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Tuesday, April 14, 2020

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

"You are so handsome!"
"And you are very... perceptive."

The town of Bricksburg is destroyed by the Duplo aliens.  To survive, the people become darker and hardened.  Five years later, they have renamed the town Apocalypseburg and avoid building anything shiny.  Emmet (Pratt) still thinks everything can be awesome, but no one else agrees with his optimism.  He also has a dream about armamageddon and the devastation it will bring.

Invaders from the Systar System attack and General Mayhem (Beatriz) kidnaps Emmett's friends: Wyldstyle (Banks), Batman (Arnett), Benny (Day), Unikitty (Brie), and MetalBeard (Offerman).  Emmett vows to save his friends, but no one else is willing to help.  He builds a ship and flies into the dangerous Stairgate.  He is saved from a deadly collision with an asteroid by Rex Dangervest (Pratt), a rugged adventurer with a dark past and a crew of dinosaurs.  Rex agrees to help Emmet find and rescue his friends.

Meanwhile, his friends meet Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi (Haddish).  The Queen offers everyone their deepest desires, but Wyldstyle is convinced that she has nefarious plans.  Wyldstyle things the Queen is brainwashing everyone.  Can Emmet and Wyldstyle save their friends?


This film is the sequel to The Lego Movie (2014) and picks up immediately after the events of that film.

The Good:
I came into this film with high expectations since The Lego Movie and The Lego Batman Movie were so well done.  I thought the film was good, but I didn't love it.  The new characters added some charm and worked in the Lego world.  Tiffany Haddish is great as Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi and easily skirts the line between evil and funny.  Richard Ayoade is her assistant Ice Cream Cone and Ben Schwartz is her jester as Banarnar.

The Bad:
The message feels clunkier in this film.  They are trying to keep the feeling of the first film, while still doing something new...

Other Comments:
-The catchy song "Everything is Awesome" from the first film returns here in different form.  They try to recreate the magic with "Catchy Song."
-Jon Lajoie wrote most of the songs that appear in the film, all are catchy and infectious: "Catchy Song" and "Not Evil" are the standouts.
-The film did not do as well as it's predecessor and Warner Bros. decided to end their  Lego franchise.  Universal Studios now owns the film rights to Lego.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019) 107 minutes
Director: Mike Mitchell
Starring: Chris Pratt as Emmet Brickowski / Rex Dangervest
Elizabeth Banks as Lucy / Wyldstyle
Will Arnett as Batman
Tiffany Haddish as Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi
Stephanie Beatriz as General Mayhem
Charlie Day as Benny
Alison Brie as Unikitty
Nick Offerman as MetalBeard

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