In 2014, Phil Lord and Chris Miller's The Lego Movie (2014)
was a surprise hit and turned out to be one of the more successful movies of
that year. Prior to that, the Lego brand had delved into motion pictures
before, but none in this fashion. The animation was unique because it was not
completely animated in CGI and the cast of actors assigned to the characters
had a much bigger presence. On top of that, the overall message behind the film
hit most families close to home being that many have experience playing with
the brand before. Shockingly, getting a sequel to the big screen seemed to be the
biggest challenge for the sequel, instead of actually making the sequel itself.
Usually studios want one within two year’s time, but five is unorthodox. And
like most sequels the freshness was not as new but it is still a very good
continuation.
 |
| "Coffee?.....It's Decaf....." |
With story still being written by original directors Chris
Miller and Phil Lord, the story was bound to be handled adequately. The
directing though was handed over to Mike Mitchell, who's mostly known for Sky
High (2005) and Shrek Forever After (2010). Literally five years after the end
of The Lego Movie (2014), what was once Emmet's world is now a dystopian
future. In real life, it was Finn's (Jadon Sand) lego universe being invaded by
his younger sister Bianca (Brooklynn Prince) and her creations. The world
around Emmet (Chris Pratt) has become tougher including his girlfriend Lucy
(Elizabeth Banks), except Emmet has not. When the leader abducts Emmet's
friends, he decides to go after them, only to cross paths with someone who
inspires him to become tougher. His name is Rex Dangervest (also Pratt).
For majority of the film, things remain as they were from
the original movie. All the supporting characters like Batman (Will Arnett),
Benny (Charlie Day), Metalbeard (Nick Offerman) and Unikitty (Alison Brie)
return and continue the charm that made them memorable to begin with. There's
also additions like General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz), Ice Cream Cone (Richard
Ayoade) and Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi (Tiffany Haddish) who come from the universe
Bianca creates with her Legos. Sadly, other characters from the original do not
appear for long like President Business (Will Ferrell) and even Good/Bay Cop
(Liam Neeson). And then there are random cameos like Bruce Willis playing
himself, Jason Momoa playing Aquaman and Will Forte playing Abraham Lincoln.
The parts of the narrative that doesn't work are two things.
First, is the fact that the feud between Finn and Bianca has been active for five
years. That's a long time. The other issue being is the continuity between that
time and how it connects to the plot. In some ways it makes sense, and in other
ways not at all. However, aside from this the rest of the aspects to the film
work really well. The animation still has that stilted look like it was almost
filmed completely in stop-motion animation and yet it still has a natural
visual appeal to it. This also goes for the live-action sequences where the
audience sees how the real life decisions affect the lego universe it pertains
to. Much of which have pretty cute ways of renaming the land that it
references.
 |
| Rex Dangervest |
For camerawork, Chris Ekstein provided his experience to
this. While it wasn't abundant nor was it for long periods of time, the scenes
shot work well with what is shown. For the musical score, Mark Mothersbaugh has
provided his talent to this franchise once more. After creating the score to
the original and to other films like The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017) and Hotel
Transylvania (2012), the music is quite appropriate for this feature too.
Thankfully a score got released for this feature but with even more content
than the last film. This is always a great thing for any film score collector.
And while there are some other songs sung throughout the movie, the most
memorable is the "Catchy Song", which is bound to be one of the most
positive ear worms to date. Nice job Mothersbaugh!
Points Earned --> 8:10
No comments:
Post a Comment