The Lego Commercial 2: The Second Sale

The release of “The Lego Movie” in 2014 proved that even with a film acting as one big advertisement for a popular toy, it could still make for a movie filled with comedy, action, and most importantly, heart. Achieving this balance seems almost impossible for a massive corporation like Lego trying to sell us their products, but they did it—and with style.

After the success of the first movie, Lego started pumping out more, each with slightly worse box office returns. Now, five years later, the fourth Lego-based movie has arrived, and it’s clear that as far as buying a movie ticket goes, for many people, talking Legos just won’t do it.

Like the first film, “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” chronicles the adventures of Emmet Brickowski (voiced by Chris Pratt), a cheerful, optimistic, and lighthearted minifigure, and his cold, angsty friend, Lucy. The movie follows the characters’ journey to a far-off land to prevent “Our-Mom-Aggedon,” the doomsday event in which all of the Lego pieces get thrown into a storage bin. Side characters include the self-obsessed Batman, whose favorite color is dark, dark gray; Benny, a spaced out, spaceship-loving blue astronaut; Rex Dangervest, a ruthless and fearless space ranger; and an angry cat. It’s safe to say that, like the original, “The Lego Movie 2” has a pretty wacky character roster.

Much like how part two features a sprawling cast of characters, the film’s plot stretches itself too far by trying to cover everything and anything that might possibly appeal to its audience. There is absolutely no breathing room in the script, and any possible time that could be used to let the viewer relax is taken up by a joke or funny quip. That being said, the jokes aren’t aimed at a childish audience and do land well. When it comes to naming things, every single thing in this movie is a punny play on words (e.g. the Sis-Star System is the sister’s room).

Locations, surprisingly, play a large part and are used effectively as sources of humor and creativity. Emmet’s home is a desolate wasteland, harkening back to the first movie when Emmet’s newfound friends were marveling at how devoid of thought Emmet’s mind is (and also how dumb Emmet can be sometimes). From there, we travel to a spaceship, to a planet, to another planet, to a normal human boy’s room (??), to the space under a washing machine, and so on. The changes in location signal different moods and scenes, and overall offer a wider glimpse of the fun, chaotic, and otherworldly Lego universe.

At times, though, the experience isn’t fun. The speed at which the story races is oftentimes overdone. Especially at the end when elements of time travel are added in, the plot gets confusing and exhausting. The sheer amount of information being flung at you is a bit much, especially when the film turns into a full-blown musical.

No, really, it does turn into a musical. The music in this movie is fun in small doses, but after 107 minutes of nonstop songs, it becomes annoying. While there are a few good ones from notable names, such as Beck’s incredibly catchy “Super Cool,” and Dillon Francis/T-Pain’s significantly less fun and more irritating “Catchy Song,” the rest of the soundtrack is a mess. If you read my “Best Albums of 2018” list a couple of months ago (which, let’s be honest, no one really did), you’ll know that I am a big fan of Superorganism, but their song on this album is just not on par with their previous work. Bringing the Backstreet Boys back to sing a song about the credits of a movie was an… interesting choice.

The visuals of the movie, unlike the music, are actually very good. Overall, this movie is animated incredibly well, and it never fails to impress me that a group of animators can make a few Lego bricks look this amazing on the big screen. The colors are bright, vibrant, and expressive. Perhaps the greatest feat is that the animators managed to create almost every single thing in the movie out of small, digital plastic pieces. Everything, including the fire, lasers, clouds, water, plants, and more, was made out of Legos. It doesn’t seem quite as impressive now as it did in 2014 when the first Lego movie came out, but it is still an achievement in animation greatness.

Bearing all this in mind, why, then, did “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” make only $34 million domestically in its opening weekend? The reason probably lies in the fact that “The Second Part” just seemed too similar to the first to be a financial success. To put those numbers into perspective, the movie had a budget of about $100 million dollars, not including costs of advertising and marketing. In the first Lego movie’s opening weekend, it made a whopping $69 million domestically, and it was an immediate worldwide hit, both critically and commercially. The reason for the sequel’s lack of substantial success could be traced to the possibility that the Lego-driven animation style is simply getting old. Back in 2014, this very original concept seemed worth putting in $10 for a ticket. However, five years and three movies later, the Lego film brand seems a bit overdone. For people deciding whether they want to spend their money on a movie ticket, the concept has to contain a certain level of freshness and creativity or at least be a part of some sort of multi-billion dollar superhero or action franchise. The second Lego movie tries to do that, but it oversteps by attempting to cover too many genres, styles, and aspects of storytelling at the same time.

Despite the fact that this “movie” is, in the end, a feature-length toy commercial, I would still highly recommend this film. “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” manages to satisfy the casual viewer seeking humor, action, and adventure, while still appeasing moviegoers also looking for interesting visuals, pop music, and a good time.

7/10