REVIEW: The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Before the release of The Lego Movie in early 2014, many were expecting the worst. Sure, it seems hard to believe now. But at the time, it hit theaters after a bunch of terrible Transformers movies and a bizarre adaptation of Battleship that decided a popular naval board game needed aliens. Heaven only knows, some viewers thought, how awful a film about building blocks would be.

Imagine the pleasant shock when it turned out to be legitimately great and a massive box office success. The story was smart and insightful, the degree of difficulty cemented Phil Lord and Christopher Miller as miracle workers, and Chris Pratt’s endearing vocal performance as the sweet, dimwitted Emmet helped establish him as one of the biggest movie stars in the world.

I don’t think anyone would’ve faulted the creative team for quitting while they were ahead, but instead they pivoted to 2017’s outstanding The Lego Batman Movie, a spinoff that brought the scene-stealing Dark Knight (Will Arnett) into the spotlight and turned out to be one of the best incarnations of the character.

Now, Lord and Miller are rolling the dice yet again with The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part. I won’t argue it’s a necessary continuation, especially since it gets off to an ominously sluggish start. However, it ultimately justifies its existence thanks to a lot of fun rapid-fire jokes, some clever narrative turns in the second half, a killer soundtrack and a glorious recurring cameo that made me cackle every time the character popped up on screen.

Picking up immediately after the original, this follow-up reveals what happens when Emmet, Batman, Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), Unikitty (Alison Brie) and the rest of the gang encounter cute-but-destructive Duplo space invaders. After a city-ending catastrophe, the story jumps ahead five years to find the characters living in a world not unlike Mad Max: Fury Road.

Things get even worse when the Duplo aliens kidnap everyone except Emmet, leaving him to attempt an intergalactic rescue all by himself. His friends find themselves on a strange planet ruled by Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish), whose mysterious plot involves convincing Batman to marry her and winning everyone else over to her side with a series of catchy musical numbers.

Meanwhile, Emmet crosses paths with Rex Dangervest (also Pratt), an astronaut-raptor trainer-adventurer who is in no way a parody of the actor who voices him, I’m sure. Rex is everything Emmet wishes he could be, so when the two join forces to rescue the others, Emmet must decide whether it’s better to be himself or act like his new friend.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of The Lego Movie 2 is that it allows Lord and Miller (who only wrote the screenplay and produced this time around, with Mike Mitchell taking over directing duties) to expand the scope of this imaginary world and play with the rules a bit more. The narrative stakes took on greater dimensions at the end of the first installment with the revelation that – SPOILER ALERT – Emmet, Lucy, Batman, the other Lego characters were playing out adventures in the imagination of a live-action child (Jadon Sand) and his dad (Will Ferrell).

The creative team wisely doesn’t pretend that reveal never happened in order to tell more stories. Instead, they work the live-action world into the stakes of the ongoing main plot. It’s a great way to sustain the audience’s interest, although it also means viewers who are paying attention will immediately figure out what the dreaded “Ar-mom-ageddon” is.

While The Lego Movie 2 is a visual delight, the plot is stuck in neutral for the first half-hour or so, as the world and characters are reintroduced and the stakes are established. It’s also unfortunate that Pratt isn’t nearly as engaged playing Emmet this time around. He seems to be having more fun as Rex, doing a delightfully awful John Wayne impression, but it doesn’t help my fears that he’s becoming typecast.

Fortunately, Pratt’s co-stars pick up the slack. Banks is terrific, as is Arnett (stealing every scene once again), while newcomers like Haddish, Stephanie Beatriz and Richard Ayoade – as a hilariously deadpan ice cream cone – make themselves at home in this crazy world right away. There are also a handful of songs, including an “Everything Is Awesome”-style earworm from Dillon Francis and a new Lonely Island tune during the end credits, that had me searching Apple Music as soon as the movie was over.

All told, The Lego Movie 2 doesn’t live up to the original, but that’s nearly an impossible bar to clear. Considering the massive levels of hype, I’m surprised it turned out to be any good at all. That’s a small victory by itself.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is rated PG for some rude humor.

Grade: B