprise and novelty of the first movie. In the event of sequels, particularly comedy sequels, I'm often worried it will become a surface-level imitation of the first movie, without capturing the heart that made the first work so well. But with The Lego Movie 2, Lord, Miller and Mitchell have crafted a sequel that feels entirely organic, capturing what made the first work so well, while expanding on the world and the characters. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loved the first movie.
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