The Lego Movie is a difficult one to follow up. The film was a surprise smash hit that produced an incredibly well-received song, and was praised for its animation style and quick-witted humor, with a plot twist that gave it a much deeper meaning. No one was expecting it to catch on as much as it did. But, when it did see release, a sequel was inevitable. Though it was faced with an incredibly difficult challenge: The first film was so ambitious that the second had to find a way to outdo it. And the film does make a valiant effort, leading to another very entertaining entry into the franchise. Though unfortunately, its attempts to outdo the first movie ultimately lead to it being weaker than its predecessor.
Picking up immediately where the first film left off, the Lego world is invaded by Duplo aliens, which in the real world translates to Bianca, the younger sister of Finn who owns the Bricksburg Legos, has combined her Legos with Finn’s, and has in turn dominated the play-set. Five years later, Lucy eventually takes some of Finn’s toys upstairs, which translates to Bricksburg being turned into Apocalypseburg and an alien invasion taking many of Bricksburg’s most notable residents, including Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) and Batman (Will Arnett), among others. So Emmett (Chris Pratt), the overly-optimistic protagonist of the first movie, works to infiltrate the alien’s spaceship to rescue his friends from their leader Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish), along with help from a space traveler named Rex Dangerfest (also Chris Pratt). All the while, Finn tries to get his toys back from Bianca in the real world.
The references to the real world - ironically, one of the first film’s strongest elements - are ultimately the film’s biggest issue. The first film’s reveal that Bricksburg was actually a set of children’s toys was a well-executed plot twist. We weren’t made aware of this until the end of the movie, and it ended up really brought up some great themes of the importance of family. The film also never really pumped the brakes to place an extended focus on these sequences, as the film would only briefly cut away to a live-action Will Ferrell as the Man Upstairs and his son Finn, and then quickly go back to the animated Bricksburg.
The second film, in an attempt to go even further with this concept, constantly cuts back and forth between the animated sequences and the real world. And the live-action sequences aren’t necessarily outright bad - though it does completely underuse the talented Maya Rudolph as the Man Upstairs’ wife, while Will Ferrell is only heard off-screen - but they easily take the audience out of the moment. While the animated sequences begin to build a solid amount of suspense with moments such as Lucy and the gang try escaping the aliens, or Emmett and Rex trying to plan the rescue mission - we’ll suddenly pause to see what’s going on with Finn and Bianca, and stay on those scenes for a bit longer than we saw them in the first movie.
The live-action sequences are well-intentioned, but the issue is they’re a total change of pace from the animated sequence. What made the first film so refreshingly enjoyable is how manically fast-paced it was, with a “joke-a-minute” feel while still expertly weaving in an enjoyable message that appeals to all ages. In the sequel, the tone of the animated sequences is wildly different than the tone of the live-action sequences. The Finn and Bianca moments are full of much more schmaltz than they had in the first film, and don’t add anything new to say in terms of the message sent by this movie’s predecessor. They’re meant to touch upon themes of family once more, but while the first film used the real world to develop a clever metaphor, this go-around is nowhere near as creative in its approach.
Even when we do get to some of the animated sequences, they don’t exactly work nearly as well as the they did in the first film. Another recurring theme throughout the film is that people grow up, mature, and begin to take life more seriously. Emmett is the only character with pretty much the exact same personality as he had in the first, still just as optimistic as the world around him is crumbling. Many of the film’s supporting characters do their best to convince him he needs to grow up and stop being so happy. This does make for a hilarious sequence towards the beginning of the film, where Emmett attempts to brood in the vein of Christopher Nolan’s iteration of Batman, only to sound totally unconvincing. However, beyond this, much of the film is dedicated to trying to change Emmett, who wants to mature along with everyone else, but finds himself having a difficult time compromising some of his core beliefs.
And while the film does do a solid job maturing Emmett without totally changing him, this does bring up a huge gripe that’s similar to other films recently released that do something incredibly similar to this, such as Glass and Mary Poppins Returns. This is a sequel that takes the magic of its predecessor and directly states in its dialogue how it’s trying to just do away with that magic. While it’s completely understandable that no movie with creative aspirations looks to just rehash something that was previously done, at the same time, it shouldn’t exactly compromise what made its predecessor work so well in the first place. While characters should grow, they shouldn’t just completely throw out everything they’ve learned the last time we saw them. And while this movie ultimately doesn’t go down this route, unlike the other two movies I mentioned, it does make various attempts to throughout the movie.
When this movie does get into its groove though, it does work. While it’s nowhere near as consistently fast-paced as the first film was, it still has plenty of moments that are incredibly hilarious. The first movie’s writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller co-wrote this script as well (though they did not direct this time around) and when they give themselves the opportunity to just let loose with their quick-witted humor, the film is a riot. The “laugh-a-minute” moments don’t take up the entire movie like they did in the first, but they still take up a considerable amount of time between some of the film’s shakier moments, and do manage to pick things back up when it almost loses our attention.
And once again, the visuals are absolutely incredible, with these being one of the biggest improvements from the first film. With the introduction of the Duple Legos, this allows for some wild mashups of all different sorts of scenarios. Some of these, such as the town that many of Brickstown’s abducted residents wind up living in, are absolutely gorgeous and full of eye-popping bright colors. Others, such as the weird creations made from combining the Duplos with some normal Lego figures, make for some truly strange and really unique creations.
The voice work is once again phenomenal, with the only disappointment being the reduced role of Will Ferrell as Lord Business, as well as the total absence of Liam Neeson as Good Cop/Bad Cop and Morgan Freeman as Vitruvius, all of whom were fantastic in the first film. Yet, Chris Pratt is better than ever here, and the film also manages to serve as a metaphor for how much the once-goofy Parks and Recreation actor has grown since the first film. His dual role of Rex allows him to hilariously lampoon his roles in films such as Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, while also getting in some solid jabs at the “time travel genre,” mocking films like Back to the Future and Terminator.
Will Arnett is still absolutely hilarious as Batman, and the addition of his Lego Batman co-star Ralph Fiennes, reprising his role as Alfred was a nice addition, even though it would have been great to see more of him. Elizabeth Banks once again provides solid support, constantly trying to reason out some of the film’s more ridiculous statements, which make for some solid banter, such as the aforementioned attempts at brooding. The best addition is Tiffany Haddish as the Queen, who easily has the wildest energy among all the cast, with her scenes attempting to outdo the manic pace of the first film. And she even gets in a really solid music sequence that ended up being one of the film’s highlights.
The Lego Movie 2 isn’t as strong as the first film, but it’s still a very enjoyable time. It can be problematic as it overdoes how much time we cut away to the real world, and it does attempt to remove some of the magic that made the first film work so well. However, when the film works, it’s on point, with a really solid voice cast, excellent visuals, and some hilarious banter. Everything may not be as awesome this time around, but it’s still a great time.
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