BRICKS IN SPACE

MOVIE
The Lego Movie: The Second Part
Chris Pratt, Emily Banks, Will Arnett
Director Mike Mitchell
Review Ray Chan

The first Lego movie ended up being one of the most wholesome hits of 2014, to the surprise of many, so much so that a sequel to the adventures of optimistic everyman Emmett (voiced by Chris Pratt) always seemed a foregone conclusion.
    The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part has followed real time and is therefore set five years later, when things have changed dramatically for the residents of Bricksburg. The city has been laid to waste by confrontations with Duplo invaders from outer space, who wreck everything faster than the Lego legions can rebuild it.
    Everyone's now living in a dystopian setting, where all the characters have become dark and brooding, apart from Emmet, who is still happily singing about how “Everything Is Awesome”. But his demeanour is upset when the aliens from the Systar system end up taking girlfriend Lucy, Batman and all of Emmet's other friends, leaving him to find a way to save them and stop the so-called Our-mom-ageddon (the genesis of which is revealed later in the story).
    On his journey to the Duplo homeworld, Emmet teams up with Rex Dangervest, a galaxy-defending archaeologist, cowboy and raptor trainor, who's basically an amalgamation of Pratt's post-Lego roles. It's a clever tongue-in-cheek nod at the the contrast between Pratt's Parks and Recreations' good-natured Andy Parks character, and his more recent dabblings with dinosaurs and galactic guardians.
    We're introduced to a new batch of characters from Systar, including an upbeat vampire DJ, a sentient ice cream cone, and the Duplo queen Watevra Wa'nabi, who can transform into anything she wants. She introduces herself through the song "Not Evil", in which she dispels any ulterior motives on her part.
    Indeed, the movie contains more than its fair share of musical numbers. Some fall flat but others work well, such as "This song is gonna get stuck inside your head", which it certainly does.
    As in the first Lego film (and the Batman one, which earned bouquets for the brick Bats), writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller excel in their unique brand of self-referential humour, with characters ranging from various DC heroes to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Bruce Willis. There's also another real world lesson mirroring the events in the film, this time involving sibling rivalry and conveying the message of learning to get along with one another when things aren't really awesome.
    It's worth noting that the chief appeal of the Lego movies has always been in watching the plastic playthings come to life. It's a delight to see how the Lego builders face up to new modelling challenges, particularly with ephemeral constructs such as smoke, clouds, water and fire. In this movie, the futuristic Mad Max-style vehicles and intergalactic vessels certainly exemplify terrific imagination and do not disappoint in their creativity.
    As it is though, with its recycled jokes and revisited tropes, the film can't help but highlight the fact that the original movie was, well, indeed quite original. That being said, it does fit snugly into the franchise with heaps of heart and humour, although many of the references are so adult-themed that they will not be understood by the younger viewers, whom one would assume are the chief demographic this offering is directed at.


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