The Lego Movie 2 *** (2019, voices of Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Banks, Will Arnett, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade) – Movie Review 

Director Mike Mitchell’s 2019 animated action adventure The Lego Movie 2 is a bright, lively, fast moving and amusing enough sequel to the 2014 hit The Lego Movie. It is totally good natured and amiable, though there is a very slight feeling that they have already used up all the best gags and are recycling old material. Just how many Batman jokes are there? There actually must be a finite number.

Lego DUPLO invaders from outer space are threatening lots of laughs on the planet Earth. But eventually the effort of following the intricacies of the plot seems to get way too much, and it seems best just to concentrate on catching as many of the scattergun jokes as you can. The live action stuff with Maya Rudolph as Mom, Jadon Sand as Finn and Brooklynn Prince as Bianca is very sentimental and lame, quite a waste of time really, but it is brief enough, though mainly at the end so it is an irritant.

The thoroughly likeable Chris Pratt and Elizabeth Banks provide the tasty voices of Emmet Brickowski / Rex Dangervest and Wyldstyle / Lucy, and Will Arnett the voice of Batman. So that is all good.

Channing Tatum voices Superman, Jonah Hill voices Green Lantern and Richard Ayoade voices Ice Cream Cone, though you would never know, and these big names are wasted.

The exuberant screenplay and story are by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, and I guess they have done a pretty good job really. There is no lack of self belief and self confidence, certainly. And that must be the only way to go with a Lego sequel.

Luckily five years is long enough to have forgotten all the gags in The Lego Movie, and almost everything else about it, so the sequel won’t seem too stale. There was also The Lego Batman Movie (2017) too, of course, and The Lego Movie 2 is on a par with that, rather than with The Lego Movie. It is a total popcorn movie, a laugh for kids, but maybe not such a great night out for grown-ups.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Movie Review

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