The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part - Everything Is NOT Awesome!!!

When The LEGO Movie first dropped in 2014, the movie turned out to be surprisingly good in spite of its early previews. Though a sequel was inevitable, two spin-offs had been released in the interim in 2017, The LEGO Batman Movie and The LEGO Ninjago Movie, the former of which I also enjoyed and the latter I skipped and turned out to not do too well with audiences. Upon the release of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part, the box office returns opening day didn’t give me high hopes for the overall quality of it, however I did at least expect it to be an enjoyable film, if not closer to the original in entertainment value. Upon actually getting to see the movie, it unfortunately wasn’t that hard to see why it was failing.

After the end of the original movie, Emmet (Chris Pratt) makes a peace offering with the DUPLO aliens, however this offering ends up getting destroyed. Five years later, Bricksburg has become Apocalypseburg, where everyone tries to avoid building cool things lest they attract the attention of the DUPLO aliens. Emmet, who somehow manages to remain optimistic in the post-apocalypse, builds a house anyway. This attracts the attention of General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz), who destroys the house and takes away Wyldstyle, Unikitty, Benny, Batman and Metalbeard. Emmet then rebuilds the destroyed house so that it can fly and chases after General Mayhem, along the way trying to figure out to toughen up because of something Wyldstyle (Elizabeth Banks) said.

The animation is still impressive as it was in the first LEGO Movie, evoking the feel of stop-motion as well as exploiting the potential play patterns of LEGO for all they’re worth. That said, much like The LEGO Batman Movie, a number of special effects that the original cleverly recreated in LEGO are instead rendered in particle effects, which seems to stray a bit from the whole point of the LEGO aesthetic, though I suspect this may have been done solely to save time on rendering. I was, however, impressed by the animation of the character Queen Watevra Wa'Nabi, as she constantly and seamlessly changes her appearance while still retaining the same color pool of LEGO bricks.

Aside from the voice acting, this is about the highest praise I can give the movie. To clarify, the story wasn’t too bad and it has some really good messages, however the execution was a little lackluster; out of a group of myself and three other family members, I was the only one who managed to successfully resist the temptation to fall asleep. The humor is well-paced and there are some chuckle-worthy moments, however compared to the first one, the humor was a bit more on-the-nose, as were a number of forced cameos and references, and overall it felt like the sequel was trying too hard in capturing lightning in a bottle a second time. The film also features an attempt at having its own “Everything Is Awesome!!!”, the appropriately named “Catchy Song”, as a plot point; while the song is, indeed, catchy, it didn’t stay in my head the same way “Everything Is Awesome!!!” did.

The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part isn’t a terrible movie, however you should not go into this expecting the same magic as the original. The animation is spectacular, especially concerning one of the more important characters, however the story was bogged down by a number of things that made it more boring than it should’ve been. If you do, however, still wish to see this film, you are free to do so, so long as you watch The LEGO Movie first. Also, some throwaway dialogue confirms The LEGO Batman Movie as canon, meaning we now know where The LEGO Ninjago Movie stands in the franchise.

The LEGO Movie - Everything Is Awesome!!!

LEGO has been a big part of growing up for me, as I would play with various sets a lot, and I would even play some LEGO games on PC (and, later, other systems). While LEGO has become less a part of my life over time, I still like seeing well-crafted LEGO creations and certain available sets pique my interest. The closest I have come to actually playing with them again lately is through Hasbro’s Kre-O Transformers sets, but we’re not here to talk about the competition; we’re talking about LEGO here. With my history with LEGO in mind, I was surprised to learn about The LEGO Movie through a trailer. I wasn’t sure about seeing it at first, but after the movie’s premiere, I decided I needed to see it after hearing about its positive reception, in addition to it seeming like a movie people would be talking about. While my experience with the movie wasn’t exactly the best (I don’t think the theater I went to had the movie loud enough), I nevertheless ended up enjoying it.

The movie begins with Lord Business (Will Ferrell) attempting to get his hands on a weapon known as the Kragle as a wizard named Vitruvius (Morgan Freeman) tries to stop him. Vitruvius is blinded by Lord Business in the process, allowing Business to get away with the weapon, but Vitruvius suddenly states a prophecy about the “Special” who will stop Business’ plans using an item called the Piece of Resistance. Not believing him, Lord Business kicks Vitruvius down a chasm. 8 ½ years later, in the city of Brickberg, ruled by President Business (Will Ferrell), an ordinary construction worker named Emmet Brickowski (Chris Pratt) goes about his day by following instructions along with everyone else in the city, though while the instructions mention spending time with others who care about him, it becomes evident that he is, in fact, a rather lonely individual. After the construction site Emmet works at has closed for the day, he sees a hooded figure digging through the site. When he is about to report them according to instructions, Emmet sees the figure is a woman and hesitates; Emmet then chases after her as she begins to leave, causing him to fall into a pit. After he lands, he sees a strange red object and, not knowing what instructions say, gives into his temptation to touch it, causing him to see a strange vision. Soon afterwards, Emmet wakes up in a strange room where he is interrogated, causing him to find out more than he ever knew about President Business and what he has just gotten himself into.

I wish not to delve too much into the movie itself, especially in regards to the story, since doing so will create major spoilers about what happens, although I will say that the story is actually pretty well-written and was better than I expected it to be. The animation of the movie is very interesting, in that it is done in CG while still (rather realistically) styled as if it was in stop-motion. This is especially amazing since everything is made up of LEGO bricks and accessories, which leads to a lot of very impressive effects and some creative use of the LEGO setting (I am not spoiling how). The voice acting is also good, with every voice actor displaying a good range of emotion and helping their respective character stand out and become memorable (they are also really good at bringing out certain emotions in you at times). The music also helps with this and is really good in general, including the song “Everything Is Awesome!!!” by Tegan and Sara with The Lonely Island, which is a very catchy song and will not leave your head for a while after you hear it.

The LEGO Movie is not only a good LEGO movie, it is also a great movie in general. The visuals are very interesting to look at, the story and characters are written well, and the movie gets really creative with its setting, which can lead to a great deal of hilarity at times. LEGO fans will definitely have a good time with this, no matter their age or reason for watching it. Even if you’re not a big fan of LEGO, just watching the movie may make you want to play with a set or two afterwards. My experience with the movie probably wasn’t the best, so I will likely be trying to watch it again on home video to make sure I catch everything, but despite that I had a really good time with it and I wouldn’t mind wanting to see it again. In short, as the movie says, everything is awesome.