Latest entry in franchise doesn’t click like first two
MOVIE REVIEW /
If you’re of a certain age and childless, you might not have the foggiest idea what a Ninjago is.
Apparently, it is both a show and a toy — but that’s as far as I got into the Wikipedia article.
With the wild success of both “The Lego Movie” (2014) and “The Lego Batman Movie,” released earlier this year, it stands to reason that Warner Bros. would strike while the iron is hot and churn out more Lego-themed movies.
The latest, “The Lego Ninjago Movie,” shows — sadly — that super-fun Lego movies can reach the point of diminishing returns.
The genius of “The Lego Movie” and “The Lego Batman Movie” lies in the extremely high joke density of those films, which are thick with verbal and visual gags, nearly overwhelming in their detailed specificity to both the Lego character style and the incredibly rich worlds and mythology created around these little plastic toys.
“Ninjago” — directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan and credited to no fewer than nine screenwriters (including Fisher and Logan) — doesn’t quite maintain the level of mania that make both “Movie” and “Batman” deliriously fun.
Signaled by the vintage WB logo at the beginning, and a live-action opening featuring Jackie Chan as a kindly shop owner telling the story of Lloyd and Ninjago to a young patron, “The Lego Ninjago Movie” is inspired by 1970s kung fu and monster movies.
The young hero, Lloyd (Dave Franco), is a forlorn teenager in the seaside city of Ninjago, leading a secret double life as both the muchmaligned son of evil villain Garmadon (Justin Theroux) and the Green Ninja of the ninja crew that saves the city from Garmadon’s destruction. Think of the ninja crew like the Power Rangers: these teens have different colors, different powers, and ride around in giant animalshaped robots fighting Garmadon and his army.
Lloyd is just a sensitive kid with daddy issues, and, therefore, he overcompensates a bit.
During a battle, he accidentally unleashes a terrifying monster — a furry feline creature named Meow-thra (a live housecat, batting Ninjago around like a ball of yarn). With his posse of ninja buddies, under the guidance of their sensei, Mr. Liu (Chan), Lloyd sets out on an adventure to retrieve a super-special weapon to stop Meow-thra. There’s just one wrinkle — his overbearing blow-hard of an evil dad joins them on the trip.
“Lego Ninjago” maintains the silly and irreverent tone of the previous films, and the other ninjas are voiced with great personality by comic stars Kumail Nanjiani, Abbi Jacobson, Zach Woods, Fred Armisen, and Michael Pena.
What doesn’t quite work is the emotional story between Lloyd and Garmadon as they get to know and accept each other — which serves the Directed by Charlie Bean, Paul Fisher and Bob Logan.
PG (for some mild action and rude humor) 1:40 at the Columbus 10 at Westpointe, Crosswoods, Dublin Village 18, Easton 30, Gateway, Georgesville Square 16, Grove City 14, Lennox 24, Movies 16 Gahanna, Movies 11 at Mill Run, Pickerington, Polaris 18, River Valley, Screens at the Continent theaters and the South drive-in
heart of this tale.
If the story within your film requires a lot of emotional expression, it might not work best with characters that have flat round plastic heads and painted-on features.
Some aspects of the film are quite entertaining. Garmadon is a great character, especially as voiced by Theroux (his pronunciation of Lloyd as “Luh-Loyd” doesn’t get old).
“Lego Ninjago” is a light, serviceable romp around the Legos, but it doesn’t come close to the high-key antics of the first two movies in the series.