The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (2019)
PG | 1h 47min | Animation, Action, Adventure | 8 February 2019 (USA)

Synopsis: It’s been five years since everything was awesome and the citizens are facing a huge new threat: Lego Duplo invaders from outer space, wrecking everything faster than they can rebuild.

Review: I love Legos. No other toy is as creative, versatile, and generation gap bridging. I will spend hours in the Lego store just drooling and dreaming. So it seems I would enjoy the Lego films. Yet there is something sort of lacking in them. I am not sure hat it is. The films have humor and so many Lego references. The pop culture one liners give the adults plenty to giggle at. The animation is spot on and you can never see the strings – unless they want you to – or the man behind the curtain. But something is just lost on me and I am not the only one. As my 6 year old, who also love Legos, sat and watched the first Lego movie in preparation for this one he turned to me about 15 minutes in and said, “this is boring”. And I think he is right. They are sometimes boring in spite of the action.

In this one we find everything not so awesome as Emmet (Chris Pratt) and his friends live in a colorless, violent world due to the invasion and threatened re-attack of the Duplo invaders. When one of their enemy spaceships captures Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) and several other of Emmet’s friends it is up to him to rescue them and become the hero he desires.

Emmet and Lacy must face off against a Duplo world led by Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish) who intends to enslave their friends and even marry one. Will this union bring about peace as the Queen promises or finally destroy the Legos all together? It’s hard to tell who to trust and who to kick to the curb.

I do appreciate the creative writing of the Lego films and how they can turn everyday items into something completely different simply by changing the emphasis of a syllable. This one incorporates the family from the first Lego film and manages to even pull a few heart strings along the way.

Fans of Lego Batman will be happy in this one as he once again is front and center. Other characters make a quick appearance but then slowly fade into the background. I would have enjoyed seeing more of the Justice League characters or, to be honest , less of the power due of Lucy and Emmet. I feel like we got hat we needed in the first one and this one was just a chance to milk the characters for more.

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is rated PG for some rude humor. It is certainly family friendly and if you were ok with the content of the past there is nothing to worry about here. There is a lot more singing and mind numbing tunes but the fact they actually make fun of it while they are doing it helps soften the blow. I wish I knew why I didn’t enjoy these films more. Maybe it is because all I can think about while watching the film is how much I want to go play with the real thing.