Blasting out of the blocks, Lego 2 is a a non-stop riot
The Lego Movie 2 (U) Verdict: Relentlessly zany ★★★✩✩ Alita: Battle Angel (12A) Verdict: Overlong dystopian fantasy ★★★✩✩
FIVE years have passed since The Lego Movie came out, and dismantled brick by brick the cynicism of those who expected it to be the very definition of cinematic product placement and not much more. It was a blast.
This follow-up, directed by Mike Mitchell, lacks the element of surprise, but, as written once more by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, is even more relentlessly zany.
It weaves an imaginary Lego universe out of the idea that Finn (Jadon Sand) fears his model-making is threatened by his younger sister Bianca (Brooklynn Prince, the sensational young actress from 2017’s The Florida Project). Bianca keeps destroying his fun.
And their mother (Maya Rudolph) can’t bear them squabbling.
Bianca is duly represented by pastel- coloured alien monsters led by General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) and made out of Duplo, the girly version (at least as Finn sees it) of Lego. There follows a dizzying sci-fi Lego v Duplo extravaganza, in which sweet-natured Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) finds that his beloved home town has become Apocalypseburg, and he is too nice to prosper there.
The song from the first movie, Everything Is Awesome, has become Everything’s Not Awesome, and he has to learn nastiness from a bristle- chinned buccaneer called Rex Dangervest (also Pratt).
Emmet’s friend Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) wants him to man up, too. Yet there’s no one manlier than Batman (Will Arnett), and it seems that not even he can avoid ‘Our-momageddon’ (the imaginary equivalent of Finn’s mother ordering the children to clear all their toys away).
There are some terrific jokes, snappy oneliners and a stellar voice cast also including Bruce Willis (as himself in Lego form), Ralph Fiennes, Margot Robbie, Gal Gadot, Jonah Hill and Will Ferrell, who again doubles as the children’s useless father.
But the movie is such a non- stop assault on the eyes and ears that it’s not merely a challenge to keep up with everything that’s going on, but a headache.
ThERE is more sci-fi madness and mayhem in
Alita: Battle Angel, a hybrid of live action and CGI set in the 26th century, directed by Quentin Tarantino protégé
Robert Rodriguez and co-written by none other than James Cameron. Unsurprisingly, restraint is conspicuously absent, especially in terms of the running-time: a bum-numbing two hours and 22 minutes.
The title character (Rosa Salazar) is a bigeyed android, rescued from a rubbish dump by a brilliant surgeon (Christoph Waltz) and given the prosthetic body he designed for his disabled (but sadly murdered) daughter.
Somewhere in Alita’s memory banks, though, lurks the instinct to fight like an Amazon warrior. Why? Where does she come from? And whose head will she stove in next?
A decent cast also features Mahershala Ali and Jennifer Connelly, the special effects are excellent, but this level of dystopian violence should not be rewarded with a 12A rating.