Lego’s timely message
The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part (PG ,107 mins)
Directed by Mike Mitchell Reviewed by James Croot ★★★★
The residents of Bricksburg had been warned. While some feared the arrival of Duplo characters into their city, Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt) believed they were ‘‘just as special as we are’’.
In shunning these outsiders, it only encouraged them to foster illfelling and they kept returning to take or destroy bright and shiny things that caught their eye. Even the Justice League were powerless against them.
Fast-forward five years and Bricksburg is now a postapocalyptic wasteland. While Emmet hasn’t lost hope that everything can be awesome again, he does worry about the future.
That’s not helped by the arrival of a strange intergalactic traveller from the Systar System.
Seeking an audience with Bricksburg’s ‘‘leader’’, they then proceed to kidnap their best and brightest –Unikitty, Spaceman, Batman and Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks).
Desperate to get them back, Emmet launches a daring mission but has to be rescued himself when he runs afoul of an asteroid field. His saviour? Rex Dangerverst (Pratt again) – a ‘‘galaxy-defending archaeologist, cowboy and raptor trainer’’.
But even their combined forces may not be enough to stop Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi’s (Tiffany Haddish) lavish plans and the everincreasing threat of Armageddon. Those who thought the first
Lego Movie was a little too freewheeling and anarchic for its own good, be warned – things get even wackier this time around.
I can guarantee there won’t be too many other movies you’ll see this year that include a wedding between a superhero and a shapeshifting horse, cameos by Bruce Willis, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and, um, Barry Poppins and nods to everything from Radiohead to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The story’s downbeat nature may also be a little too intense for some littlies, especially when many of the jokes seem aimed more at the adults in the audience (‘‘No one’s tying down this Batman Forever,’’ one of many lines clearly aimed at those familiar with 1980s and 90s pop-culture).
Having said that though, there’s plenty of visual laughs to back up the rapid-fire verbals and a surprisingly poignant and timely message at the heart of Mike Mitchell’s (Trolls) movie.
If the first instalment was about everything being cool ‘‘when you’re part of a team’’, returning screenwriters Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and newbie Matthew Fogel (Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son) this time focus on inclusion, sibling rivalry and mutual assured destruction.
While parents of warring children will hope their charges take note, it’s likely to also strike a chord in post March 15 New Zealand.
Serious undertones aside, The
Second Part is also a heck of a lot of fun.
Whether it’s marvelling at the movie’s construction, recognising celebrity voices (which here include everyone from Richard Ayoade to Noel Fielding), or tapping your toes to This Song’s Going To Get Stuck Inside Your Head, this is an animated adventure that demands your attention and doesn’t let it go.
Advance previews of The Lego Movie 2 are taking place in select cinemas this weekend, before the movie opens nationwide on April 11.