The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part is the follow-up to the 2014 BLOCKbuster hit The Lego Movie. It was directed by Mike Mitchell and written by Phil Lord and Chris Miller.
For a while, I had been unknowingly following Lord and Miller’s work, from their animated TV comedy Clone High to Lord’s recent work on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, I could not get enough of their witty, self-aware humor and serious heartfelt moments. So, one could say, I was so pumped for this movie, and it did not disappoint.
First, let’s discuss the impact that The Lego Movie had in the animation industry. To a medium that was running out of interesting ideas, The Lego Movie was a huge breath of fresh air. I know some of you may be thinking, “Oh Paul, you silly goose, The Lego Movie is obviously just one long toy commercial that glorifies its product and has no actual substance to it,” and to you I’d ask, “Did you see the movie?”
The Lego Movie is a commercialized movie for sure, but the story dealt with themes from totalitarianism to capitalism, all masterfully crafted into greater themes of creativity. Unfortunately, The Lego Movie caused big old cartoon money signs to pop out of executives eyes and made them say, “Make more movies based on broad ideas!” And so, the age of the commercial movies came about, and they were bad. I’m talkin’ real bad. We got Trolls, The Angry Birds Movie and (sigh) The Emoji Movie. These are all examples of movies that saw the success of The Lego Movie and said, “Yeah, I can do that,” then recreated the elements of the movie but on a surface level, to the point where one looks back on The Lego Movie and thinks, “Why did I like that movie?” This thought process is sad because no one is going to see this sequel; which is big sad, because it’s great.
With all of that out of the way, how was the The Lego Movie 2?
Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic! The movie not only is a great sequel, but a great movie. The visual style with the Legos never gets boring and is always captivating. The characters retained all the lessons of the first movie and use those lessons in this movie to propel the story forward. The hilarious, self-aware Lord and Miller writing is off the chain with its commentary on not only sibling rivalry, but toxicity, hate, societal divide, and growing up. The emotional punches in this movie are just as satisfying and well-deserved as the original, even though more expected this time around.
The only shortcomings of the movie stem from the mere existence of its predecessor and the oversaturation of The Lego Movie copycats. The Lego Movie had the element of surprise when it came out, so when it turned out to be really good, it blew everyone’s mind into the ozone layer. With this sequel, everyone knew what to expect going in, and those expectations were met exactly, but not blown away as with the original. I’ve heard people say that it is not as good as the original, but the only reason people think that is because it came out second.
The Lego Movie 2 is a fantastically imaginative movie and a great sequel. The movie built off of the shoulders of its prequel and crafted its own excellent story that is just as unique as that golden Lego brick that came with some big sets of Legos. This is one movie that you will not regret seeing.
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