Series missing crucial pieces
The Lego Ninjago Movie (U) ●●● ●● From Batman to ninjas, the big screen Lego universe is expanding into all sorts of colourful, intriguing directions – which isn’t surprising given the unrestrictive catalogue of characters and genres open to the building-block brand.
What is more of a shock, though, is that the creativity on display seems to be diminishing with each film as Ninjago is a notch below the Batman adventure from earlier this year, itself a downgrade from the universe-launching Lego Movie.
Perhaps one of the main issues with this latest entry in the series is the presence of a trio of directors – all three making their movie debuts and two helming their first ever project – and no fewer than nine – yes, nine! – writers collaborating on the story and screenplay.
Never mind too many cooks spoiling the broth, this many people throwing ideas into the mix give this concoction the flavour of sixmonth-old milk.
The gist of the story sees high school students Lloyd (Dave Franco), Jay (Kumail Nanjiani), Kai (Michael Peña), Cole (Fred Armisen), Zane (Zach Woods) and Nya (Abbi Jacobson) having to use their ninja skills to defend their Ninjago island home from a host of villains and monsters.
The juggling-heroics-with-studies template was already done to much better effect in this summer’s Spider-Man: Homecoming and the superhero team-up hijinks are too reminiscent of The Lego Batman Movie.
Our young ninjas do make for good company, however, and there’s an ace voice appearance from martial arts legend Jackie Chan as beardy sensei Master Wu.
Justin Theroux’s raspy vocal chords are put to good use as the evil Garmadon, whose affection for basing his operations from within a volcano would see him fit in well in an old-school Bond flick.
It’s also neat seeing Lloyd and his buddies fending off evildoers using a cornucopia of hand-to-hand combat and powers influenced by the elements.
But the indelible, seemingly limitless, visual brilliance and emotional kick of the first Lego Movie isn’t matched by anything on screen here and, as a result, Ninjago feels more like it belongs alongside the brand’s many straightto-DVD tales rather than being gifted a home on the big screen.
There is the odd moment of creative genius – not least a fun end credits montage aping Chan’s action reputation – and it’s amiable and distracting enough that you’ll sit fairly comfortably throughout.
Kids are sure to lap it up too, but it’s just a shame that a franchise that started off like a house on fire is rapidly falling apart at the seams.
Let’s hope a return to the original magic in 2019’s The Lego Movie Sequel can put more solid foundations in place for the series’ future.