The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part

First a disclaimer. When kids films are screened in Belgium they tend to be dubbed rather than subtitled. This is perfectly reasonable, of course, but it does mean that I saw this film in Flemish. The voice actors were different, some of the jokes may well have been changed or just not as good and, if things go very badly wrong for me the possibility remains that I will miss some crucial moment. So, with that out of the way, on with the film.

It wasn’t as good as the first one. Then again, the first Lego Movie did set an incredibly high bar.

This time around, the city of Bricksburg is menaced by an alien horde of Duplo monsters that destroy everything faster than it can be rebuilt. Five years later, everything is destroyed and everyone finds themselves living in the Max Max dystopia of Apocalypseburg. Of the two main characters from the previous film, Lucy the former freedom fighter is having a hard time adjusting while the relentlessly cheerful Emmett takes it all in his stride. And he continues to do so when Lucy and the rest of the leaders of Apocalypseburg are kidnapped by aliens.

I think that my expectations were way too high going in to this film. It’s probably impossible to recreate the originality and anarchic creativity of the first Lego Movie, but this does make an incredibly good attempt at doing so.

There is a lot going on in this film and a lot to like, and when it does capture the manic sense of fun of the first film, everything clicks in to place.

The twist at the end of the first film is more worked into the plot this time around and done in a manner that works remarkably well. If the first film was about father/son relationships, then this one is about sibling rivalries.

It’s also a lot of fun and, if it didn’t have such an illustrious predecessor to live up to, I imagine I would be far more enthusiastic about this one.