Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I accuse myself of the following sin; I fell asleep during a screening of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. I am sorry for these sins and all the sins of my whole life.
To say I was excited for the sequel to the incredible The LEGO Movie would be an understatement, but when I took myself to see it in the cinema, I had been up since 4AM, that morning, and had a very busy day at work. I saw the Warner Bros. production logo, and then the credits. Either the theatrical cut of The LEGO Movie 2 was pretty shit, or I zonked out during. I then had to wait roughly four months until I could watch in on Blu-ray.
They say ‘good things come to those who wait’, and I did my waiting, so you do the math.
Set five years after its predecessor, The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part sees Emmet (Chris Pratt) attempt to save his friends – including Wyldstyle, Batman and Unikitty – from… LEGO DUPLO. (It’s not quite zombie-Nazis, but close enough.)
It’s all too easy to suffer from LEGO Movie fatigue – since the original The LEGO Movie, there have been three more main films, as well as two upcoming features. But The LEGO Movie 2 is a nice return, and still maintains all of the humour and comedy of the original. This sequel has jokes for adults and children throughout, and don’t even get me started on the show tunes – I will come back to those if it kills me… But it’s just not as good as the first LEGO outing.
What made The LEGO Movie so special was its shock value. I nearly scooped up all of my plastic buckets of LEGO from the attic and burnt it until it formed a large blob of brown-ish goo, at the mere thought of a full-length LEGO animated picture, when it was first announced. I sneered as the opening credits rolled, and then I was mesmerised by how sharp and witty it was; how creative and whimsical Chris Miller and Phil Lord’s universe was. Naturally, there’s no surprise by watching this one. You know exactly what to expect. In fact, the best part of The LEGO Movie was the film’s twist at the end; where you find out that all of these characters’ actions were just a figment of a child’s imagination.* You’re constantly reminded of that in The LEGO Movie 2, and it loses its charm pretty quickly.
* Don’t come at me moaning about spoilers. If you haven’t seen The LEGO Movie in five years, you never will.
That’s not to say that The LEGO Movie 2 doesn’t pack a pretty important moral. Much like when I first saw Inside Out, it was a welcome surprise to see a children’s animated movie promote such a deep message – in The LEGO Movie 2‘s case, it (quite literally) puts into song and dance about how everything isn’t awesome, and that it can’t be all the time, but you can try and make every day “not bad”. It also spends time to promote sibling love and all that crap. My brother and sister moved out before I was born, so I pretty got whatever I wanted, when I wanted; I need not worry about sharing. Pfft.
There are welcome additions to The LEGO Movie 2‘s character roster, including Rex, who is also played by Chris Pratt. This gun-toting adventurer is as meta as it gets. From Jurassic World to Guardians of the Galaxy, Rex parodies all of Chris’ former characters. Except for Andy Dwyer, because LEGO characters don’t even have shoes to shine. This character is a fantastic inclusion, and there’s something special in seeing Chris Pratt bounce off of Chris Pratt. Tiffany Haddish also joins as the “antagonist”, Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi, who doesn’t really get to show off her comedic chops, unless it’s through song. And then she effin’ kills it.
Speaking of… I can finally come on to the moment I’ve been begging to talk about – the soundtrack. Purple Rain and The Bodyguard can both do one when it comes to soundtracks, as The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part‘s music is fantastic. I’ve downloaded the entire soundtrack and listened to it repeatedly for the past four months. Stand-out songs include Tiffany Haddish’s attempts to convince others that she’s not evil by listing off all of the maniacal things she could do if she were evil, and – of course – Super Cool, by Beck, Robyn and The Lonely Island, which sees them rap about how the credits are the best part of the movie. I fucking stayed sat and watched the credits. I don’t care how much you like movies; no-one does that. Not even the people in the credits watch the credits.
I never thought I’d say this – The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part confused me. Yes, I understand it’s a children’s movie. I know I have the IQ of a walnut. That’s beside the point. There’s a huge subplot about quantum mechanics, and time travel. At points, the LEGO figures move independently – without the imagination of the children. Am I supposed to believe that these minifigures could rise and overthrow humanity? In my opinion, The LEGO Movie 2 briefly lost its way in the final act, and was almost a little too try-hard. I’m a simple man – as I’m often reminded – I would have settled with more quips and tunes.
If I weren’t constantly comparing The LEGO Movie 2 to the 2014 original, I’d say this film was fantastic, hilarious, unbelievable, super cool, outrageous and amazing. But I am comparing it to the 2014 original, which just leaves The LEGO Movie 2 as a very funny, very colourful, very catchy adventure… Which wasn’t quite as good. But is still very good. (I mean, when you fancy Chris Pratt as much as I do, it’s hard to slag off the film.)
Side note: It’s not gay if it’s Chris Pratt.