Lego Movie 2 (PG.)
Directed by Mike Mitchell.
Starring Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie and Tiffany Haddish. 107 mins.
Five years ago the whole world embraced the Lego Movie as a brazen assertion of corporate might that was endearing and charming and sly and very funny and able to assemble itself into whatever the viewer wanted it to be. The follow up is ….. still very funny.
The reveal at the end of the first movie was basically that it was all a dream. The whole film had taken place within the imagined universe of a piece of Lego, and the story was its interpretation of the battle between a little boy and his father for the right to play with the latter's precious Lego world, that he had meticulously constructed in his man den. That's a great thing to find out at the end of a movie, not such a great thing to know at the beginning. 2 makes much of the real world dimension of the story. This time the young boy has to battle with his younger sister over access to the Lego. So the happy consumerist utopia of the first film has been replaced by a post-apocalyptic dystopia centred around the Statue of Liberty from the original Planet of the Apes and full of Mad Max Fury Road parodies. Social order has collapsed as they have been menaced by invaders from outer space, marshalled by Queen Whateva (Haddish.)
Now, I may not have much going on in my life but even I suspect I have better things to do with a couple of hours than immerse myself in the deluded fever dream fantasies of self-actuation of a piece of plastic. The jokes are still very funny and there's another annoying Everything Is Awesome earworm tune called Catchy Song. You can't dislike but it is hard to love. The original had an anarchic spirit that seemed to balance out the merchandise shilling. The second one lacks charm; all in all its just another Lego brick in the Wall.
Directed by Mike Mitchell.
Starring Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Nick Offerman, Alison Brie and Tiffany Haddish. 107 mins.
Five years ago the whole world embraced the Lego Movie as a brazen assertion of corporate might that was endearing and charming and sly and very funny and able to assemble itself into whatever the viewer wanted it to be. The follow up is ….. still very funny.
The reveal at the end of the first movie was basically that it was all a dream. The whole film had taken place within the imagined universe of a piece of Lego, and the story was its interpretation of the battle between a little boy and his father for the right to play with the latter's precious Lego world, that he had meticulously constructed in his man den. That's a great thing to find out at the end of a movie, not such a great thing to know at the beginning. 2 makes much of the real world dimension of the story. This time the young boy has to battle with his younger sister over access to the Lego. So the happy consumerist utopia of the first film has been replaced by a post-apocalyptic dystopia centred around the Statue of Liberty from the original Planet of the Apes and full of Mad Max Fury Road parodies. Social order has collapsed as they have been menaced by invaders from outer space, marshalled by Queen Whateva (Haddish.)
Now, I may not have much going on in my life but even I suspect I have better things to do with a couple of hours than immerse myself in the deluded fever dream fantasies of self-actuation of a piece of plastic. The jokes are still very funny and there's another annoying Everything Is Awesome earworm tune called Catchy Song. You can't dislike but it is hard to love. The original had an anarchic spirit that seemed to balance out the merchandise shilling. The second one lacks charm; all in all its just another Lego brick in the Wall.
