THE LEGO MOVIE 2

A LIGHTNING bolt fashioned from coloured plastic construction bricks almost strikes twice in The LEGO Movie 2. Set five years after the award-winning first film, Mike Mitchell’s briskly paced, uproarious and imaginative sequel is set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland where plastic characters from the LEGO and Duplo universes live in perpetual conflict. Scriptwriters Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, masterminds of the award-winning 2014 original, show a delightful disregard for convention as they lampoon the Marvel and DC Comics universes and swathes of pop culture. The Twilight saga, velociraptors from Jurassic Park, show-stopping film musicals and John McClane from the Die Hard series (voiced by Bruce Willis with tongue wedged firmly in cheek) provide hearty laughs amid expertly-staged action sequences.

When the Justice League takes flight to repel alien invaders in a breezy prologue and one of the superheroes demands, “Where’s Batman?”, a cohort responds, “He’s off having a standalone adventure.”

Digitally-rendered visuals, which mimic the imperfect movements of stop-motion animation, are laden with in-jokes that demand a second viewing.

Everything Is Awesome, the infectious song which temporarily supplanted Let It Go from Frozen as the soundtrack earworm of despairing parents, gets another airing alongside a new ditty, Catchy Song, which features the chorus: “This song is gonna get stuck inside your head.”

All the favourites from the first movie are there. The relentless good cheer of mini-figure Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) is out of step with Lucy (Elizabeth Banks), who wishes he could be more heroic.

The crazy plot revolves around a plan hatched by Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish), who dispatches her masked envoy General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) to Apocalypseburg to facilitate nuptials with Batman (Will Arnett).

Check out our great competition to win Lego Movie 2 goodies – overleaf.

DAMON SMITH